In 2021, the 18th international photo art festival KAUNAS PHOTO festival will hold its opening tours on September 2 and 3 with the exhibition openings of fourteen artists from different countries. Both opening days will conclude with an evening programme starting at 20:00 in the BLC “Otto Hall”, featuring a presentation by Chirag Jindal (New Zealand), an artist and topographer working at the intersection of documentary journalism and contemporary cartography, and on 3 September, photography projections of the festival’s competition KAUNAS PHOTO STAR Finalists’ series and a virtual meeting of the Finalists with the audience. The Winner of the KAUNAS PHOTO STAR 2021 Award will be announced at the end of the evening event on 3 September and will receive a cash prize of EUR 2500. The evening programme will be accompanied by musical improvisations of Patris Židelevičius with cello and digital sounds, and piano virtuoso Kęstutis Paulaitis. The exact programme of the festival’s opening days can be found at the KAUNAS PHOTO website and Facebook page. The audience is welcome to join at any part of the opening tour. The opening events of KAUNAS PHOTO festival are open to all and free of charge.
The programme of the 18th KAUNAS PHOTO festival will focus on the threshold of adulthood, becoming an adult, the pros and cons, stories and feelings of being young, teenager, parent, mid-aged, retired, with or without grandchildren, hobby, job, retirement savings meeting the sunset of life. The exhibitions and events of the festival will be related to general or specific issues of life choices, crisis, joys, traditions, stereotypes, taboos, social norms and the impact of big data society on age groups. The open call to the festival, which received over a hundred proposals, showed that a critical mass of photographers is exploring an aging society, its joys and challenges.
Although traditionally the winner of the festival’s competition KAUNAS PHOTO STAR is announced at the Kaunas Photography Gallery, this year, due to the renovation of Vilnius Street, the gallery is closed, therefore, the works of the finalists of the KAUNAS PHOTO STAR 2021 competition are integrated into the festival’s programme and are shown in the outdoor spaces as well as in the galleries, cultural and art venues of Kaunas.
KAUNAS PHOTO 2021 programme in Kaunas will showcase nine photography exhibitions in indoor venues throughout September. Continuing the tradition of open-air exhibitions started in 2014, this year the festival will present seven outdoor exhibitions, placed in Chechnya Square, Kalniečių and Draugystės parks, A. Juozapavičiaus, V. Putvinskio streets, near Kaunas Castle, Vienybės Square. The festival’s outdoor exhibitions will be on display until the end of October.
The artistic program of this year’s festival is curated by a joint team: Mindaugas Kavaliauskas, Kristina Juraitė, Donatas Stankevičius, Fred Boucher and Karolina Krinickaitė. The festival’s programme will be updated and announced in separate press releases, on the festival’s website and “Facebook” page.
KAUNAS PHOTO is the longest running annual international photo art festival in Lithuania and the Baltic States. The festival founded by Mindaugas Kavaliauskas in 2004 is organized by the public institution “Šviesos raštas”.
KAUNAS PHOTO is funded by the Lithuanian Council for Culture as one of the strategic international art events in Lithuania.
Informational sponsor: LRT.
Partners: Kaunas Photography Gallery, Kaunas City Museum, Kaunas Municipal Vincas Kudirka Public Library, Kaunas Cultural Centre of Various Nations, Maironis Lithuanian Literature Museum, Vytautas Magnus University, KTU Photo Studio, Diaphane, Białystok Interphoto, BLC – Business Leaders Centre.
