Theme: “Upheavals and Utopias. The Other Europe”

Over the last hundred years, Europe as we know it has been in a state of continuous change. Over and over again, a series of caesurae including the two world wars, the global economic crisis of 1929, the founding of the two German states, and the peaceful revolution of 1989 have left their mark. What do we mean by Europe today, as opposed to the past? War, freedom, exultation, protest, standstill, crisis, the discovery of new and old cultures, equal rights, tolerance, identity, intimacy, faith, sexuality, fashion, and the everyday are some of the aspects shaping public life in Europe that are brought to bear in the festival. Europe is frequently defined according to its borders. This poses a variety of questions concerning, for instance, the ways in which extreme or gradual changes and rejections are experienced; how utopias impact our idea of the future; what perspectives are currently emerging; and how the other and the foreign enrich our lives and culture. The 6th European Month of Photography Berlin embarks on a journey of discovery, responding to these questions with historical and contemporary exhibitions. The MdF Berlin is a member of the European Month of Photography (EMoP), a European joint project that includes the photography festivals in Bratislava, Budapest, Ljubljana, Luxembourg, Paris, and Vienna. Back in 2003, on the initiative of Berlin’s partner city Paris, the idea was born to form a European network of photography festivals. After a cooperation between Berlin, Paris, and Vienna, the capitals Bratislava, Luxembourg, Moscow, and Rome followed in 2006. In 2012, the European photography network was expanded to include Budapest and Ljubljana; Athens joined this year.