Artist in Residence

@ Michel Bouvet

COVID-19 turned life upside down in 2020. Little by little, the coronavirus pandemic spread across the world. It caused endless suffering, but it also sparked a great longing for life in society and made us feel more strongly than ever before the importance of the arts as a source of meaning, comfort and hope. In addition to language, religion and shared history, culture forms the essential foundation of our society.

With great humility and knowing that the special format gave the festival a privileged fate, the exhibitions could be shown from July 14th to October 26th. And 306 024 visitors followed the magic of 33 picture narratives, which were visualized by 30 photographers, a photography collective of Landesinnung der Berufsfotografen Nieder-österreich and 13 schools in Lower Austria, combined with a plea for peace and tolerance, borne by humanistic sentiments: Sergey Prodkudin-Gorsky, Sergey Maximishin, Justyna Mielnikiewicz, Alexander Gronsky, Danila Tkachenko, Alexey Titarenko, Elena Chernyshova, Kasia Strek, Yuri Kozyrev, Gerd Ludwig, Kadir van Lohuizen, Marco Zorzanello, Franck Seguin, Maia Flore, Valerio Vincenzo, Éric Garaulto, Juan, Manuel Castro Guillaume Herbaut, Axelle de Russé, Charles Delcourt, Marine Lécuyer, Julien Mauve, Alphonse David, William Albert Allard, Boris Nemeth, Anton Schiestl, Christian Schörg, Lois Lammerhuber, Ute and Werner Mahler and Sibylle Bergemann.

ALL EYES EAST was dedicated to remembering the awakening of the East, which is considered a wonderful example of how the wind of freedom –glasnost and perestroika – 30 years ago set free and thus made the modernization of the social, political and economic system of the Soviet Union possible. This led to the end of the Cold War and to a remarkable creative surge in contemporary photography, which the festival duly recognized.

In addition, ORF KulturMontag was a guest for the first time with the exhibition #dubistkunst. The festival, on the other hand, was welcomed with Michael Nichols‘ exhibition WILD at the Natural History Museum in Vienna, both of which were cooperations thanks to the festival‘s flourishing radiance.

The pictures in this exhibition are reminiscent of the 2020 festival year and have been photographed by Florian Czech, Charles Delcourt, Gerhard Sokol and Lois Lammerhuber.

Supported by Backhaus Annamühle