Programm
One of the core values of the Fotofestival Lenzburg is to promote dialogue and to offer young photographers a platform of national and international importance to showcase their image-making skills and their work. For this reason, a new project has been launched with the support of the BAT Foundation: the “Bold And Talented” program.
The goal was to identify and select four photographers and four emerging curators to work with the curatorial team to develop, produce, and realize original exhibitions for the next edition of the festival.
Fotofestival Lenzburg developed a sponsorship program for this purpose, which began with a joint weekend at the end of August 2023 to get to know the festival, explain curatorial mentorship, visit various exhibition venues, and participate in exhibition design workshops with invited international experts. The weekend was also a social opportunity to get to know each other and foster a sense of community throughout the process.
The curator-photographer teams were selected by the jury in dialogue with the participants and were each assigned an exhibition site. Daniel Blochwitz, Program Director, and Sabine Schaub, Festival Project Manager, will guide the curators and photographers in the conception and production of the exhibition.
The exhibitions can be visited, from May 25 to June 23, 2023 during the 6th edition of Fotofestival Lenzburg.
The Teams
Photographer
Federico Estol, Uruguay
Shine Heroes
Federico Estol is an uruguayan photographer and artivist. He currently works as a visual storyteller producing stories in Latin America, his long-term projects are focused in the relationship between cultural identity, inequality and social justice. Also is the artistic director of SAN JOSÉ FOTO festival and editor of El Ministerio Ediciones photobook publishing house. Estol holds a bachelor’s degree in photography from the UPC-Barcelona Tech University and a degree in popular education from MFAL Franciscan Multiversity. His work has garnered awards including Emergentes award at Encontros da Imagem festival (Portugal), New Visión award at Cortona on the Move festival (Italy), Photolucida award of the Oregon Center of Photography (USA), FELIFA best international photobook award (Argentina) and Expert Award of the Lishui Photography Museum (China).
Curator
Katerina Leontidou
Katerina Leontidou holds a masters in architecture (DUTH) with a focus on exhibition design.Additionally, last year she graduated from the program CAS Curating at ZHdK. Her practice aims to bring together her interest in the arts and her passion for architecture. Design and curate concepts that form meaningful projects and reflect a holistic approach to history, sciences, images, and spaces. Katerina’s interest is focused on the study of the future, the concept of time, and the future of curating the past
“In the context of photography, synthesis to me is the accumulation of all the cultural, historical and disciplinary aspects that compose the capture of a moment in time.” – Katerina about Synthesis
Katerina Leontidou
Photographer
Paulo Simão, Portugal
Erased
Paulo Simão, graduated with advertising degree by IADE (Lisbon).Currently he is working as graphic designer in strategic communication in the cultural department of the Lisbon CityCouncil. Paulo also, studied photography from 2013 to 2017 at Ar.Co school in Lisbon. His work focuses on media, politics, history and memory. Through the construction of fictional realities and narratives, he reflects on the power of the image.
“Synthesis is the result of mixing different layers of concepts, ideas or influences to create something new.” – Paulo on the topic of Synthesis
Curator
Olga Popova
Olga studies at ZHdK on the Curatorial Studies program and finished BA in Fine Arts on a joined program by University of Hertfordshire and Universal University in Moscow. Now her focus lies in bringing together practically knowledge that she gathered during her BA and discourses that she got submerged into on the program in Zurich. In her own artistic practice, she explores in-between spaces and states using moving and still image. The everyday, the boring, the mundane are the main areas where she finds herself being the most engaged. Working within the public realm and non-art spaces is of interest to her in the curatorial sense. Questioning what art can really do for its audience plays a big role in her research and practice. How can artistic positions, interventions make a change? Do they even have to?These questions are the recent points of interest to her.
Synthesis in the context of the festival I understand as a methodology that allows for the alignment of the formal qualities of the work of the team and messages that this work translates.
Olga Popova
Photographer
Jansen van Staden, Südafrika
Microlight
Jansen van Staden became a fellow at the Photographers’ Masterclass of the Goethe Institut in 2017 and graduated in 2018. He is strongly influenced by his skateboarding background. Jansen uses photography as a conceptual entry point to reflect on personal imaginaries and social constructs of belonging and disconnect. He received the CAP prize in 2019 for”Microlight” which also won the 2021 Charta Dummy Book award. Along with a book launch, the work formed part of “If a Tree Falls in a Forest” curated by The Untitled Duo, at Rencontres d’Arles 2022. “Microlight” and Thembinkosi Hlatshwayo’s work “Slaghuis” opened in August 2022 at Galleri Image in Aarhus, Denmark, in an exhibition titled “Concurrent”curated by John Fletwood. Most recently, his new book, called “Some” has been shortlisted for both the 2023 Kassel Dummy Book and the 2023 Rencontres d’Arles Dummy Book award. Jansen lives and works in Cape Town as a lighting assistant.
Curator
Florian Amoser
Florian Amoser graduated with honors in photography from ECAL in 2017. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in architecture from ETH Zurich from 2011.
After working at ECAL for five years from 2017 to 2022, in both the Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programs in photography as well as in the research project “Automated Photography” (led by Milo Keller and Claus Gunti), he is now devoting more time to his own artistic practice. Florian is also a member of the curatorial team of the annual exhibition JKON / Junge Kunst Olten.
His works explore multiple facets of human perception. Florian Amoser makes original tools specifically for his artistic activity that enable the creation of new photographic images. His photographs testify to a material liquefaction of the environment, in which the contemplation of physical reality is significantly shaped by digital experiences.
«Synthesis» makes me think of the french «image de synthèse», which in English is a computer generated rendering-basically a simulation of photography in a digital 3D space.
Florian Amoser
Photographer
Jana Hartmann, Deutschland
MASTERING the ELEMENTS
Jana Hartmann is a visual artist from Frankfurt, Germany. In her long-term projects across media and conceptual paradigms she critically reflects our notions of nature, as manifested among others in the natural sciences, in virtual or urban spheres. Embracing her belief that our complex world can be best comprehended through transdisciplinary exchange,Hartmann’s works are founded on multi-perspective research and a broad dialogue with natural scientists, philosophers and historians. She was as a visiting student at Cranbrook Art Academy, Bloomfield, USA, before receiving a scholarship from the Istituto Europeo di Design in Madrid, Spain, for their European Master of Contemporary Photography program.
Curator
Antoine Martin
Antoine Martin graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the École cantonale d’art deLausanne (ECAL) in 2021.His work focuses on experimentation, particularly in the areas of historical and digital investigation. More notably, Antoine’s focus centers on iconography, myths, and the digital evolution of concepts like CCTV and WebCams. Over the past two years, he has also been actively engaged as a teaching assistant at ECAL.
“Synthesis, to me, is a way to help us understand even the subtlest differences within a complex situation. It should bring a sense of novelty and hope to challenging problems.” – Antoine about Synthesis
Alchemists have striven for a synthesis ofpractical experimentation and theoretical analysis insuch diverse fields of knowledge as mathematics, medicine, philosophy, astrology and art inorder to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of nature. For a better coexistence in nature this transdisciplinary approach can be a source of inspiration
Jana Hartmann