September 3 – September 20
Sopot will once again become a hub of photography and a showcase for works by some of the biggest names behind the lens this September. The upcoming 12th edition of the international “W Ramach Sopotu” Photography Festival will take place from 3 to 20 September under the theme “Border.” This year’s edition will offer a multidimensional exploration of barriers – physical, cultural and purely visual.
The most important part of the festival is its unique artist residencies. This year, the jury, chaired by curators and art historians, selected three artists: Marta Bogdańska, Anna Kędziora and Nyo Jinyong Lian (France). Their newly created works, produced within the urban fabric of the seaside resort, will interpret the festival’s central theme. As Patrycja Tuchanowska-Ruszkiewicz, the festival’s producer, explains: “In addition to analysing the artists’ portfolios, the jury also took a close look at their proposed residency projects. Our selection was driven by their exceptional sensitivity, fresh perspectives and ideas that we found particularly compelling, also in the context of the place where the festival takes place. The artists have shown Sopot something I had never seen before, despite having been involved with the residencies since the very beginning.”
The key point on the festival map will once again be the State Art Gallery in Sopot. Alongside the residents’ work, it will host projects by acclaimed artists. Paweł Bownik, in his exhibition “Disassembly,” will invite viewers into a world of precise deconstruction, exploring the boundaries between nature and technological intervention. Magdalena Hueckel, with her exhibition “Nonduality,” will enter into a visual dialogue with the work of Fortunata Obrąpalska, searching for common ground in the exploration of identity and the experience of the world’s duality. The festival’s international character will be further emphasised by the exhibition “Shape of Stories,” presenting the work of a new wave of photographers from France, including Maxime Riché and Alice Pallot.
“This year’s French edition is, in a way, a return to the roots of our festival. Through our cooperation with Deauville in France, we discovered the residency-based Planche(s) Contact festival, which became the inspiration for creating the ‘W Ramach Sopotu’ Photography Festival. All the more reason why I cannot wait to see the projects created during the joint residency by artists from Poland and France,” says Magdalena Czarzyńska-Jachim, Mayor of Sopot and the festival’s initiator.
“W Ramach Sopotu” is not only about large gallery spaces, but above all about the living presence of art in the urban landscape. Festival presentations will be hosted, among others, by Goyki 3 Art Inkubator, Sopot Centrum, as well as independent galleries Splot and KIT. At Sierakowski Manor House, audiences will immerse themselves in the theatrical world of Tadeusz Link, while at Sopoteka they will be able to experience photography in the form of an artbook – an artist’s book that has gained increasing popularity in recent years as an autonomous work of art.
As every year, the festival will be far more than a presentation of “pretty pictures”; it will often address themes related to social change and contemporary global challenges. This September, Sopot – with its streets, courtyards and seaside landscape – will become a creative space for presenting works by masters as well as students of photography schools, who will come together to share their approaches and concepts of visual storytelling.
