Denmark – Exhibition ‘Reconstruction of Identities’
The open air exhibition Reconstruction of Identities has opened on June, 18th, the “CPF Celebrating Photography Day” of the Copenhagen Photo Festival. The exhibit is part of the European project IDE - Identity Dialogues Europe, and is the result of a two-year collaboration between four partners working with photography and culture: Ad Hoc Gestion Cultural of Zaragoza, the Municipality of Savignano sul Rubicone–SI FEST, NOOR Foundation of Amsterdam, and Copenhagen Photo Festival.
The IDE project aims at promoting and protecting the richness of both national and European cultural heritage, breathing life into small communities, and stimulating though photography cultural activities as an alternative communication method between locals and newcomers, to relieve the isolated position of immigrants, many of which are in the process of seeking asylum.
The Reconstruction of Identities exhibition is an attempt to give shape to the concept of the ‘European identity’, a dynamic and polysemic concept in a continent characterized by a broad cultural diversity, where multiple nationalities, religions, ideologies, traditions, and ways of life coexist.
During the artistic residency in Savignano sul Rubicone in last September, Katerina Buil photographed the “azdore” who live in rural areas of Savignano sul Rubicone (Rio Salto, Fiumicino, San Giovanni in Compito); Marine Gastineau realized a reportage on the Senegalese community of Savignano sul Rubicone; Sanne De Wilde portrayed the ‘iconic’ persons who represent the communities of Savignano – the Major, the Police commander, the priest, the representatives of the Senegalese and Islamic communities, the president of the football team; photographer from Forlì Filippo Venturi, commissioned by SI FEST, documented the days of some refugee women in group homes of the Rubicone area, escaping from extreme situations of poverty, violence, persecution, and waiting for a residence permit.
Images by Martin Thaulow are also part of the project. They were shot in Copenhagen and along the Balkan immigration route leading in Europe migrants in search of a new life from Syria and Kurdistan.
The exhibit in Copenhagen is the first of the partners’ network: the next will be in Amsterdam (from July 6 to 19), the following in Barbastro, Spain, in August, and then in Savignano sul Rubicone, at SI FEST 2020, in September.
On the Festival’s Facebook profile, ‘artist talks’ with some of the involved photographers are available.