Encontros da Imagem 2024

Encontros da Imagem - International Photography and Visual Arts Festival returns from September 20 to November 3, with more than 40 exhibitions by photographers and visual artists from all over the world, in Braga, Porto, Guimarães, Barcelos and Avintes.

Overview

Omar Victor Diop, D. M. Terblanche, Augusto Brázio, Amilton Neves and Sofia Yala are some of the names that make up the exhibition program for the 2024 edition of the oldest photography festival in Portugal and one of the oldest in Europe. The opening weekend takes place from September 20 to 22 in Braga. In addition to the photography exhibitions, the program for the 34th edition also includes projections, talks, book presentations, portfolio reviews and film screenings.

In the year that marks the 50th anniversary of the fall of the Portuguese dictatorship, part of the festival's exhibition program proposes a reflection on history and questions what colonialism is today, promoting the debate around post-colonialism and decolonial thinking. Analyzing how it still manifests itself across society and what new forms it takes in the contemporary world is the motto for this new edition. 

Elina Heikka is the artistic director of the exhibitions that reflect on the theme Legacies Of Colonialism. The art historian and former director of the Finnish Museum of Photography (Helsinki, Finland) selected works such as the portrait series by Senegalese photographer Omar Victor Diop and the family archives of Angolan-Portuguese photographer Sofia Yala.

“For several photographers, the themes of their photographic works arise from their own family history and personal experience, while others approach colonial history from a broader perspective, discussing the history of a country or nation. The legitimate experience of historical injustice is an important driving force behind the photographic projects and a common name among the photographers,” says the artistic director of the 34th edition of Encontros da Imagem. 

Continuing the partnership with the Prémio Galiza de Fotografia Contemporânea, this edition will feature Orixe, by Glorianna Ximendaz, the winning project of the last edition of the Galician prize. Curated by Vítor Nieves, researcher and co-founder of the Prémio Galiza de Fotografia Contemporânea, in addition to this work, there is also an exhibition of the Discovery Award 2024, the Emergentes 2023 prize and the Encontros da Imagem Archive.

Of the more than 40 exhibitions scheduled, more than half will pass through various points on Braga's cultural circuit, such as Theatro Circo, Museu Nogueira da Silva, Mosteiro de Tibães, gnration or Galeria do Paço. The exhibitions will also pass through other venues in the northern region, such as Mira Forum, Leica Gallery (Porto), Universidade do Minho CAAA (Guimarães), Theatro Gil Vicente (Barcelos) and Casa da Cultura (Avintes), among others.

As in previous years, this year three open calls were launched for three awards - Discovery Award (dedicated to new artists), Photobook Award (best photography book of the year) and Emergentes: Portfolio Reviews Award (best photography portfolio) - more than 800 applications were received from artists from various countries. The six finalist projects for the Discovery Award 2024 make up the exhibition program for this edition of the festival. The 32 artists selected for the Emergentes 2024 award will take part in the portfolio reading, which will take place in Braga during the opening weekend. The more than 200 photobooks submitted to the Photobook Award 2024 open call will be part of a group exhibition. The winners of each award will be announced at the end of September, after the jury teams have evaluated them.

In addition to the exhibitions, the festival program includes a cinema cycle that will run from September to October, between the Lúcio Craveiro da Silva Library and the Theatro Circo. Cinema All Over the World: colonialism and the memory of the future is the proposal from Lucky Star - Cineclube de Braga, which is showing films such as Acto dos Feitos da Guiné (1979), by director Fernando Matos Silva, or Águas do Pastaza (2022) by Inês T. Alves. In the small auditorium of the Theatro Circo, works such as Miguel Gomes' most recent feature film, Grand Tour (2024), Paulo Abreu's UBU (2023), among others, will be screened.

This year's program of EI Talks, focuses on the memory of Portugal's colonial past and is curated by photographer and researcher Ana Catarina Pinho. The talks revisit history in the light of the present, promoting critical reflection and opening up new possibilities for understanding complex colonial legacies.

There is also the presentation of the latest edition of the Kioskzine editorial project, whose edition reflects on Lucília Monteiro's Lugares Do Corpo project, which is part of the José de Sousa Monteiro Archive, part of the Madeira Photography Museum - Vicente's Atelier. The presentation will take place on September 20 at Livraria Centésima Página in Braga.

Since 1987, when it was founded, Encontros da Imagem has stood out as an essential platform for the dissemination and creation of photography, promoting the development of visual literacy and reflecting on the world and society around us. 

“Since the first editions, we have focused on presenting classic and modern authors, consolidated and emerging, going from the local to the global. This effort is essential for understanding not only the history of photography, but also the contemporary world,” explains Manuel Santos, director of the Associação Cultural Encontros da Imagem.

The festival is promoted by the Associação Cultural Encontros da Imagem and has the support of DGArtes, the Municipality of Braga and various cultural organizations with which it has collaborated and developed partnerships over the years.