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TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS

SUMMER OF PHOTOGRAPHY..................................................................................................... 3

SENSE OF PLACE. EUROPEAN LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY ................................................ 4

Photographers in the Exhibition .................................................................................................. 6

Overview of the Photographers .................................................................................................. 8

Photography, Nation, Nature ...................................................................................................... 9

Visitor Information ....................................................................................................................25

SUMMER OF PHOTOGRAPHY @ BOZAR...................................................................................26

Bozar Photography Award ........................................................................................................27

PARTNERS SUMMER OF PHOTOGRAPHY ................................................................................28

Programme ..............................................................................................................................28

Calendar & Contact ..................................................................................................................29

CONTACT INFORMATION PRESS OFFICE BOZAR ...................................................................32

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Summer of Photography

Every two years the Centre for Fine Arts organises the Summer of Photography, an international biennale that focuses on photography and related media. Not only does the festival provide the opportunity to discovery modern-day photography, it also looks forward to the future of the image in our culture. Various Belgian and European exhibitions and photography and media museums have been working together to create a themed programme that explores the cultural exchange between the European member states and places it in a global context. The result is a varied programme of exhibitions and related events, with talks, a symposium, and a portfolio day, with curators, photographers, and related specialists in different fields offering us an insight into their work and their vision. In a variety of locations in Belgium, Summer of Photography thus creates a lively forum and platform for specialists, amateurs, and anyone with an interest in photography. Through the combined forces of its partners, this biennale promotes photography as a medium, as well as the international reputation of the Belgian photography world. There is a common theme running through the Summer of Photography. In 2012, this biennale is exploring an age-old genre, the landscape. Dozens of photographers in whose work the landscape plays an important role will be participating in the main exhibition Sense of Place at the Centre for Fine Arts and the partners’ programmes. They will be reflecting on the current state of the natural landscape and its relationship with the city and people, but the landscape’s place in photography will also be given an important role in itself. And when people talk about the European landscape, geo-political connotations also come to mind.

For more information: http://www.summerofphotography.be

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SSSSENSE OF PLACEENSE OF PLACEENSE OF PLACEENSE OF PLACE EUROPEAN LANDSCAPEEUROPEAN LANDSCAPEEUROPEAN LANDSCAPEEUROPEAN LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHYPHOTOGRAPHYPHOTOGRAPHYPHOTOGRAPHY

14.06 > 16.09.201214.06 > 16.09.201214.06 > 16.09.201214.06 > 16.09.2012 Centre for Fine ArtsCentre for Fine ArtsCentre for Fine ArtsCentre for Fine Arts, , , ,

Central to the programme is the exhibition Sense of Place: European Landscape Photography being held at the Centre for Fine Arts. With around 160 pieces by 40 European photographers, the exhibition paints a picture of the diversity of national and regional landscapes within the European Union. The exhibition simultaneously focuses on the similarities and differences across Europe, both in the landscapes and in the attitude of people towards those landscapes. The works are divided into three main areas within Europe: North, Central, and South. Curator Liz Wells, Professor in Photographic Culture at Plymouth University, selected works by young talents as well as by internationally renowned photographers such as Andreas Gursky (Germany), Elina Brotherus (Finland), Massimo Vitali (Italy), Olafur Eliasson (Denmark), Chrystel Lebas (France), Joan Fontcuberta (Spain), Pedro Cabrita Reis (Portugal), and Carl De Keyzer (Belgium). Through their pictures, they each provide a personal vision of the landscapes of their homeland.

2. Andreas Gursky 3.Carl De Keyzer

1. Elina Brotherus

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Sense of Place is built around three key themes. The first of these is the concept of the national landscape, situated within the wider context of Europe. National and regional identities arise historically in part from a common relationship within a region and from the degree of dependence on that place. With its diversity of climate, agriculture, population density, and natural resources, Europe is characterized by enormously varied landscapes geologically, agriculturally and sociologically. The exhibition explores ways in which cultural differences persist despite the

political and economic unity that now exists across national boundaries. The second theme has its roots in the wider debate surrounding the aesthetics of landscape photography and the concept of “place”. Places gain significance through the stories that are told about them and through the manner in which they are represented. How does contemporary photography contribute to forming perceptions of our environment? The third and final theme suggests more philosophical approaches to the relationship between people and nature. Nowadays, many areas of Europe are highly urbanized, marked by legacies of Western industrialism and by the office, service and retail centres that characterize the post-industrial economy. We may have a less immediate relationship to the natural environment than our predecessors, yet images of nature continue to affect us spiritually and to influence and inspire our sense of identity, personally, nationally and regionally.

5.Chrystel Lebas

4.Joan Fontcuberta

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PHOTOGRAPHERS IN PHOTOGRAPHERS IN PHOTOGRAPHERS IN PHOTOGRAPHERS IN THE THE THE THE

EXHIBITIONEXHIBITIONEXHIBITIONEXHIBITION

When they hear the term “landscape” many people still think first of an idyllic unspoiled nature, a utopian place of calm and relaxation. Chrystel Lebas (France) documents the effects of movement of light at a lake over a 24 hour period. Per Bak Jensen’s photos are almost meditative images of the waterfalls, coastlines, and forests of his native Denmark. Amongst other subjects, Irene Kung (Italy) portrays olive trees, typical of the Italian countryside. The Breughelian landscapes of Alexander Gronsky (Latvia) or the quasi-stereotypical pictures of Irish country life by Jackie Nickerson seem almost to come from another era. Nature thus becomes almost a part of our heritage. Ilkka Halso (Finland) goes even further, showing digitally manipulated photos of fictional “nature museums”.

Gerry Johansson (Sweden) presents a series of black and white photos including the village where he was born, which has since become a protected nature reserve. For him, taking photographs means documenting what remains. Likewise, Theodoros Tempos (Greece) explores a former fishing area. Mysterious, mist-covered places appear in the work of Peter Koštrun (Slovenia). Did he leave out what was not lyrical enough?

In reality, landscapes are often hugely influenced by human activity. The impressive photos of densely populated beaches by Massimo Vitali (Italy) are an allegory of contemporary mass culture. Economic progress also has a strong influence on the appearance of a landscape. As Thomas Weinberger (Germany) and Maroš Krivý (Slovakia) both suggest, heavy industrialisation suppresses nature under cables, motorways, and industrial estates. In the Beaufortain region of the French Alps, a gigantic hydropower plant looms large, recorded by Céline Glanet. But the economic tide can also turn. Anthony Haughey shows how the Irish crisis changed the Irish landscape into an unfinished, overgrown building site. The area within a 150 km radius of Madrid, recorded by Gerardo Custance, provides an equally disturbing picture as does Arion Gábor Kudász’s portrait of his native Hungary.

6. Gerry Johansson

8. Peter Koštrun

7. Per Bak Jensen

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Landscapes carry their history with them; they show political scars and signs of unrest. Marianna Christofides reminds us that Cyprus remains a divided nation. Bart Michiels (Belgium) subtly explores the effects of major battles in the history of the modern landscape with pictures of Bastogne and Passchendaele. Flo Kasearu (Estonia) places black dots on politically sensitive spots, thereby giving meaning to the landscape. Vesselina Nikolaeva portrays nature on the border of Bulgaria and Turkey – a frightening no man’s land. Jem Southam points out the similarities between the chalk cliffs along the coastlines of Great Britain and France, referring to the geological and, later, political division of the continent. Andreas Müller-Pohle (Germany) lets himself be swept away by the Danube, the river that links the Black Forest to the Black Sea, and therefore a symbol of the tensions between Eastern and Western Europe. In contrast, Rhein II by Andreas Gursky (Germany) suggests a bucolic version of one of Europe’s busiest shipping routes, which flows from North to South.

Reproducing a landscape also means speaking the language of aesthetics. Joan Fontcuberta (Spain) references landscapes in Dali’s paintings. Andreas Gursky edits his landscapes so drastically that they almost become abstract works. Olafur Eliasson (Denmark), with his series of wide, outstretched horizons, and Gerco de Ruijter, whose photos of the over cultivated Dutch landscape are reminiscent of Mondrian, could also both be compared to abstract art. Elina Brotherus (Finland) then takes us back to the romantic.

