The European Photo Exhibition Award – epea for short – aims to create a free space where socially relevant topics concerning Europe are developed and discussed by talented photographers who live and work in Europe and who still are at an early stage of establishing themselves as professional photographers. The twelve appointed photographers will translate their observations, analyses and statements on a set and socially relevant subject into a photo essay. The results will be presented in a joint touring exhibition within Europe.

The twelve new appointed photographers are Patricia Almeida (Portugal), Massimo Berruti (Italy), Eric Giraudet de Boudemange (France), Jan Brykczynski (Poland), André Cepeda (Portugal), Linda Bournane Engelberth (Norway), Simona Ghizzoni (Italy), Kirill Golovchenko (Ukraine), Arja Hyytiäinen (Finland), Espen Rasmussen (Norway), Stefanie Steinkopf (Germany) and Paula Winkler (Germany). see: www.epeaphoto.org

This initiative by the Körber-Stiftung (Germany), the Fondation Calouste Gulbenkian – Délégation en France (Portugal), Fondazione Banca del Monte di Lucca (Italy) and the Fritt Ord Foundation (Norway) aims to contribute to and to intensify dialogue within Europe. It also wants to support young European photographers at the beginning of their careers by providing international facilities. The first exhibition opening will be held in March 2014 at the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, followed by exhibitions in Lucca and Paris during the autumn of 2014, and the Haus der Photographie in the Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, in 2015.

The European Photo Exhibition Award 02 – epea02: “The New Social”

For the past decades Europe has been under the impact of great political, social and cultural transformations. The transition towards a post-industrial economy, the growing flows, networks and mobility of people and goods, the outcomes of the economic and technological globalization, among several other phenomena, have strengthened the view that we are now passing an inevitable and radical shift in our civilizational parameters. This perception has been recently accentuated with the serious financial and economic crisis that has had a strong social impact not only in terms of working conditions, employment and welfare but also at the level of family lifestyles and educational systems.

Under this historical context, several analysts have highlighted the fact that we are witnessing the emergence of a “new social” as a result of the fragmentation of public spaces and discourses as well as the arising of new types of social tensions, conflicts and contradictions. Within this framework, the “new social movements” set themselves differently from the traditional social movements by being first and foremost “social” in the sense that their active demands and public reasoning tend to embrace a wider debate on lifestyles and, more specifically, on human rights. This is manifestly evident on the numerous social initiatives such as the movements driven by ecological and environment defense concerns, feminist, migration or consumer rights, rural conservation, access to land or indigenous rights, global peace, critics of globalization, or vegetarian interests.

In this second edition of epea, we would like to challenge the photographers to work on themes related with this new and emergent social landscape, to explore the signs revealing significant mutations in terms of cultural identities, lifestyles, ways of communication and sociability, working types and conditions, civic and political participation, local cultures, territorial issues and migration rights among many others. This way, we understand that working on the “new social” calls for a growing attention and critical analysis on the evolution of values closely attached to citizenship and democratic participation.

Each foundation selects one curator – a specialist in photography – who is in charge of nominating three talented photographers, of taking on the role of mentoring and of curating the exhibitions. The curators who chose the twelve photographers are Ingo Taubhorn (curator at the Haus der Photographie der Deichtorhallen, Hamburg), Sérgio Mah (curator and sociologist, Lisbon), Enrico Stefanelli (founder and artistic director Photolux Festival, Lucca) and Rune Eraker (freelance photographer, Oslo).

The twelve photographers are given a period of six months to produce their body of work on the given subject in form of a photo essay. In addition, the twelve winning photographers receive a grant and participate in two workshops. These offer them the opportunity to work together with experts on the chosen topic and to exchange views and share working methods with the other European photographers and the four curators. Finally, the touring exhibition throughout top exhibition venues and festivals such as Paris Photo gives the upcoming photographers the chance to present themselves at prestigious locations.

In 2012 and 2013, the first touring exhibition, The 1st European Photo Exhibition Awards on “European Identities”, attracted a total of more than 130 000 visitors in Hamburg, Paris, Lucca and Oslo.

August/September 2013

CONTACT:

Hamburg
Kai-Michael Hartig
Körber-Stiftung
Kehrwieder 12
20457 Hamburg, Germany
Tel.: +49 40 80 81 92 178
Email: hartig@koerber-stiftung.de

Paris
Miguel Magalhães
Fondation Calouste Gulbenkian – Délégation en France
39, Bd. de La Tour Maubourg
75007 Paris, France
Tel.: +33 01 53 85 93 76
Email: m.magalhaes@gulbenkian-paris.org

Lucca
Elizabeth Franchini
Fondazione Banca del Monte di Lucca
Piazza S. Martino, 4
55100 Lucca, Italy
Tel.: +39 05 83 46 40 62
elizabeth.franchini@fondazionebmlucca.it

Oslo
Bente Roalsvig
Fritt Ord Foundation
Uranienborgveien 2
0258 Oslo, Norway
Tel.: +47 23 01 46 43
Email: bente.roalsvig@fritt-ord.no