Fotopub’s aim is to intercept the freshest photographic and image-based research in a variety of geographical and cultural contexts, and to foster the artists’ connection with the professional world through moments of dialogue and exchange in an informal environment.
Ten exhibitions are involving 46 international artists from 18 different countries: Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Latvia, Lebanon, Palestine, Slovenia, Switzerland, Turkey, The Netherlands and the United States; all taking place in unconventional and abandoned spaces across the city centre, with site-specific installations and performances happening across the streets and fields of Novo mesto.

The festival inaugurates with Soft Denial, an underwater installation commissioned by Fotopub to Forlaine 6 Studio (FR/GR), located in Novo mesto’s primary school swimming pool. Three group shows are curated by this year’s guest curators: Rachel Dedman (UK/RL) invited architects, painters and videomakers from the Middle-East to work with photography in order to draw a new possible visual narration of their geographic area. The performative exhibition curated by Tereza Jindrova (CZ) puts together two artistic duos, whose works share the interest toward the most basic human feelings, such as love. Log Pose, curated by Paola Paleari (IT), brings together five lens-based artists who use photography to explore diverse aspects of life: identity, intimacy, society, environment and language. Liga Spunde (LV), winner of the Fotopub 2016 Portfolio Prize, returns to Novo mesto with a one-piece solo show in an abandoned public toilet. The closing show of the festival sees the participation of nine international artists, each selected by a member of the Fotopub team. An experiment, which is aimed at fostering new dialogues between different imageries and methods. The exhibition programme is complete with a performance by the Swiss-Slovenian artistic duo Veli & Amos, public interventions by Danilo Milovanović, as well as two guest shows curated by the festival’s international partner institutions: FAMU, Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, and Metronom Gallery in Modena with Claudia Petraroli’s solo show. Among this year’s new initiatives is a special Fotocubs exhibition, conceived and produced by last year’s Fotopub Volunteers and mentored by the Fotopub team.

During the last two days of the festival, the portfolio review will bring to Novo mesto twelve esteemed international artists, curators, editors, publishers and gallerists: Anna-Kaisa Rastenberger (FI, Chief Curator at The Finnish Museum of Photography), Duncan Wooldridge (UK, photographer, curator and art critic, Photography Course Leader at Camberwell College of Arts, UAL), Elisa Medde (IT/NL, Managing Editor at FOAM Magazine), Federico Clavarino (IT/ES, artist, teacher at BlankPaper Escuela de Fotografia), Francesca Seravalle (IT, independent curator), Marcella Manni (IT, Founder and Director at Metronom Gallery), Michal Novotný (CZ, curator, Director at Centre for Contemporary Art FUTURA), Penelope Umbrico (US, artist), Roman Uranjek (SI, artist, Founding Member of IRWIN and NSK), Taco Hidde Bakker (NL, writer, researcher and lecturer), Tim Clark (UK, curator, Founder of 1000 Words Magazine) and Aron Mörel (UK, publisher, Founder and Editor at Mörel Books).

Fotopub 2017  
From July 31 to August 5, 2017
Novo mesto, Slovenia 
Information and complete programme:
www.fotopub.com