11. Gerco de Ruijter

9. Vessalina Nikolaeava 10. Flo Kasearu

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OVERVIEW OF THE PHOTOGRAPHERS IN THE EXHIBITIONOVERVIEW OF THE PHOTOGRAPHERS IN THE EXHIBITIONOVERVIEW OF THE PHOTOGRAPHERS IN THE EXHIBITIONOVERVIEW OF THE PHOTOGRAPHERS IN THE EXHIBITION North Per Bak Jensen (Denmark), Bruno Baltzer (Luxembourg), Elina Brotherus (Finland), Carl De Keyzer (Belgium), Gerco de Ruijter (The Netherlands), Olafur Eliasson (Denmark), Gina Glover (United Kingdom), Alexander Gronsky (Latvia), Ilkka Halso (Finland), Anthony Haughey (Ireland), Gerry Johansson (Sweden), Flo Kasearu (Estonia), Bart Michiels (Belgium),Jackie Nickerson (Ireland), Artūras Raila (Lithuania), Jem Southam (United Kingdom)

Central Pavel Banka (Czech Republic), Arion Gábor Kudász (Hungary), Andreas Gursky (Germany), Yenny Huber (Austria), Peter Koštrun (Slovenia), Maroš Krivý (Slovakia), Andreas Müller-Pohle (Germany), Vesselina Nikolaeva (Bulgaria), Tudor Prisăcariu (Romania), Szymon Roginski (Poland), Thomas Weinberger (Germany)

South Nigel Baldacchino (Malta), Pedro Cabrita Reis (Portugal), Marianna Christofides (Cyprus), Céline Clanet (France), Gerardo Custance (Spain),Augusto Alves da Silva (Portugal), Joan Fontcuberta (Spain), Irene Kung (Italy), Chrystel Lebas (France), Nikos Markou (Greece), Nicos Philippou (Cyprus), Theodoros Tempos (Greece), Massimo Vitali (Italy) Curator: Liz Wells Sponsor: Nikon Belux, Milo-Profi Fotografie Support: Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest | Région de Bruxelles-Capitale, Cultural Service of the Polish Embassy of Belgium Sense of Place is the main exhibition of the photography biennial Summer of Photography 2012 and is part of the off-program of Visual Arts Flanders (www.visualartsflanders.be)

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PHOTOGRAPHY, NATION, NATUREPHOTOGRAPHY, NATION, NATUREPHOTOGRAPHY, NATION, NATUREPHOTOGRAPHY, NATION, NATURE Introduction Liz WellsLiz WellsLiz WellsLiz Wells -Excerpt from the catalogue4 Guest Curator, Professor in photographic culture at the University of Plymouth, United Kingdom What is “the Spanish Landscape?” What does it mean to talk of “Austrian landscape photography?” Historically there have been numerous publications with titles such as German Photography or British Photography in the Nineteenth Century.

1 Every such publication encounters a problem of parameters.

Is the collection based where photographs were taken? Is the nationality of the photographer (whose work might be international in theme and locations) a key criterion? Or is the book focusing on specific movements, eras, or regional traditions?

2 In addition, national boundaries have changed historically;

the shape of “Europe” differs from that of Europe in 1839, the year of the first photographic print.3

Photo-historians may research national, regional, or private archives but their focus is often on locality, or on the history of a particular collection of photographs, or the provenance and profile of specific images. Where questions of photography and nation arise it is often in relation to the deployment of photographs within nationalist sentiment; for example, the Mountains of the west coast of Norway were heralded iconically within the Norwegian nationalism movement of the late nineteenth century.

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In bringing together photography made in Europe by photographers based in Europe, this publication might be viewed as risking similar rhetorical claims about Europe as a continent and, more particularly, the European Union as an alliance that transcends the political and the economic. That is not the intention of this publication or the exhibition that it accompanies. Rather, in line with the motto of the European Union, “In varietate Concordia” (united in diversity) the exhibition and publication bring together examples of work by practitioners from different regions in order to consider, on the one hand, historical and topographical differences and, on the other hand, semiotic currencies within contemporary art photography that transcend specificity of region. The resulting selection is intentionally diverse; in this respect no artist can be said to specifically represent his or her country. This also reminds us that each artist’s biographical experience and subjectivity is a key formative influence on subject matter and esthetic style, and the way projects are researched and produced. Landscape photographers investigate particular places and phenomena. Resulting images show us what they observed, but also reflect something of a particular photographer’s way of seeing; two photographers standing in the same place at the same time would each make different images, their choice of focal subject, framing, composition, and depth of field all contributing within the poetics of the image. As such, pictures may be viewed as rhetorical interpretations of specific environments and circumstances.

Taking contemporary European landscape photography as its focus, this essay explores notions of “landscape” in relation to our sense of place. The intention is to complement and contextualize the images included in this publication by thinking further about the making of the landscape and its representation. Landscape photography is concerned with interrogating and communicating something about our environment, thereby inviting audiences to consider the nature of place. Europe and Place Relatively few parts of Europe are untouched by human presence. Although nature is in many respects cyclical and self-regenerating, and seems somehow “outside” of culture, we increasingly acknowledge the ecological impact and implications of technological developments; for example, as manifest in noise pollution or climate change. The nineteenth-century utopian vision of industrial modernity, particularly in northern Europe, turned out not to have been the panacea once idealized. Human geographers view “place” as constituted through stories told, whether historical or as visions for future development.

5 Such narratives may be contested; different perceptions may be at

stake. Stories turn spaces into places through foregrounding particular accounts of habitation and land use, whether urban or rural.6 Place is inextricably linked with our sense of identity. In English the term for attachment to place (or within specific social groups) is “belonging”—be/longing. Our sense of self, of who we are, is reassured through allegiance to homeland. There are paradoxical aspects: As Yi-Fu Tuan has remarked, “Place is security, space is freedom: we are attached to the one and long for the other.”7 The key point is that identification with place is psychological as well as physical or practical. “Home” may operate as a fulcrum from which we venture and to which we return. To be in “no-man’s land” is to be in wasteland. To be “landless” is to be disenfranchised. To be displaced is to be dis-located, or “out of place.” This resonates emotionally in terms of personal family and community; and also in terms of region or nation. “France” is a geographic notion, but La France is la patrie, a place of hereditary lineage. For the French, the notion of terroir transcends reference to agriculture and the material composition of the soil. Likewise, in German, heimat is more than simply where someone lives.

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It follows that our sense of place is about roots, and also about the biographical routes that we have taken, especially if we, perhaps, find ourselves at a distance from where we spent our childhood. In his book and television series, Landscape and Memory, Simon Schama, took his personal history as one starting point for examining physical, socio-historical, psychological, and esthetic aspects of places.

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He challenged views of land as primarily a resource for human use, drawing attention to myth, metaphor, and allegory, and pointing to the role of particular histories and modes of story-telling within social consciousness, especially in terms of allegiance to specific landscapes. He comments that, “national identity … would lose much of its ferocious enchantment without the mystique of a particular landscape tradition: its topography mapped, elaborated, and enriched as a homeland.”

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Land and landscape are inextricably involved in sentiments and expressions of identity, whether experienced in individual terms or asserted politically. W.J.T. Mitchell has suggested that “landscape” is most usefully considered as an action or verb: “to landscape.”

11 Humans shape the land, for

instance, through positioning roads and buildings, creating vistas, identifying agricultural areas, conserving wilderness areas, or facilitating tourist developments such as coastal beach strips or mountain ski resorts. Settlement in Europe (as elsewhere) has been determined by transport possibilities; we can track histories of human mobility, including trading and commerce, through tracing shipping links, ancient pathways, and modern motorways. Vegetation types may shift and natural contours may erode; they also adjust to accommodate agriculture, urbanization, railroads and highways, industrial and military bases, airfields, and so on. Physical legacies of previous land use offer visible evidence; for example, slagheaps indicate mining activity. As the British-Israeli photographer Ori Gersht commented, when making pictures at sites of holocaust massacres, spilt blood blends with the earth. He remarks:

Our sense of time as human beings is limited to 70 or 80 years but all these landscapes spread over a cosmic or geological perception of time. Some of the trees are hundreds and hundreds of years old; they bear with them the memory of all previous events and at the same time keep a certain silence and are impenetrable.

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Landscape is not timeless; nature evolves and changes both in itself and in response to human action. Histories are literally absorbed into the soil. Landscape paintings, drawing, and photography contribute to shaping the way we look at land. Pictures detail specific places from particular perspectives, offering a source of information, and influencing attitudes and responses. As we know— for example, from tourism advertising—pictures do not represent all there is to know about a place. If we are not personally familiar with a place, photographs become our primary visual source of reference. Yet imagery may be highly romanticized; for instance, the idealized agricultural scenarios typical of labels and advertisements for food products, especially at the high end of the market. To talk of Europe is to talk of a continent, with deep geological and geographic formations, which is constituted in terms of nations, regions, and places. Culture and nature are inextricably interlinked. Our relation with place centrally contributes to the many myths and allegories that inform our understanding of phenomena and circumstances. The Kalevala in Finland (a nineteenth-century epic poem based on oral myth with prehistoric roots) or legends of the Anglo-Saxon King Arthur in Britain, are but two such examples. “Europe” also articulates complex histories of conflict. Discussing identity choice in Europe now, Hopkins and Dixon note that, The founders of the “European movement” after World War II regarded a common European identity as an antidote to the antagonisms fostered by ethnocentric national loyalties, and hoped that European institutions would promote a broader sense of community that would facilitate further integration in governance. They add:

… given the linguistic, religious, and ethnic heterogeneity within Europe, the cultural basis of a sense of common identity is elusive.

