Capture Your City 2024: New Beauty
Exhibition
Jun 6 - Oct 1, 2024
People put a Back to nature-sign up in their yard if there are poppies and tall grass instead of a billiard-table lawn. An average kitchen is replaced every 10 years.
But if we want more bees in our yard and less building waste on roadsides, we will have to get used to looking at the world with new eyes.
This year’s theme New beauty encourages us to see the beauty in patina and weeds. We did so ourselves with the New European Bauhaus project Desire – an Irresistible Circular Society, which experiments with making sustainable choices into more attractive choices. This exhibition was created as part of this collaboration, together with cultural institutions and municipalities in Riga, Turin, Milano, Ljubljana and Amsterdam.
See the best photos, including the winners, in the outdoor, free exhibition or digitally below. The exhibition includes photographs from the main competition and from the separate schools competition.
Locations
June 7 – October 1: Bryghuspladsen (in front of DAC). (Note! The exhibition at Bryghuspladsen is not on show from August 21 – 26 where it’s at Kulturmødet Mors.)
June 7 – July 21: Klostertorvet, Kalundborg
July 23 – September 1: Herlev Library, Herlev
September 3 – October 1: Taastrup Library, Taastrup
Photo: Fabio Liberati Fidanza Fabio Liberati Fidanza: Life Paths, København
The jury’s statement: “An aesthetically strong and well composed photograph in which water and sky merge together, broken only by the yellow pants. The people in the photograph are both elderly women – and perhaps, in themselves, they speak of a new type of beauty, at a time when we not only praise youth but we also have a more inclusive perception of beauty. The photograph is also about finding balance – between people, the city and nature; between work and leisure. Winter bathing invites you to go out and feel your body and nature – often in the company of others. Isn’t this an expression of the ability to survive that we will all need in the future?”
Photo: Jana Uljanova Jana Uljanova: No title, Riga
The jury’s statement: “The photograph captures the time between when the industrial building was abandoned and when it is to be converted into something else. It is a temporary intermission, when a creative community has moved in and transformed the building. There is clearly a new beauty in preserving these buildings and giving them new life, instead of tearing them down to build new. In some cities, such as here in Riga, it can be an advantage to quietly leave places alone and allow them to survive on their own terms. The colors and the simplicity of the motif make an impressive photograph.”
Photo: Sara Avellaneda Portilla Sara Avellaneda Portilla: Al lado del camino, Torino
The jury’s statement: “This photograph might just as well have been taken in the 1950s. However, there is also a point, in that perhaps we can find the beauty of the future if we look to the past. At a time when we caused less damage to nature and lived more in affinity with it. There is a connection between the new and the old – a man in an old tram looking out at the new city around him. He is completely alone and there is a particular calm. There is time to think, to take a step back, and to look at it all from a distance.”
Winners
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Winners – School competition
Photo: Filippa Karla Kabongo-Bentzen, Silvia Pia Irmark-Andersen Filippa Karla Kabongo-Bentzen og Silvia Pia Irmark-Andersen
7.c., Sct. Jørgens Skole (Roskilde)
The jury’s statement: “Water will be a challenge for cities in the future, but it also holds a great beauty, which is nicely captured by this winning photograph in the schools competition. The motif zooms in on a section that elegantly frames the city and nature. The city is present as the reflection of a decorated sewer grate. It is a lovely composition and the photograph has caught something that spoke to all the jury members.”
Photo: Janai Gaddum, Esra Çicek, Yanira Doorson, Rojaylin Daalberg, Nadine el Hannouti Janai Gaddum, Esra Çicek, Yanira Doorson, Rojaylin Daalberg og Nadine el Hannouti
Class 8.C., ‘t Koggeschip skole (Amsterdam)
The jury’s statement: “This is an ambiguous photograph – on the one hand dark and dystopic, but on the other hand imaginative and futuristic. The sculpture in the foreground reaches out to the building, and the camera has captured this dynamic. It aligns with the theme New beauty because of the way it adds magic to everyday surroundings by looking at the familiar from a new perspective. There is a construction crane in the background: What will the future look like?”
Photo: Bahad Özkay Bahad Özkay
Class 8.C., ‘t Koggeschip skole (Amsterdam)
The jury’s statement: “This photo is like a snapshot of the beautiful in the completely ordinary: The way the photograph plays with composition, lines and colors emphasizes that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The photograph has captured an apartment block in the windshield of a car and, in so doing, it has transformed what could otherwise seem boring and mundane into a fascinating pattern of balconies and windows.”
Jury
Julie Quottrup Silbermann, Director CHART (Denmark)
Julie has been in the art world throughout her career, most recently as the director of CHART, an art fair for Nordic galleries held every year in August in Copenhagen. She has a long background in the gallery sector, where she has worked for the Nils Stærk Gallery, the David Risley Gallery and the Martin Asbæk Gallery.
