5th European Month of Photography
Berlin October 19 to November 25, 20122
From October 19 to November 25, 2012, the European Month of Photography Berlin (Europäischer Monat der Fotografie Berlin MdF Berlin) will once again attract local and international attention to the German capital Berlin as a photo metropolis. Organized by Kulturprojekte Berlin GmbH, the MdF has been held in Berlin since 2004. From initially 83 institutions with 93 exhibits and 135,000 visitors, the participation has increased to over 120 partners who, in 2010, presented over 140 exhibitions and 250 events committed to historic and contemporary photography, which attracted more than half a million visitors. Since February 15, 2012, Katia Reich is the curator of the festival. In its fifth edition in 2012, MdF Berlin will present selected exhibitions and events in museums, galleries, cultural institutions and photography schools in Berlin and Potsdam around the theme The View Of The Other.
International migration is a central phenomenon of the currently rapidly changing world order. For political, economic or social reasons people become modern nomads, which forces them to constantly deal with the "foreign" or alien the "other" in relation to their own identity. Due to the unlimited mobility of people, goods and commodities the "foreign" and the "familiar" tend to be less and less separable from one another - their socio-political dependencies even seem to be reenforced. On the other hand, The View Of The Other always also implicits a separation, an isolation, while the act of viewing constitutes the transgression of a boundary. It is the beginning of a reflection and part of our everyday perception, documentation and instrumentalization. The media and their channels, including the social networks, support this process: unfiltered and in real time, we produce, distribute, manipulate and consume images in all sorts of ways and thus constantly contribute to the manifold descriptions of the world.
Through the selection of participants, the photographers exhibitions will enter into a "dialogue" with one another and thus reflect the nature of our current society, or societies.
In 2012, the project DistURBANces will take place alongside our partners exhibitions. This project was jointly developed by the European network (EMOP) in Bratislava, Budapest, Ljubljana, Luxembourg, Paris and Vienna. It will have its own thematic and curatorial focus in each host city.
An extensive program of lectures, portfolio viewings and performative mediation formats will also give a new impetus.