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So who and what are included—or excluded? Conceptual definitions are constructed in part through exclusions: not Africa, not Asia. The eastern border of Europe is highly symbolic, not because the land changes dramatically from one side of it to the other, but because to be to the east is to be not a part of Europe. Benedict Anderson famously referred to national identity in terms of “imagined communities” that bring together people who don’t know one another through articulating a sense of common interests, affiliation, and identification.

14 Affiliations are complex, involving social and economic power, links, and

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lineages. For example, despite territorial tensions, there were, historically, common social class interests between the various royal families in Europe. For many groups, a strong sense of affiliation to particular places is important; for others, including migrant groups such as the Roma or the Sami, sense of place and identity transcends national borders.

15 National identity contributes to our sense of

social identity, not only in terms of formal documents such as passports but also in terms of our sense of who we are. Europe is multi-tiered, with Norway, Switzerland, Russia, and the Balkan region included geographically, although not within the European Union (EU) of 27 nations. At the time of writing (January 2012) 17 of these are in the Euro-zone. Contemporary Europe might be viewed as an alliance of nations with distinctive political histories, geographies, socio-cultural traditions, religions, and lifestyles. Our relation with the land is central within all of this. It follows that how we think about land crucially influences our sense of what it is to be European.

Themes and Esthetics Landscape imagery, particularly photography, contributes to re-affirming, or questioning, our sense of place. Photo-graphy literally means writing with light. Outdoor photographs date from the very early days of the medium for the principal reason that (chemical) photography was dependent upon natural light.

16 Henry Fox Talbot (UK) referred to his earliest work as “sun prints.”

17 Initially the exposure time

required for the land was longer than that for the sky, where the light is more intense. But photographers could make two plates from the same camera position, process the images in their darkroom tent or wagon, and later print them onto one sheet of paper, using masking devices to hide the seam.

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Photography did not supplant landscape painting but, from its inception in 1839, was generally accepted as a more detailed and more topographically accurate impression of places and vistas.

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Landscape photographs were influenced by the pictorial esthetics of landscape painting; early photographs tended to echo the composition, framing, and the geometry of the “golden” rule (whereby sky and land each occupied between one- and two-thirds of the picture.) In Europe, the key historical influences within landscape esthetics were Italian themes dating from the Renaissance and Flemish painting from the seventeenth century onwards; eighteenth-century German Romanticism later became important, especially in terms of ideas about our relation to our environment. Renaissance painting typically referenced classical myth (Greek or Roman) or Christian (Old Testament) stories, which were viewed as proper philosophical subject matter for serious contemplation, instruction, and moral guidance. Scenes such as Jan Brueghel's The Marriage of Bacchus and Ariadne (Musées des Beaux Arts, Brussels) or Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper (Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan) carried allegorical overtones. The scale of painting in these two examples differs markedly; viewing the Brueghel, 45 x 67cm, involves an intimacy that contrasts with the imposing effect of the 870cm width of the da Vinci mural. But the narrative and symbolic intentions of such paintings were similar. There was also a strand of “prospect” paintings depicting agricultural landscapes; these were commissioned by land-owners to celebrate ownership and successful harvests. Examples date from the Medici era in Florence, featuring, for example, within the emergent English landscape tradition in the eighteenth century. Scenes more overtly symbolizing mercantile success, with canals, windmills, and merchant ships as regular iconic elements within harmonious pictorial compositions, became typical of the so-called Golden Age of Dutch painting. As in advertising nowadays, one effect of such imagery was to assert the desirability of products or social circumstances: in this instance, economic prosperity. Historically, then, while the influence of Renaissance themes and styles was widespread, by the nineteenth century there was also a thematic tendency in some areas of the north of Europe related to venture capitalism and industrial developments, while in the south nature and classical myth remained a primary focus. This is perhaps not surprising; there is a crucial geological divide between north and south relating to mineral resources such as coal (and North Sea oil) needed to fuel factories and transportation.

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As we are reminded—for example, by Jem Southam’s 1980s exploration of The Red River in Cornwall, England, where residues of tin mining stain the water, or by the systematic photographic studies of Bernd and Hilla Becher (Germany, 1959 onwards)—much industrial enterprise has depended on the ability to extract resources from the earth.

20 Such enterprise marks the landscape

more or less permanently; for example, leaving slagheaps or mine shafts. In picturing the land artists draw attention to legacies of human action not simply through subject matter but also through esthetics. Céline Clanet’s choice of viewpoints for documenting the impact of hydro-electric dams in mountain areas in Savoy, France, helps to emphasize how construction has been synthesized within the landscape and, indeed, is becoming naturalized as plants and wildlife colonize edges of concrete.

Exploring and contemplating landscape, particularly through literature, poetry, and the visual arts, has been associated with Romanticism. In the so-called “Age of Enlightenment” in Western Europe in the eighteenth century, there was a preoccupation with questions of natural and social order. Irish philosopher Edmund Burke associated the sublime with astonishment: for example, at the momentousness of aspects of nature.

21 In Burke’s formulation we are so over-whelmed that we lose

our sense of logic, experiencing the sublime as “irresistible force:” something to be feared. For his German contemporary, Immanuel Kant, the sublime relates to incomprehensibility, to that which cannot be understood through rational analysis. Crucial within debates about the sublime was the idea that, while actual encounters with difficult circumstances may indeed be exhilarating or frightening, the representation of such encounters through literature or art allows for pleasurable contemplation of the extraordinary (Burke) and its rational analysis (Kant). The sublime later became associated with the heroic as adventurers set out to conquer mountains or explore hitherto uncharted areas of the world (for instance, the Arctic). Perhaps in response to Enlightenment emphasis on the analytic, the Romantic movement of the turn of the nineteenth century emphasized more spiritual encounters with nature. For the late eighteenth-century German philosopher and poet, Johann von Schiller, esthetics and the experience of beauty was linked with morality, as art contributes to refining human perception and emotion. Eric Hobsbawm, historian, comments on the difficulty of being precise about the tenets of Romanticism.

22 He dates the

movement from the end of the French Revolution and suggests it was particularly marked in what he terms “the revolutionary era in Europe,” between 1830 and 1848. This is not to associate romanticism with revolution per se, although some writers and artists were involved; rather, he associates romanticism with an era of questioning political authority and challenging social structures. Hobsbawm comments that this was a young man’s movement (including some young women artists and writers) that brought together art and idealism. For some, romanticism was anti-bourgeois as well as being opposed both to logical philosophy and the classicism previously reflected in art practices. As he suggests:

Though it is by no means clear what Romanticism stood for, it is quite evident what it was against: the middle. Whatever its content, it was an extremist creed. Romantic artists or thinkers in the narrower sense are found on the extreme left, like the poet Shelley, on the extreme right, like Chateaubriand and Novalis, leaping from left to right like Wordsworth, Coleridge and numerous disappointed supporters of the French Revolution, leaping from royalism to the extreme left like Victor Hugo, but hardly ever among the moderates or Whig-liberals in the rationalist center, which indeed was the stronghold of “classicism.”

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12. Jem Southam 13. Céline Clanet

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His examples are largely British or French, but the characterization has broader relevance across northern regions of Europe. Indeed, people from the north commonly traveled south seeking intellectual and spiritual enlightenment. Of course this was restricted to those from wealthy families, or bohemians and wanderers (such as artists and poets); such trips for pleasure and enlightenment were obviously beyond the aspirations let alone the income of the majority of people. For classicists travels took the form of a grand study tour including cities such as Rome and Athens. For romantics, although destinations may have been similar, the search was for spiritual

enlightenment; the south was seen idealistically as somehow closer to nature

(for Christians, closer to God). As geographer Peter Davidson has suggested, in many cultures, especially those within range of the Arctic Circle such as Britain or Scandinavia, the notion of “north” is associated with a harder, more challenging place; by contrast, “going south” carries suggestions of leisure and pleasure.

24 Landscape “views” became popular not only because of the information that

photographs convey but also because for those who did not live there they contributed to reinforcing romantic notions of the “otherness” of, for example, Mediterranean and Adriatic places. The development of photography also coincided with the height of European empire building. Many photographers not only made pictures in Europe but also traveled extensively elsewhere, bringing back what then must have seemed exotic views. Islands such as Malta or Cyprus were strategically placed in terms of shipping routes and trade between Europe and the Orient. But travelers often photographed colonial places in a romantic vein. For example, the English photographer John Thomson visited Cyprus, photographing people and places in terms of a rural picturesque, that, it has been argued, offered a very selective and romanticized view of the circumstances of life on the island at the time.