Natascha Lhea Narvaez Nielsen, Winner of Capture Your City 2023
Natascha won with an honest photo of the interior of a classic Copenhagen apartment. The narrow kitchen is filled with laundry, washing-up and even a baby being washed in the kitchen sink. A unanimous panel was no doubt that this was the winning photo for the year. Natascha works as a health visitor for the City of Copenhagen.
Maja Dyrehauge Gregersen, Director Copenhagen Photo Festival (Denmark)
Maja Dyrehauge Gregersen, Managing Director of Copenhagen Photo Festival, has an increasing interest in experimental and outdoor exhibition concepts as she strives for a more accessible and sustainable festival format. She has strong focus on international collaboration and has worked with many art and photography institutions, festivals and photographers as a curator, juror, and portfolio reviewer.
Kika Krista Kjærside, Head of Program Sector, Danish Architecture Center (Denmark)
Kika is a qualified architect from the Aarhus School of Architecture, and architecture has always been at the center of her career, although she has never worked as an actual designing architect. Kika has previously worked at the Danish firms AART Architects and BIG — Bjarke Ingels Group.
Femke Gerritsma, Communication Manager, Arcam (Netherlands)
Femke Gerritsma is an art historian and has worked in the field of communication and marketing in the cultural sector for almost 15 years. In 2013 she moved to London where she worked for two years as a marketing manager at The Crafts Council. When she moved back to the Netherlands in 2015, she started her current position as the communication manager at Arcam.
Hana Čeferin, Curator, MAO (Slovenia)
Hana Čeferin holds an MA in Art History from the University of Ljubljana. Since 2023, she has been Head of the Biennial of Design in Ljubljana. Hana also has extensive experience in working with photography – e.g. as a curator at Galerija Fotografija in Ljubljana, where she has curated exhibitions with both Slovenian and international photographers.
Federica Tognon, Curator, Unità Progetti Speciali e Fabbrica del Vapore, Comune di Milano (Italy)
Federica holds an MA in Archeology from the University of Milan and a master’s in ‘Management of Cultural Heritage’. Since 2023, she has been working for the Municipality of Milan as curator for Unità Progetti Speciali e Fabbrica del Vapore. Federica also has a ten year long experience in museum education.
Arnita Verza, Landscape Architect, Riga Municipality (Latvia)
As a landscape architect Arnita is working with the development of Riga as part of the municipality. Before joining the team at the City Development Department she worked as a landcape architect in a private practice. Arnita is part of the DESIRE team in Riga where the ‘site’ is an old Soviet housing block in need of renovation.
Monica Poggi, Photography historian, CAMERA (Italy)
Since 2019 Monica has been working at CAMERA – Centro Italiano per la Fotografia (Turin) as Curator and Exhibition Manager. Among the exhibitions she has worked on are Eve Arnold. Works from 1950 -1980 and Robert Capa and Gerda Taro: Photography, Love, War. She combines her curatorial activity with writing doing collaborations with newspapers and magazines.
Collaborators
This year Capture Your City is a part of the New European Bauhaus project Desire – an Irresistible Circular Society. Desire experiments with creating sustainable, attractive, and inclusive urban spaces which respect the limited resources of the planet. The project is funded by the European Union.
Arcam
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Arcam is an architecture center in Amsterdam that hosts exhibitions, talks, guided tours, research projects, etc. The architecture center is located in a spectacularly shaped building designed by the Dutch architect René van Zuuk. Arcam was founded in 1986 and is one of the oldest and largest architecture centers of the more than 40 architecture centers in Holland.
MAO
Ljubljana, Slovenia
The Museum of Architecture and Design (MAO) was founded in 1972 in the capital of Slovenia, Ljubljana. The 16th century castle in which it is based houses a large collection of works in the fields of architecture, urban planning, industrial and graphic design, and photography. MAO is also the organizer behind BIO – The Biennial of Design in Ljubljana, an international platform for new approaches in design and the oldest design biennial in Europe.
Fabbrica del Vapore and Milan Municipality
Milan, Italy
Fabbrica del Vapore is an intercultural center run by the Municipality of Milan. It is located in an old tram factory in Milan. Fabbrica del Vapore is a meeting place dedicated to contemporary art but also theater, music, dance and film.
Riga Municipality
Riga, Letvia
In Riga, Capture Your City is cooperating with Riga Municipality. Riga is a city with more than 800 years of history. It is home to the largest concentration of Art Nouveau buildings in the world. However, 70% of the population lives in a completely different architecture; Soviet-era building blocks. How can they be transformed and can we find some new beauty in them?
CAMERA – Centro Italiano per la Fotografia
Turin, Italy
CAMERA is based in Turin and is a pivotal hub for promoting photographic culture in Italy. CAMERA was founded in 2015 and shows 2-3 major temporary exhibitions each year with both international and Italian photographers. Through exhibitions, dialogue, educational initiatives, and courses, CAMERA aims to enhance understanding, foster dialogue, incite curiosity, and provide a more profound interpretation of reality through images.
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