Photobook Week Aarhus 2019

Photobook Week Aarhus 2019 examined the theme “Flatness”, both in a metaphorical and in a literal sense. One of our key shows in this framework was New Topographics in Photobooks, curated by Thomas Wiegand. It featured selected works of the main participants of the legendary exhibition New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape and its lasting effect on landscape photography, as well as reactions and parallels especially from Germany. Other exhibitions questioned the seemingly flat surface of the book: Book objects, leporello books, foldable maps and other techniques that defy the flatness of the page, were in the center of our attention.

The festival’s regional theme was Chilean and Swedish photobooks. Another highlight was Asia 8, featuring the winners of the Steidl Book Award in collaboration with the Singapore International Photo Festival. The Rebellious Photobook, curated by Jose Luis Neves (watch his talk at PWA15), was a small showcase of books that attempted to deconstruct the inherent ‘flatness’ of the page, either by subverting the reading process or exploring the material orthodoxy of the codex.

Other important exhibitions featured Lasse Krog Møller’s oeuvre at the Aros Museum and Stijn Van der Linden’s brand new essay on the concave city corner, at Dokk1 Library. Of course, we showed the Kassel Dummies again, and enjoyed talks about the past and present of the photobook medium. Our speakers this year included specialists such as Reinhard Matz, Irina Chmyreva, Niclas Östlind, Luis Weinstein, and Tatiana Sardá.

Thank you for your support!

Beer and chocolate at the Open Book Market were kindly sponsored by Fur Bryghus and Simply Chocolate. A special thank you to the participating book sellers and publishers Disco Bay, bt:st Verlag, Blankt Papir Press, Fragment, Galleri Image, NW Gallery Cph, Bladr, Wunderbuch, Roulette Russe, Book Lab.

The 9th edition of PWA will take place from 27-30 of October 2022. More information here.