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Landscape photographs—urban, rural, or coastal—reference particular places and phenomena that might be very familiar to the photographer or may have involved a journey of discovery. They also inherently reflect the photographers’ particular interests, pre-conceptions, and particular ways of seeing. For example, Irene Kung focuses directly on the shapes of trees, each filling the frame so that we see them almost as architecture, and there is little to distract our focus; that they are photographed early in the morning or towards the evening adds an evocative luminosity.

15. Irene Kung

14. Pavel Banka

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Some photographers particularly address consequences of human intervention. Thomas Weinberger superimposes two photographs of the same place, taken at different moments in the day, to create an archetype of the place in which the light seems unnatural and edifices appear sublimely monstrous. His pictures are usually printed large-scale, thereby emphasizing the impact of human designs as the city suburbs edge their way out in erstwhile rural areas; for example, in “Zone 30”, where the intense red of the orderly flower bed by the road suggests a hyper-reality.

By contrast, in tracking the border between Bulgaria and Turkey, the eastern edge of Europe, Vesselina Nikolaeva offers quieter observations detailing the impact of people on place through more domestic scale observations. Both photographers are concerned with human occupancy, but the esthetic mode of expression sets up a different viewing position and mode of reading the images for audiences. The scale of Weinberger’s work encourages us to stand back, whereas we move close to look into Nikolaeva’s photographs, following the borderline as each image in turn offers insights that enhance the overall import of the sequence. Other photographers operate in more direct documentary mode.

For example, Jackie Nickerson explores a small rural Irish community within which there is little sense of change. The overall series integrates portraits of people as well as detailed documentation of the agricultural landscape, although here the emphasis is on the apparent timelessness of rural farming areas. Gábor Arion Kudász observes the effects of human action on the Hungarian land and landscape. The individual pictures offer apparently neutral descriptions but together create a series that portrays the degradation of a rural landscape that has been appropriated for a range of purposes.

Likewise, in “Agraria,” which draws on two series, “Marginalia” and “Countryside,” Czech photographer Pavel Banka creates a complex and detailed portrayal of rural phenomena that combines close-up observation with a more formal interest in the contours of the landscape.

16. Thomas Weinberger

17. Jackie Nickerson

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Maroš Krivý overtly comments on invasive landscape practices, using image titles to draw attention to the impact of industrial concerns such as mining and commercial transportation. Szymon Roginski travels widely in Poland, often noting the visual drama of artificial light spilling across nighttime landscapes. Tudor Prisăcariu takes us on a journey around Romania where we likewise witness the everyday, banal interplay of functional buildings and machinery, and nature; for example, an airplane flying over an orchard.

Nikos Markou likewise documents scenarios from football to coastal leisure in contemporary Greece, portraying a complex range of scenarios through his picture portfolios that subtly link different views through similarity of color. Visual resonances pay little attention to specificity of place as color connections transport us from, for example, the stark hyper-intense yellow of airport check-in desks to the softer yellows of artificial lighting in a port area at sunset, or the range of green and blue tones that characterize different types of vegetation or waterscape. Rather, the overall import of his documentation of contemporary Greece as place acknowledges fluidity of connections that are made through an esthetic of color as well as through subject matter.

In more traditional documentary mode, Gerry Johansson investigates specific Swedish rural locations using black-and-white photography and grouping images, thereby encouraging us to pay attention to detail. Likewise, the import of Peter Koštrun’s investigation of rural Slovenia invites us to look closely as his images accumulate, thereby extending our sense of this region. Nicos Philippou is particularly interested in marginal urban spaces of southern Cyprus that may be appropriated, for example, by teenagers building Easter bonfires or by those, including his family, seeking refuge near the sea. Somewhat paradoxically, the area now used for informal holiday shacks was previously owned by the (colonial) British Government, so was not available to the holiday property and hotel developers whose enterprises elsewhere colonized and transformed the Cyprus coast. This information adds extra meaning to the images. Indeed, as with all pictures, knowing something of the circumstances and context of making, can enhance our appreciation.

19. Nikos Markou

18. Maroš Krivý

20. Nicos Philippou

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Anthony Haughey’s photographs of property developments aborted before completion as a result of the recent economic crisis in Ireland, are starkly striking due to the visual effects of photographing at twilight. However, when shown in Dublin in 2011, they shifted from what might be taken as a negativecomment on the Celtic Tiger (Irish) boom-and-bust crisis, to a more positive emblem of collective solutions, as architects and others responded pro-actively with proposals for new and sustainable ways of utilizing the abandoned sites.

The purpose of this essay is to give a general overview, and to consider some questions relating to the idea of Europe, and what we might mean by “European Landscape” over and above literal geographic formulations. It follows that it is not possible to pay specific intimate attention to image and meaning. But it is worth remarking that there are two levels of interpretation involved in every image. First, there is the photographer’s creative interpretation of sites, circumstances, or scenarios. Photography is often mistakenly conceptualized as a sort of window on the world whereby images are taken from what can be seen. But this conceptualization fails to pay attention to artist-photographers as unique viewers investigating phenomena, researching specific places, and responding in terms that reflect their particular interests and insights. As Robert Adams famously remarked, every landscape picture involves geography, autobiography, and metaphor.

26 Photographers make pictures, actively selecting

subject matter and determining focus, composition, and depth of field; in other words, the photographic coding of the image. Second, there is audience engagement with and interpretation of images within which there is an integration of literal depiction and rhetorical mode: the visual poetics. Composition, use of available light, tonal and color contrast achieved both at the point of shooting the picture and decisions made when printing it, all influence responses, as do the particular interests, experiences, and pre-occupations of those viewing pictures. Without light there is no image. This has both esthetic and thematic implications. Photographers elect to shoot at particular times of day or year, maybe when light is diffused or, perhaps, when there are sharp shadows and highly marked tonal contrasts. Poetic emphasis emerges; dramatic contours and heightened colors and shadows may suggest excitement or foreboding while gentle gradients of tone, whether shot in color or monochrome, may suggest ecological harmony. The apparent harmony in Per Bak Jensen’s photographs exploring rural areas, particularly the Danish coast, emerges from his decision to photograph on calm days (avoiding the high winds typical of Denmark), from muted light and color tones, and from image composition. Likewise, Jem Southam avoids the intensity of summer light, preferring a softer daylight that reveals more of the surface of the rock faces that he is investigating. Similarly, in Theodoros Tempos’ moving imagery, soft light reveals detail, and the gentle rippling of the water expresses the fluidity and fragility of small Greek river estuary islands formerly used as fishing bases; the film suggests a certain lack of specificity of time, as such places and pastimes fade into communal memory.

21. Anthony Haughey

22. Theodoros Tempos

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The esthetic is very different to that of, for instance, the melodrama of Bruno Baltzer’s fairground at

night, harshly illuminated by artificial lights, or the blue skies and sharp shadows that contribute

emotively to Gerardo Custance’s Spanish landscapes.

For other photographers, the effects of light itself may be the theme explored. For instance, in her series, “Etudes Bel Val,” Chrystel Lebas looks out over a lake in the Ardennes, France, from the same point of view over a period of 24 hours, showing ways in which color and intensity of illumination evokes emotion as it contours the land . Likewise, repetition is a motif and method in the photographic work of Danish artist, Olafur Eliasson. His blocks of images use direct photography, within which light intensity is muted to emphasize similarities of the contours of the land. For Pedro Cabrita Reis, light is crucial, represented in his work by the intense amber used to paint out half of otherwise serene, softly lit, harmonious images. For him, this intensity of the amber light on the left stands for the intensity of sunset over the Atlantic in the far west of Europe. Each one of these explorations in some way draws attention to the diverse effects of the varying intensity of the rays of the sun, which are, of course, seasonal, latitudinal, and further heightened through reflection in water, snow, or ice. Light is one of the aspects of topography (and landscape photography) that renders particular regions within Europe distinctive from one another.

23. Gerardo Custance, 24. Bruno Baltzer

25. Olafur Eliasson

26. Pedro Cabrita Reis

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27. Gina Glover

Landscapes are often seductive and beautiful, satisfying spiritual desires inherited from Romanticism. But, like thorns concealed on the stems of roses, beauty in landscape may, for example, obscure the brutal histories of conflict and disruption. Gina Glover’s pictures of now-disused airfields are softened through her use of a pinhole pictorial, wherein picture edges are not sharply defined and the uniqueness of each image lends a particular sense of the value of the photograph as an object. But the Cold War (tensions between the Soviet Union and the West for four decades from the late 1940s on) felt harsh and dangerous to those who lived through that era.

