STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN.- In less than a month the fifth edition of Xposeptember – Stockholm Photo Festival will open. The interest in participating in the festival has as usual been high. 49 actors within the photographic field take part in this year’s festival program. Institutions and museums, galleries, colleges and artist driven projects participates with a total of 45 exhibitions and some 20 seminars, workshops, artist talks and other programs. All exhibitions and the rest of the festival program are presented more in detail on our webpage www.xposeptember.se.

The theme for this year’s festival is ‘Europe’ and the festival will open with a two-day-long seminar: ‘Europe and the construction of a European identity.’ The seminar, which gathers eight international and Swedish speakers, will evolve around questions such as identity, boarders and which roles the visual culture and the photographic image play in the construction of a European identity. The opening seminar takes place at ABF, the 23–24 of September. Speakers during the weekend are: Dejan Antonijevic (Sweden), Peo Hansen (Sweden), Mikela Lundahl (Sweden), Stefan Nowotny (Austria), Marion von Osten (Germany), Lisl Ponger (Austria), Marjetica Potrc (Slovenia) and John Sundholm (Sweden). Moderators are: Stefan Jonsson (Sweden) and Moa Matthis (Sweden). A separate announcement will be sent out shortly.

As usual we will publish a magazine in tabloid format in connection to the festival, which will be available at the different organizers and at Xposeptember’s information center at Index. The program magazine, which this year is produced and distributed in collaboration with Rodeo Magazine will be released in connection to the opening weekend. The magazine, which is distributed in 35,000 copies, is this time published in both Swedish and English and contains editorial text from some 20 writers, among them Marius Babias, Marion von Osten, Trond Lundemo, Charlotte Cotton and Niclas Östlind to name a few, as well as a map and information about all the exhibitions and the program.

The list of exhibitions is long and represents a wide field of photographic practice. Examples of exhibitions that are shown during Xposeptember 2006 are ‘NoBo – an exhibition about northern Botkyrka.’ which illuminates the visions behind the expanding suburb in the 1970. The Austrian filmmaker Lisl Ponger’s piece ‘Passages’ evolves around Europe’s colonial history. Both exhibitions are shown at The Multicultural Centre in Botkyrka. In ‘Triad’ – a co-exhibition between the art colleges Konstfack – University College or Arts, Crafts and Design, Royal University College of Fine Arts and School of Photography at Gothenburg University – the students have worked with Europe as a point of departure. Filmform arranges together with Cinemateket (The Swedish Film Institute) the film- and video program ‘Hit the North – No Longer the Same Place’, whose selected films in different ways explore actual and constructed boarders. The Swedish National Archive of Recorded Sound and Moving Images (SLBA) explore the media image of Europe. Index presents the German filmmaker Harun Farocki’s piece ‘Videograms of a Revolution’, which deal with media’s role in the Rumanian dictator Ceausescu’s’ fall. The photographer JR’s documentary photographs of the inhabitants of the suburbs of Paris is presented at Allmänna Galleriet 925 and the artist group 3 tip is presenting ‘Postcards from Botkyrka – Istanbul’ at Botkyrka Konsthall. A photo-pedagogical project for children and youths has taken place at Tensta Konsthall in collaboration with the artist and designer Samir Alj Fält and his project, which explores norms within western design and architecture. Among other things the children’s images of damage in their local environment has been put together to a poster, which will be enclosed in our program magazine. Other interesting exhibitions taking place during the festival is for example the Finnish artist Liisa Lounila’s show at Marabouparken annex, The Czech Center’s exhibition with the photographer Jiri Ernest and at Skulpturens Hus, in collaboration with Svenska Institutet and Centrum för fotografi, an exhibition with contemporary Ukrainian photography is presented. Young American photography is presented at Centrum för fotografi and the Swedish press photographer Paul Hansen’s images are shown at Galleri Kontrast. The festival is also offering a chance to meet the younger Swedish photography scene in some ten exhibitions around Stockholm. Julia Peirone, Sanna Sjöswärd, Beata Fransson and Nygårds Karin Bengtsson, to name a few, are some names to discover.

Besides, a wide-ranging program with seminars, artist talks, portfolio viewings and talks takes place at participating institutions, galleries and museums as well as at Hotel Diplomat – Xposeptember’s festival hotel this year – during the festival month. At Hotel Diplomat, Anna Tellgren, Moderna Museet, will talk with the photographer Jens Assur about the current show ‘This is My Time, This is My Life’ at Moderna Museet. The periodicals femkul, Geist and Motiv organise release parties for their respective festival issues. The soon-to-be-opened Bonniers Konsthall arranges a talk, which among other things will evolve around photographic strategies within the contemporary art. At Fotografins Hus a symposium is arranged with the artists Susan Meiselas and Cecilia Parsberg who will talk about their photography projects ‘Nicaragua: Re-framing history’ and ‘A Heart from Jenin’. Index is offering a possibility to participate in a conversation with Harun Farocki and Frida Cornell is having a conversation with four young Swedish photographers taking part in a relay-exhibition at Hotel Diplomat that runs along the festival period. ‘The national network for photography with a documentary focus’ organise a seminar dealing with the photograph in the exhibition space. Leif Magnusson, The Multicultural Centre in Botkyrka, talks with a group of photographers about aesthetics and aspirations.