The European Photo Exhibition Award – epea for short – aims to create a free space where socially relevant topics concerning Europe are developed and discussed by talented photographers who live and work in Europe and who still are at an early stage of establishing themselves as professional photographers.

The twelve appointed photographers will translate their observations, analyses and statements on a set and socially relevant subject into a photo essay. The results will be presented in a joint touring exhibition within Europe.

This initiative by the Körber-Stiftung (Germany), the Fondation Calouste Gulbenkian – Délégation en France (Portugal), Fondazione Banca del Monte di Lucca (Italy) and the Fritt Ord Foundation (Norway) aims to contribute to and to intensify dialogue within Europe. It also wants to support young European
photographers at the beginning of their careers by providing international facilities.

Each foundation selects one curator – a specialist in photography – who is in charge of nominating three outstanding photographers and take on the role of mentoring and curating the exhibitions. The curators are Ingo Taubhorn (curator at the Haus der Photographie der Deichtorhallen, Hamburg), Sérgio Mah (curator and sociologist, Lisbon), Enrico Stefanelli (founder and artistic director Photolux Festival, Lucca) and Rune Eraker (freelance photographer, Oslo).

In a period of six months, the twelve photographers will produce their works on the given subject «Shifting Boundaries». For this, the appointed photographers will receive a material and production grant and will participate in two accompanying workshops. These offer the opportunity to work together with the other awarded photographers and the four curators and intensify dialogue on working methods and the chosen subject. Finally, a touring exhibition will offer the artists to show their works in four distinguished European exhibition venues.

The European Photo Exhibition Award – epea03
Shifting Boundaries
One of the most revealing ways to perceive European history is by examining its persistent and complex changes and transfigurations as symptoms of a dynamic process of development which has a tendency to reshape not only reality, but also its ideas and images. It is not surprising, then, that recent analyses of the contemporary European situation have tended to focus on the effects of the major transformations that are taking place in society: the transition to a post-industrial economy, the steep rise in the flow and networks of
communication and goods; the increase in the mobility of people, specifically the resurgence of immigration (and the resulting intensification of the debate on the conditions of integration, but also of control and legality); and the impacts of economic, technological and cultural globalisation. These are just some examples which reinforce the idea that we are facing significant (and in some cases radical) changes in living conditions and social and cultural structures in Europe. A perception that has recently been accentuated by the grave economic and political crisis which has had devastating consequences for society, instigating
new fronts of fragmentation in the European space and the emergence of new types of phenomena and of conflict.

The intention is to encourage consideration and analysis of the signs (themes, situations, behaviour,
phenomena) which indicate processes of reflection, readjustment and alteration of the concepts and
categories, and the images and the representations, which we habitually associate with Europe’s many
different realities. At the same time it is important to recognize that this endeavour also implies ascertaining the circumstances of the gaze and the corresponding interpretations which make it possible to develop and articulate with respect to these same signs.

For more information on the photographers, curators and venues, see www.epeaphoto.org

Exhibition dates

• May 20th – August 28th 2016: Paris, Fondation Calouste Gulbenkian – Délégation en France

• October 15th – December 11th 2016: Lucca, Palazzo delle Esposizioni (Exhibition Center), Fondazione Banca del Monte di Lucca

• March 3rd – May 1st 2017: Hamburg, Haus der Photographie der Deichtorhallen

• September 21st – October 29th 2017: Oslo, Nobel Peace Center

Contact

• Hamburg
  Kai-Michael Hartig
  Körber-Stiftung
  Kehrwieder 12
  20457 Hamburg, Germany
  Tel.: +49 40 80 81 92 178
  Email: hartig@koerber-stiftung.de

• Oslo
  Bente Roalsvig
  Fritt Ord Foundation
  Uranienborgveien 2
  0258 Oslo, Norway
  Tel.: +47 23 01 46 43
  Email: bente.roalsvig@frittord.no

• Lucca
  Elizabeth Franchini
  Fondazione Banca del Monte di Lucca
  Piazza S. Martino, 4
  55100 Lucca, Italy
  Tel.: +39 05 83 46 40 62
  Email: elizabeth.franchini@fondazionebmlucca.it

• Paris
  Miguel Magalhães
  Fondation Calouste Gulbenkian – Délégation en France
  39, Bd. de La Tour Maubourg
  75007 Paris, France
  Tel.: +33 01 53 85 93 76
  Email: m.magalhaes@gulbenkian-paris.org

Download the press release here.