Bart Michiels’ pictures of battlefields remind us that military engagement contributes to determining the course of history; many major conflicts have figured historically within Europe, both within classical periods and more recently. While not necessarily immediately evident, the legacy of such history remains symbolically marked through the naming of battles and locations. Flo Kasearu and her colleagues imagine a large black ball bouncing around Estonia, which is perhaps frivolous. However, in one instance the ball apparently rests where there used to be a statue of Lenin—but you probably have to be Estonian and familiar with Tallinn to get the joke. Legacies of previous land use remain marked in contemporary contours and remnants, but landscape imagery can only trace the visible surface. Hence photographers adopt differing esthetic strategies to suggest feelings about place, and to extend our sense of the implications of what can be seen in the image. Observations may note the behavioral; for example, Massimo Vitali draws attention to the mass occupation of the coast by sun worshippers, to the extent that the Italian coastal strip has become a stage for holidaymakers. In Alexander Gronsky’s single images from Latvia, groups of people effectively posed for the camera through pursuing everyday activities despite the presence of the camera.

Artūras Raila’s approach is explicitly performative, as the photographs document ritualized staged events in, for example, the woodlands of Lithuania. Several photographers work with moving image as

29. Massimo Vitali

28. Bart Michiels

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well as still photography. Their work tends to be observational rather than narrative driven (these are not “films” in dramatic mode), but there is a sense in which the further animation of documents about place enhances insight and responses.

Elina Brotherus commonly works with her own body as model. In “The Black Bay Sequence,” shot over one summer in rural Finland, she draws us to identify with the experience of immersion in water, a phenomenon that is, of course, highly symbolic in Pagan and Christian cultures, as well as suggesting the ecological harmony of human oneness with nature. This contrasts with other examples of moving imagery; for example, Alves da Silva’s road movie. Here, rather than observing pictures of Iberian rural areas, we are drawn into sharing the experience of driving down unmade paths through the countryside, as the camera (positioned at windscreen level, which echoes the position from which we would see were we in the front seat) suggests a constant observation of that which might otherwise be overlooked.

31. Augusto Alves Da Silva

For photographers, making images is a method of exploration; photographers think through doing, through testing out visual effects. Some explore innovatory ways of seeing, offering different viewpoints that may shift our perceptions of the lie of the land and our relation to it. For instance, Gerco de Ruijter photographs from the air, using kites and pre-conceptualizing resulting imagery through calculating the effects of wind and lights on the ground. Through this he creates what, at first glance, appear as abstract patterns. It is as if we are descending through the air, hovering at the point before we can discern specific features, when the ground appears as patterns. Given the contribution of history to our understanding of specificity of place, it is not surprising to find a number of photographers bringing past references into the present, thereby reflecting on memory. For former Soviet bloc nations, this may be a relatively recent focus. This is, perhaps, at its most apparent in the Adriatic and in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire region.

30. Artūras Raila,

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Yenny Huber’s panoramas from Vienna and from Ljubljana symbolize ways in which changes and memories are multi-layered; the soft tones of the imagery lend a sense of fondness and, perhaps, regret. Marianna Christofides regularly works with found objects and imagery, including old photographs, slides, and maps, symbolically and evocatively reminding us of aspects of Cypriot history, now faded into memory as a currently divided nation. In both examples, there is a sense of sublime sadness in hankering for histories now past.

In avidly exploring the buildings and monuments of Malta, Nigel Baldacchino similarly draws attention to residues of previous eras. But the intensity of color effects in some of the pictures, and online assembly of imagery as a visual blog, rather than more traditionally as a carefully edited selection of telling images, render a more operatic impact.

Baldacchino is not alone in experimenting with new technological tools and internetbased communication methods. Almost all photographers now publish work via a website of their own or that of an art gallery. One effect of this is that the image in itself, rather than the tactile qualities of prints on paper, or the experience of leafing through a book, becomes emphasized. From the comfort of our computer screen, we easily forget that there have been several moments of transformation in the chain of photographic communication, whether exposure transformed the chemical coating glass or paper, or is encoded as a set of digital binaries. For Joan Fontcuberta, digital transformation is itself a matter of curiosity. His 2005 publication, Landscapes without Memory—a title that might be viewed as a direct response to Simon Schama’s interest in Landscape and Memory— brings together images created through using software programs created for the interpretation of maps; that is, information

32. Yenny Huber

33. Nigel Baldacchino

34. Marianna Christofides

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coded in accordance with cartographic conventions. The images generated are based not on maps but on other phenomena, including paintings, decoded then recoded as landscapes. The ensuing landscapes seem somehow false, pointing both to the limited vocabulary of software developed to perform specific functions, and also to the extent to which—perhaps in a culturally deep-seated way that seems unconscious—we seek representations that testify to actual complexities of land and landscapes. But we are reminded that all representations of landscape articulate the virtual and the fictional with the topographic and the symbolic.

There is a certain sense of urgency in reconsidering not only our sense of place, but also our sense of responsibility to place. Through his series title, “Museum of Nature,” Finnish artist Ilkka Halso reminds us of the extent to which the natural has been appropriated for human purposes, thereby becoming artificially tended, tamed, and contained. In even more cataclysmic mode, the title of Belgian photographer Carl De Keyzer’s series, “Moments before the Flood,” suggests that there is no stemming of the waves and no stopping the effects of climate change.

That this should be seen as a nemesis, punishment for previous moral and social irresponsibility, is clear from the allusion to Old Testament myth. Yet, simultaneously, the rivers of Europe flow on. The Rhine and the Danube are among the great rivers of Europe, standing metonymically for continuity with the transit routes of many centuries. For Andreas Gursky, the Rhine is an abstract linear form; legendarily, he removed everything that he viewed as extraneous in order to create an immense image within which it is composition rather than literal detail that is of the essence. But in the context of this publication, the Rhine is important as a symbolic link between the north and the central mountains through which it is necessary to pass to reach the south. In the context of the European Union and, indeed, of previous European tensions over national boundaries, the river forms the border between France and Germany. Likewise, the Danube, as explored by Andreas Müller-Pohle, symbolizes a key link within the former Austro-Hungarian Empire and, more recently, between Western Europe and Eastern European nations associated with the former Soviet bloc. The flow of river water, and irrigation of the lands around it, pays no attention to national borders or other boundaries. While human development may draw upon or pollute rivers, the ineffable flux of water suggests continuing possibilities for change and renewal.

35. Ilkka Halso

36. Andreas Müller-Pohle

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European Places This publication brings together examples of work from across Europe. It has been organized in terms of six regions in order to bring particular areas of the continent into focus, and also to make apparent the visual contrasts between regions, from north to south and west to east. Such contrasts include qualities of natural light and seasonal change, as well as the varied topography, textures, and colors of differing terrains. There are similarities of questions and subject matter, and all photographers are concerned with esthetic strategies, with how visual stories can be told. Whether expressed in documentary mode, or more abstractly, performatively, or inter-actively, symbolic effects crucially influence our response to place. Taken as a group, the imagery offers a sense of Europe as a congregation of different types of place and activities within them, from rural communities to urban edges and seaside tourism, from agriculture to leisure, and from military scenarios to expressions of our very direct involvement with the natural. Not surprisingly, the range of imagery also testifies to topographic differences within and between regions, and to ways in which local lifestyles and economies reflect the potential that particular physical geographies offer: seaside, industrial development, agriculture, and so on. To consider photography, nation, and nature is to reflect upon a combination of natural effects of geography, land use, cultivation, climate, weather, and light, both in terms of socio-economic subject matter and in terms of image esthetics. It also involves political considerations in that landscape imagery has been articulated with specific ideals, whether as emblematic of a particular rhetoric of nationhood or as questioning attitudes to land and views of natural resources for human usage. But, cutting across considerations of specificity of the articulation of landscape images within particular socio-political developments, is the fact that photographers tend to be inveterate travelers, bringing their particular questions, esthetic style, and methods of working into play as they roam beyond their homeland. In addition, as artist-photographers, they operate professionally within a global art market. (Several of those included in this publication live between two or more places.) While national boundaries may be more or less settled geographically, photographers remain itinerant, exploring unfamiliar locations as well as those close to home. Furthermore, all post work online, rendering imagery accessible worldwide. The Internet knows no national limitations. Likewise, audiences may have traveled widely. It follows that our sense of place may operate at different levels of depth, articulating memory and current experiences differently, according to where we are and our relation to this place. We may also have a false sense of familiarity with particular regions or icons of place generated through frequent reference in visual and other media. The Acropolis, the Eiffel Tower, the Black Forest, the Alps, and Hadrian’s Wall all conjure up images and stories, regardless of whether or not we have actually been to any of these locations. Our sense of place thus draws upon physical geography, botany, esthetics, but also on biography, and the psychological. It articulates patterns or changes in human behavior with natural morphology. Our experience of nature is filtered through cultural perceptions. We cannot envisage or speak of the natural world without recourse to symbolic languages, whether spoken, written, or visual. Landscape photography may tell us more or suggest a new way of perceiving familiar places; it may also offer insight into the unfamiliar. Through considering a range of examples we are reminded of the very varied emotions and complexity of circumstances that characterize people’s relation to place and nature in Europe.

