ValenciaPhoto® is a project created in 2022 for the annual celebration of a photography festival, where established professionals and young avant-garde artists meet with the aim of making it a European reference in the art of photography.
The representative motto of this year's festival is "UTOPIA.EU" in reference to the ideal of a united Europe, as a common space where all nationalities live together in peace.
The concept "Utopia", from the Greek ou-topos, (no place), could be translated as "there is no such place". This word has been used throughout history to refer to societies that do not exist but are supposed to be an ideal model of coexistence, as in Plato's Republic or in the well-known work of Thomas More "Utopia", who coined this term in the sense of an ideal and therefore non-existent society.
The idea of "utopia" began to acquire a real political-social meaning in the context of Enlightenment Europe. A Europe where people coexist and share all territories.
In the 20th century, this idea of a Europe as a shared space would come to materialise under the name of the European Union, a political community with pretensions to approximate these ideal models, but which unfortunately did not always achieve peace among its participating members.
Today, well into the 21st century, we find ourselves with a Europe at war, and the need for this "utopia", the ideal project that never seems to materialise, is more evident than ever.
The aim of this festival is to cooperate in the fusion of different arts through photography as a metaphor for the union of populations and to place ValenciaPhoto® as a defender of the European yearning to achieve this utopian ideal.
The project promotes transnational cooperation with European entities from different countries, interacting and establishing cultural links to disseminate their cultural heritage and foster the creativity and competitiveness of their artists.
Working together and sharing experiences, we will undertake the organisation of exhibitions and a wide variety of initiatives such as: meetings with artists and critics, lectures, debates, courses, screenings, concerts, book presentations, portfolio reviews, etc.
Everything mentioned in the previous paragraphs gives the ValenciaPhoto® Festival a clear cultural and artistic value, given that it is a space that promotes knowledge and participation in art and culture, as well as dialogue between different local and European cultural expressions, encouraging respect and enjoyment of the diversity of customs and forms of expression.
The ValenciaPhoto® Festival is supported by Valencian Institutions, such as the Valencia City Council, the Valencian Government, the University of Valencia, the Consulates of Lithuania, France and Ukraine, the French Institute, the Cervantes Institute, Art Galleries and private collaborators related in many cases to art and photography.
Autors.
Reinaldo Thielemann
Laima Oržekauskienė-Ore
Marija Cipkute
Silvia Martí
Vilma Dobilaite
Nicolás Llorens
Romà Seguí
Jun Shiraoka
Simonas Dūda
Yuriy Musatov
Vaidas - Maxim Dondyuk
Laurent de Gebhardt
Aurelija Urbonavičiūtė, Neringa Rekašiūtė, Berta Tilmantaitė, Rūta Meilutytė, Andrius Repšy
María José Rodes Sala
Vicente Serra
Vytautas Suslavičius
Laima Oržekauskienė-Ore is one of Lithuania's most convincing textile artists and winner of the Spanish National Prize for Culture and Art. The artist was awarded the Silver Medal at the 15th Lodz International Tapestry Triennial in Poland, a Diploma at the Lithuanian Textile Biennial in 2016, 2018 and 2020, and named Best Artist at the ArtVilnius'15 art fair. She has also held solo exhibitions abroad, in countries such as Japan, India, Austria, Denmark, Italy, etc.
With her work she has established her creative principle of combining the classical and the avant-garde, which is now being used by many other textile artists.
Marys, and who are these Marys?
2017-2019
Medical bandages, handmade embroidery, digital print
220x200 cm
(128 pcs)
The exhibition "Marys, and who are these Marys? is both a historical document and a metaphorical question about the small pious images - postcards, religious calendars, various reproductions, etc. - with images of St. Mary collected in different European countries (Lithuania: Vilnius, Liskiava, Gudeliai village; Italy: Palermo, Naples, Rome, Florence and other places), of which she then took a photograph, framed her face (highlighting an authentic and individual black and white Woman), without the traditional blue religious headdress and transferred the images by digital printing on a hand-embroidered surface of medical bandages. The installation consists of one hundred and twenty-eight documentary portraits of Women: Who are they? Who is she?
Vilma Dobilaitė (Kaunas, Lithuania, 1973). Trained at espai d'art fotogràfic, she has a recognised career as a result of her solo and group exhibitions, focusing on jazz and nature.
Silvia Martí Marí (Valencia, 1966). Artist and Fine Arts professor. Her artistic work and theoretical productions explore the relations between the public and the private, intertwining the personal and the political, covering, among others, questions of public art, gender or mobility. She has received scholarships and international stays in many artistic and academic institutions. She has participated in solo and group exhibitions, both nationally and internationally.
Nicolás Llorens was born in Castellón de la Plana in 1968. With his first works, he began his first academic training in photography. In 1998 a new experience began, the creation of the CVAE (Valencian Centre of Experimental Art) and in 2002 the creation of Espai d'Art Fotogràfic, a photography school and exhibition hall. In recent years he has focused on the field of wildlife photography. He is currently intensely active in both areas: on the one hand, the expansion and internationalisation of the curriculum offered by the Espai d'Art Formació, which he currently directs, and on the other, work on the distinction between culture and nature. In 2022, he created and continues to direct ValenciaPhoto, Valencia's Photography and Debate Festival.
Romà Seguí i Francès (Dénia, 1962) has studied at the Universitat de València, the University of Barcelona and the Polytechnic University of Valencia. He has been working as a Senior Documentary Technician in the Valencian Government since 1992. He has published research works on the history of books and libraries in Afers, Mètodes d'Informació, Laberintos and Pasiones Bibliográficas. He has published the poetry books Sonets de l'amor absurd in 2017 and Poemes morals; Tabarca in 2018. He is currently studying photography at Espai d'Art Fotogràfic de València.
Neringa Rekašiūtė, Berta Tilmantaitė, Mindaugas Drigotas, Andrius Repšys, Karolis Pilypas Liutkevičius.
Simonas Dūda studied sculpture at the M. K. Čiurlionis National Art School in Lithuania and at the Vilnius Art Academy. From 2009 to 2019 he worked as a set designer at the State Youth Theatre (Vilnius) and as a freelance set designer, set designer and puppet craftsman. In 2019 he moved to Valencia and since then he has been working in Materializa, a Valencian company dedicated mainly to the production and assembly of shop windows. Through this multidisciplinary work experience, Simonas Dūda is inevitably confronted with working with
different types of art and this dictates and forms a joint expression for them in his sculpture, through the synthesis of different techniques and the dialogue between visual arts and theatricality.
Yuri Musatov, a ceramic artist of the younger generation, who has already established himself as the professional and valuable representative of contemporary Ukrainian artistic ceramics, is reconsidering the traditional ways of working with ceramics. His creative works exist beyond the familiar categories or types of art: easel sculpture, interior ceramics. His objects are autonomous and self-sufficient in the artistic field. The artist applies the question of the integrity of the person in the post-industrial society. The illusion of the modern world is represented in Musatov's works by the dreamlike, subtle, tender, lace-like, interwoven constructions of ceramic pieces.
Laurent de Gebhardt
Marija Cipkute
