The first Photoworks Festival – Propositions for Alternative Narratives – is to take place across Sussex from Thursday, September 24 till Sunday, October 25, with a collaborative project between Queer Heritage South and Photoworks displayed for the first time.
Photoworks Festival is the reshaping of one of the UK’s longest running photography festivals – Brighton Photo Biennial – and asks what a photography festival can be and who they are for. The 2020 edition can be experienced by audiences in three ways; via a printed Festival in a Box, through a major presentation of outdoor exhibitions on billboards spanning Brighton & Hove, Worthing, and the University of Sussex campus, and in an online series of events.
Photoworks & Queer Heritage South
Archiving Your Life is led by Brighton-based LGBTQ+ youth group, Queer History Now, who are dedicated to preserving queer archives and enabling the queer community to take control over the stories and narratives that are told about their lives. The group has been looking at the Tommie and Betty archive, a set of photos and mementoes first found discarded in Sussex, and now partially on show at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, to create their own responses to queer history. The responses will also be part of the Festival in a Box as a queer manifesto and represented in the online festival.
A series of learning resources to coincide with the Photoworks Festival that will be available online during the festival.
Photoworks: Festival in a Box
Festival in a Box is a portable photography festival where each audience member becomes the curator and can choose how to install the festival at home or in their own community space.
The Festival in a Box includes posters of varying shapes and sizes made by the festival artists. This limited-edition object also includes texts by Julia Bunnemann, Simon Baker, Pamila Gupta, Shoair Mavlian, Lucy Soutter and Queer History Now. It has been designed by artists Giliane Cachin and Joshua Schenkel and includes a combination of different textures, shapes and forms to experiment with at home. Partners such as galleries, shops, cafes and community groups will be collaborating with Photoworks to bring a festival in a box to their own spaces, including in Sussex.
Pre-order Festival in a Box by CLICKING HERE
For more info on the Photoworks Festival, CLICK HERE
For more info on Queer Heritage South, CLICK HERE