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Endnotes 1 For example, Klaus Honnef, Rolf Sachsse and Karin Thomas, eds., German Photography 1870–1970: Power of a Medium. Bonn: Kunst-und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik, 1997; Mike Weaver, British Photography in the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989. 2 A recent series of publications, the “Exposures” series from Reaktion Books, London, sidesteps the problem through focusing on Photography and Italy or Photography and Ireland. This allows for comment on perceptions of, for example, Italy by those visiting from elsewhere as well as contextualization of home-based work by, for instance, Irish photographers through reference to other series made elsewhere. 3 When photography was first announced in 1839, national boundaries in Europe did not parallel those that now exist. For instance, Italy and Germany as we now know them were congregated from mosaics of smaller states; parts of Prussia and Poland were in the Russian Empire, which also included Finland, and the three south Baltic states; Norway was part of Sweden; and the Austro-Hungarian Empire was a major alliance and force in Central Europe. Photographers moved between Vienna, Budapest, Prague, and elsewhere. 4 Aarnes, 1983. 5 Massey, 2005; Relph, 1981; Tuan, 1977. 6 ‘Place-making’ features nowadays as an aspect of regional planning; the term may be relatively new but the concept is deep-seated. Historically the role of churches, town halls and other civic organizations in developing and maintaining ‘congregations’ is well established. 7 Tuan, 1977:3. 8 Schama’s family roots are central European, but he was born in Britain, and, as an adult, migrated to New York. Like many Europeans, his relationship with family history and identity is complex. 9 Schama, 1996. 10 Schama, 1996: 15. 11 Mitchell, 1994. 12 Gersht, 2005, S. 4. 13 Citrin & Sides, 2004: 162. 14 Anderson, 1983. 15 Lapland runs across Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia but is Sami remained marginalized within the dominant cultures of each of these four countries. Conversely, in the far south-east of Europe, Nicosia is now the only European city with a dividing wall: the “green line” that separates Cypriots living in the South who identify as Greek from Turkish Cypriots in the North. (The border is currently open.) 16 Photography was announced by both Daguerre and Fox Talbot in 1839, but resulted from experiments in printing pursued over several decades. From an optical point of view the potential for photography was much longer standing. The Greeks knew that sunlight channeled through a chink in a cave could reflect an image from outside; lenses were developed by medieval astronomers. 17 Much of the earliest nature photography was intended as botanical illustration, often made through contact prints; for example, a leaf would be laid on chemically treated paper which, through exposure to the sun, retained an impression of the leaf whi le the rest of the paper changed color, for instance, to the blue of cyanotypes. 18 See, for example, Mark Haworth-Booth, Camille Silvy, River Scene France. Malibu, Ca.: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 1992. 19 As is evident from comparing examples of photographs with paintings subsequently produced, photographs were also used by artists as studies for oil paintings later made in their studios. See, for example, Peter Galassi, 1981. 20 Lange, 2007; Southam 1989. 21 Burke, 1759. 22 Hobsbawm, 1962. 23 Hobsbawm, 1962: 259. 24 Davidson, 2005. 25 Papaioannou, 2010. 26 Adams 1996: 14. Credits Pictures

1. Elina Brotherus, Still images from The Black Bay Sequence, 2010, 60 min 12 sec, HD video (Apple ProRes 422), 16:9, silent. Credit: Commissioned by COMMA at Bloomberg SPACE, London, by Bloomberg LP, 2010 2. Andreas Gursky, Rhein II, 1999, c-print, 187 x 346 x 6,2 cm, Credit: Andreas Gursky / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn / SOFAM 2012 Courtesy Sprüth Magers Berlin London 3. Carl de Keyzer, Blankenberge, Belgium, from Moments before the Flood 2012, 112cm x 132 cm framed, Credit: Carl De Keyzer 4. Joan Fontcuberta, Orogenesis: Dali (Bord 2), 2003, Type C-Print, Credit:Courtesy of the Artist ©Joan Fontcuberta 5. Chrystel Lebas, Études Soir I, Bel-Val, 6 March 2009, Chromogenic C-print from colour negative, 84 x 200 cm, Courtesy of the Artist 6. Gerry Johansson, 5 Öglunda, 2010/11, Courtesy GunGallery, Stockholm, Sweden 7. Per Bak Jensen, Døren / The Door, 2007, C-print / Diasec, 165 cm x 205 cm (including frame), Credit: Courtesy Galleri Bo Bjerggaard 8. Peter Koštrun, Water Crisis, From the series called "Present", 2007, Credit: Courtesy of Photon Gallery 9. Vessalina Nikolaeva, Untitled, from the series Simply a Line, Credit: courtesy of the artist 10. Flo Kasearu, O, 12.06.2011, 2011 by Flo Kasearu (on the seaside), ©Flo Kasearu 11. Gerco de Ruijter, B.S. 201, Ultrachrome print op dibond 305x100cm. editie van 5, Courtesy of Zic Zerp Gallery Amsterdam 12. Jem Southam, 'Vaucottes 2006' form the series 'The Rockfallsof Normandy' , 2006, Courtesy of the artist and Pôle Image Haute-Normandie, Rouen 13. Céline Clanet, Barrage de Roselend, contreforts du Méraillet / Roselend dam, Méraillet buttresses, 2010, Tirage jet d’encre longue conservation (négatif argentique couleur), Contre-collé sur Dibond / Finition Caisse américaine, Format 120X95 cm, édition 1/5, Signé et numéroté sur étiquette à l’arrière du cadre, Credit : Céline Clanet/Fondation Facim, 2010 - Fonds des Archives Départementales du Conseil général de Savoie 14. Pavel Banka Contry side # IX /self - portrait/2008, Archival inkjet print, diasec, 100 x 130 cm (no framed), 2/10, Courtesy of the Artist 15. Irene Kung, Irene Kung, Ulivo, 2007 , 100x100cm, Digital print on rag paper, Courtesy of the Artist © Irene Kung 16. Thomas Weinberger, Märklin, HBF München, 2004, 125 cm x 232 cm, c-print, diasec/glas, framed (c) VG Bildkunst, Bonn, Credit: Courtesy Nusser & Baumgart gallery, Munich 17. Jackie Nickerson, Two Gates, 2008, C-print, Credit: Courtesy Brancolini Grimaldi Gallery, London

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18. Maroš Krivý, Transportation and storage , 2009-2012, 150 x 75 cm, triptych, inkjet print, mounted on dibond, framed, 2009-2012, Credit: Maros Krivy 19. Nikos Markou, 15.04.2005 (Athens), 2005, Archival Inkjet Print on fine art paper pasted on aluminum, 119 X 150 cm, Credit: Courtesy: AD Gallery, Athens, Greece 20. Nicos Philippou, Untitled, From the series Holiday Homes 2011, Credits: Courtesy of the artist 21. Anthony Haughey, Settlement lV, 2011, Digital C type editioned print, 100 x 120 cm, mounted on acrylic, Credit: Courtesy of the artist 22. Theodoros Tempos, The Water That Sleeps Not, 2009, (DVD), 12min36sec 23. Gerardo Custance, Gerardo Custance, Atienza, Guadalajara, 2007, Format: 150 x 120 cm., Médium: Inkjet Print on Archival Paper, Credit: Courtesy of Galerie Polaris, Paris. 24. Bruno Baltzer, Reconstruction_0609003, 2009, 120 x 120 cm, © Mudam Collection, Courtesy of the Artist 25. Olafur Eliasson, The horizon series, 2002, 40 c-prints, each: 22,5 x 104,5 cm, framed: 24,3 x 106,3 cm, Private collection, Berlin, Credit: Courtesy the Artist and Neugerriemschneider, Berlin 26. Pedro Cabrita Reis, The Sleep of Reason, 4th series (Orange) #1--#12, 2009, Acrylic on photo mounted on aluminum, 49,5 x 75 cm, © Pedro Cabrita Reis 27. Gina Glover, Fortifications, Karosta, Liepaja, Latvia, 2007, Pinhole photograph, (Gina Glover, exhibition The Hubris of War, from the series Playgrounds of War), Credit: Gina Glover Private collection 28. Bart Michiels, Passchendaele 1917, Goudberg Copse, From “The Course of History”, 2005, Chromogenic Print, 152.4 cm x 188.8 cm, Courtesy of the artist 29. Massimo Vitali, Riccione Dyptich, 1997, C-print under plexi, 180 x 150 cm, Credit: Courtesy of the Artist 30. Artūras Raila, River, 2006n Lambda print on aluminium 125x184, Credit: Courtesy the artist 31. Augusto Alves da Silva; Iberia, 2009, random projection of 5.148 colour digital images, with sound (spanish radio stations live via internet), Credit: Courtesy of the artist 32. Yenny Huber, 48 stunden [Ljubljana], Plecnik Dam, 2007, C print, Credit: Courtesy of the Artist, Yenny Huber 33. Nigel Baldacchino, DSC0068, Courtesy of the Artist © Nigel Baldachinno 34. Marianna Christofides, Passes: All heights in metre, 2012, C-print framed, laser-engraved text, 100 x 130 cm, © Marianna Christofides 35. Ilkka Halso, Rollercoaster, 2004, 100 x 134cm, c-print on aluminum, Credit: Courtesy of artist 36. Andreas Müller-Pohle, Dunaujváros 195, Hungary, 2005, C-Print, 60 x 85 cm, Courtesy of the Artist

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VISITOR INFORMATIONVISITOR INFORMATIONVISITOR INFORMATIONVISITOR INFORMATION Sense of Place European Landscape Photography Dates 14.06 > 16.09.2012 Address BOZAR – Centre for Fine Arts Rue Ravensteinstraat 23 1000 Brussels Opening hours Tuesdays to Sundays, 10am > 6pm Thursdays, 10am > 9pm Closed on Mondays Tickets € 8,00 (discounts on www.bozar.be) € 12,00 Combiticket Mapping Cyprus + Sense of Place Catalogue Sense of Place. European Landscape Photography 2 publications: NL/FR and DEU/ENG Publisher: Bozarbooks & Uitgeverij Kannibaal & Prestel Price: € 49,95

Symposium on landscape photography Thursday 14.06.2012 14:00 Centre for Fine Arts / Hall M On June 14, BOZAR hosts a debate conducted by different important European photographers and curators over landscape photography. The landscape is a very old genre that has now more than ever found its place in the recent developments of photography. Famous photographers such as Massimo Vitali and Pedro Cabrita Reis will discuss the theme of landscape nowadays with international curators.

The Philosophy of Landscape Literary visitor's guide for the exhibition Sense of Place Georg Simmel (1858-1918) is a German sociologist who mainly survives in academic footnotes. Nevertheless, he wrote at least two little masterpieces that are more than worthwile reading: "The Philosophy of Money" and "The Philosophy of Landscape". The latter, published in 1912, remains incisive and pertinent one hundred years after its publication. BOZAR LITERATURE presents a translation of this particular essay in the free visitor's guide and considers its actual meaning. Simmel's ideas continue to inspire contemporary landscape photography. They offer not only a reflection on how we act as a viewer or spectator, but also show that we are first and foremost strollers of the landscapes shaped by our imagination.

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SUMMER OF PHOTOGRAPHY @SUMMER OF PHOTOGRAPHY @SUMMER OF PHOTOGRAPHY @SUMMER OF PHOTOGRAPHY @ BOZARBOZARBOZARBOZAR Alongside Sense of Place, the Centre for Fine Arts will also be presenting several other photography exhibitions. In this summer’s Junctions exhibition, young photographer Lara Dhont gets to work on the collection of the FotoMuseum Antwerp and contrasts these pieces with her own work: photos of found installations ‘found’ in the landscape. There is also Pôze, which will enable Brussels residents to view their own city through a lens. The theme this year is the recording the nocturnal landscape of Brussels and is led by photographer Vincen Beeckman. The BOZAR Photo Award and the Nikon Press Award are being awarded again this summer. The winners of both prizes will get the chance to exhibit their work at the Centre for Fine Arts this summer. A collaboration with PhotoBiennale Greece will be on display in the Council Room: a solo exhibition with pictures from Thessaloniki by Greek photographer Panos Kokkinias. A visit to the Horta Hall this summer will provide the perfect aperitif for Sense of Place: the embassies of Hungary, Romania, and Latvia will each be bringing a three-week-long solo exhibition by a national photographer (Alnis Stakle, Cosmin Bumbut & Tamas Dezso).

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BOBOBOBOZAR ZAR ZAR ZAR

PHOTOGRAPHY PHOTOGRAPHY PHOTOGRAPHY PHOTOGRAPHY

AWARD AWARD AWARD AWARD

14.06 > 16.09.201214.06 > 16.09.201214.06 > 16.09.201214.06 > 16.09.2012

Centre for Fine ArtsCentre for Fine ArtsCentre for Fine ArtsCentre for Fine Arts

Each year BOZAR presents the BOZAR Photography Award. More than 300 photographers sent three works each inspired by the theme of the Summer of Photography - the landscape. The first prize went to Dieter De Lathauwer, who sent in works from different series. At first glance they appear to be idyllic rock formations; their small elements unleash an escapist mindset and bring into light the subtle reference to human and natural processes that landscape has undergone throughout history. Pablo Castilla shows works that represent the south of Spain, Costa Tropical. No idyllic landscapes, but heartfelt images of his birthplace marked by absurdity and economic loss. Fernando Benitez Bella presents a work from the series Cliffs of Moher, one hundred and twenty meter high rock formations along the Irish coast. In a very personal manner, Bella depicts natural sublimity that inspired many a film set and instilled many a geo-tourist to travel.

JURY: Carl De Keyzer (photographer), Maarten Goossens (NIKON), Erik Derycke (PhotoMagazine Shoot), Luk Lambrecht (CC Strombeek-Beveren), Christophe De Jaeger (BOZAR).

COPRODUCTION : BOZAR EXPO, Nikon Dates 14.06 > 16.09.2012 Address BOZAR – Centre for Fine Arts Rue Ravensteinstraat 23 1000 Brussel Opening hours Tuesdays to Sundays, 10am > 6pm Thursdays, 10am > 9pm Closed on Mondays Tickets Free entrance

Dieter De Lathauwer, Untitled, from the series Dare to say you don’t know and you found yourself in front of obstacles, Courtesy of the Artist © Dieter De Lathauwer

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PARTNERS SUMMER OF PHOTOGRAPHYPARTNERS SUMMER OF PHOTOGRAPHYPARTNERS SUMMER OF PHOTOGRAPHYPARTNERS SUMMER OF PHOTOGRAPHY

At the suggestion of BOZAR, more than 20 partners have joined forces to create a unique international platform for photography in Belgium. Thanks to the Summer of Photography, exhibitions of the highest quality, devoted this year to landscape, are being presented in Brussels, Charleroi, Antwerp, Knokke, Ostend, and Hornu. This fourth edition of the Summer of Photography opens the way for a major series of reflections on the often complex relationships between humanity and its environment, which will also be considered in two colloquia on identity and the digitalisation of the landscape.

PROGRAMMPROGRAMMPROGRAMMPROGRAMMEEEE Each of the Summer of Photography partners is presenting a programme based on the theme of European landscape photography. The FotoMuseum Antwerp and Espace Photographique Contretype are considering the influence of new technologies on photography. The exhibition Construire le paysage, at Contretype shows us pictures of landscapes that have never actually existed, but that came into being through new technologies. The FotoMuseum presents a selection from the now famous exhibition From Here On from Les Rencontres d’Arles. Mishka Henner, one of the participating photographers, points out the influence Google Earth has had on landscape photography. The relationship between the natural and urban landscapes is the focus of the summer exhibition at MAC’s in Grand Hornu. The subtle, conceptual work of Philippe Durand contrasts the vocabulary of the urban environment with that of the natural environment. The exhibition Viewpoint-Point of View will be on view at the Cultuurcentrum Strombeek Grimbergen. A series of enduring images by Michiel De Cleene ask how architecture influences the way we look at the landscape. The Centre Culturel Jacques Frank will once again be showing the work of Régis Feugère, a nocturnal journey of discovery to the less-than-safe fringe areas of the urban environment. At Contraste, the exhibition Regard sur mon quartier is the result of a workshop in which photographers put the Sint-Joost-ten-Noode/Saint-Josse-ten-Noode region of Brussels in the picture. Nature can be seen as a source of beauty and relaxation, but also as a threat. Les Heures Claires. Beach games at the Belgian Coast 1890-1960 at Musée de la Photographie of Charleroi brings together a collection of historical photos of people spending their free time on the beach. At the International Photography Festival Knokke-Heist, photographers such as Olaf Otto Becker, Gerco de Ruijter, Ruud van Empel, and Sanna Kannisto present an ode to nature, although not without warnings about coming catastrophes. This theme is continued in the book and the exhibition Moments before the flood by Carl De Keyzer, in collaboration with Lannoo, in Ostend. This is a photographic exploration of the ways in which Europe is handling the threat of climate change and rising sea levels. Europe is at the centre of the festival. The Brussels Goethe-Institute presents the exhibition Postcards of Europe, a photographic quest by German artist Eva Leitolf for the relationship member states have with their borders. The Flemish-Dutch House deBuren likewise takes the public on a journey through Europe with the Citybooks project, which will be presented at De Markten. Various photographers have created portrayals of European cities such as Bucharest, Skopje, Tbilisi, Graz, Sheffield, Charleroi, and Utrecht. Europe is the theme of the festival, but within a global context. In collaboration with Tour & Taxis, BOZAR presents the 9

th edition of Rencontres de Bamako, the African photography biennale.

Here, African photographers depict the effects of Western industrialisation on the African landscape. At the same time, there will be two significant monographic series on display at the Royal Museum for Central Africa.

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Some partners have a wider view of the term ‘landscape’. Psychological landscapes are the subject of the exhibition Paysages du mental – mindscapes, at the Electriciteitscentrale/La Centrale Electrique, which asks how the invisible can be made visible. A similar project brings young photographer Hélène Petite to the Quartier Latin Librairie. Her exhibition Photo(a)mnesia explores photography as memory. Meanwhile, the Art & Marges museum will be presenting Gaël Turine’s Portraits of Artists, a project about outsider artists. On 26 July, Recyclart will be organising a photography evening with music and talks by photographers.

CCCCALENDALENDALENDALENDAAAAR R R R & CONTACT& CONTACT& CONTACT& CONTACT Cultuur Centrum Knokke-Heist International Photo Festival Knokke-Heist 25.03 > 30.06.2012 (indoor > 10.06.2012) Tickets: Free admission Press contact: Nathalie Decoster – [email protected] In Between – An initiative from vzw|asbl Piazza dell'Arte Dare to say you don’t know and you found yourself in front of obstacles 04.05 > 20.07.2012 Tickets: Free admission Press contact: Tom Viane - [email protected] Maritieme Site Oostende Moments before the flood – Expo Carl De Keyzer 17.05 > 26.08.2012 Tickets: Adults: € 8,00 – Students/Seniors: € 5,00 – Knack subscribers: € 4,00 – Free admission for children under 14 Press contact: Evy Van Eenoo – [email protected] Flemish-Dutch House deBuren and De Markten Citybooks 25.05 > 11.07.2012 Tickets: Free admission Press contact De Buren: Ann Venneman – [email protected] Press contact De Markten: Jan Op De Locht – [email protected] Museum of Photography, Charleroi Les Heures claires. Beach games at the Belgian Coast (1890-1960) 26.05 > 16.09.2012 Tickets: Adults: € 6,00 - Seniors: € 4,00 – Students/Jobseekers: € 3,00 – Friends of the Museum/ under 12: Free admission Free every first Wednesday of the month. Press contact: Cécile Druart – [email protected] B-Gallery Eline Van Riet 01.06 > 23.06.2012 Tickets: Free admission Press contact: Joan Vandenberghe – [email protected] BOZAR – Centre for Fine Arts Sense of Place. European Landscape Photography 14.06 > 16.09.2012 Tickets: Adults: € 8,00 – 60+/Groups: € 6,00 – Jobseekers/-26/Teachers: € 4,00 – Schools/-18: € 2,50 – Combi ticket with “Mapping Cyprus”: € 12,00 Junctions: Lara Dhont. De publieke ruimte als speelterrein 14.06 > 16.09.2012 Tickets: Free admission Nikon Press Awards 14.06 > 16.09.2012 Tickets: Free admission

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Panos Kokkinias 14.06 > 16.09.2012 Tickets: Free admission Pôze IV Terminus 14.06 > 16.09.2012 Tickets: Free admission Alnis Stakle. Not Even Something 14.06 > 08.07.2012 Tickets: Free admission Cosmin Bumbut. Rosia Montana 2006 11.07 > 12.08.2012 Tickets: Free admission Tamas Dezso. Here, Anywhere 15.08 > 16.09.2012 Tickets: Free admission Press contact: Leen Daems – [email protected] Tour & Taxis Bamako Encounters. Pan-African Photography: For a Sustainable World 14.06 > 26.08.2012 Tickets : € 4,00 (During Couleur Café for festival-goers : € 2,00) Press contact: Leen Daems – [email protected][email protected] Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren Bamako Encounters : Kiripi Katembo & Abdoulaye Barry 14.06 > 26.08.2012 Tickets: Free admission upon presentation of an entrance ticket to the museum (€ 4,00 - € 3,00 - € 1,5) Contact presse : Marie-Pascale Le Grelle – [email protected] Cultuurcentrum Strombeek Grimbergen Viewpoint – Point Of View 14.06 > 16.09.2012 Tickets: Free admission Press contact: Sara Van Malderen – [email protected] Balassi Instituut Landscapes speak the same language 14.06 > 10.09.2012 Tickets: Free admission Press contact: Krisztina Reményi – [email protected] arts & marges musée Portraits of a Collection 15.06 > 07.10.2012 Tickets: Adults: € 4,00 - Children/Students: € 2,00 Press contact: Tatiana Veress – [email protected] Jewish Museum of Belgium Visions – Dalia Nosratabadi & Dan Zollmann 15.06 > 30.09.2012 Tickets: € 5,00 - € 3,00 – Free admission for children under 12 Press contact: Chouna Lomponda – [email protected] Contraste, la Cambre & Galerie ikono In Sight 15.06 > 09.09.2012 Tickets: Free admission Press contact: Stéphanie Pety de Thozée – [email protected] Coudenberg Origin – Bleda y Rosa 15.06.2012 > 16.09.2012

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Tickets: Normal rate: € 5,00 - Seniors/groups>15 persons: € 4,00 - 18-25/unemployed/disabled: € 3,00 - -13 years old/teachers/monitors/Brussels Card: € 0 Press contact: Frédérique Honoré - [email protected] Espace Photographique Contretype Building the landscape 20.06 > 16.09.2012 Tickets: € 3,00 Press contact: Evelyne Biver – [email protected] Goethe-Institut Brüssel Postcards from Europe – A work on migration and its impact on European societies 22.06 > 16.09.2012 Tickets: Free admission Press contact: Pia Entenmann – [email protected] Contraste asbl & Turkish Lady Views on my neighbourhood 21.06 > 31.08.2012 Tickets: Free admission Press contact: Laure Geerts – [email protected] FoMu – Fotomuseum Antwerpen From Here On 22.06 > 30.09.2012 Tickets: Adults: € 7,00 – under 26: € 1,00 – Free admission for children under 12. Press contact: Isabelle Willems – [email protected] De Stichting voor Architectuur – CIVA & CONTRASTE H-URBAN, een kwestie van participatieve stedenbouw 23.06 > 02.09.2012 Tickets: Free admission Press Contact: Anne-Marie Pirlot – [email protected] CENTRALE for contemporary art Mindscapes 27.06 > 30.09.2012 Tickets: € 5,00 - € 4,00 - € 2,50 - €1,25 – Free admission for children under 12 Press contact: Sarah Segura – [email protected] Centre Culturel Jacques Franck (CCJF) Merel ‘t Hart & Luk Vander Plaetse – « The neighbours » 30.06 > 01.09.2012 Tickets: Free admission Régis Feugère – « Kunizakaï » 30.06 > 01.09.2012 Tickets: Free admission Press contact: Rose-Line Tas - [email protected] Librairie Quartiers Latins Photo(a)mnesia 05.07 > 31.08.2012 Tickets: Free admission Press contact: Muriel Verhaegen – [email protected] MAC’s – Museum of Contemporary Arts of the Federation Wallonie-Brussels Le Miroir et les Chemins. Peter Downsbrough – Philippe Durand – Jacqueline Mesmaeker 08.07 > 14.10.2012 Tickets: Combi Site Le Grand-Hornu: € 6,00 - Reduction: € 4,00 / € 2,00 – Free admission under 6. Press contact: Anne Gerard – [email protected]

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CONTACT INFORMATION CONTACT INFORMATION CONTACT INFORMATION CONTACT INFORMATION PRESS OFFICE BOZARPRESS OFFICE BOZARPRESS OFFICE BOZARPRESS OFFICE BOZAR

Centre for Fine Arts Rue Ravensteinstraat 23 B – 1000 Brussels Info & tickets: T. +32 (0)2 507 82 00 - www.bozar.be Leen Daems Press Officer BOZAR EXPO T. +32 (0)2 507 83 89 T. +32 (0)479 98 66 07 [email protected] Annelien Mallems Press Officer FESTIVAL, WORLD MUSIC, ARCHITECTURE T. +32 (0)2 507 84 48 T. +32 (0)479 98 66 04 [email protected] Hélène Tenreira Senior Press Officer BOZAR THEATRE, DANCE, CINEMA, CORPORATE T. +32 (0)2 507 84 27 T. +32 (0)475 75 38 72 [email protected] Laura Bacquelaine Press Officer BOZAR MUSIC, LITERATURE T. +32 (0)2 507 83 91 [email protected]