Fotobokfestival Oslo 2024

Curated by Marte Aas and Line Bøhmer Løkken, Fotobokfestival Oslo is an annual event which aims to explore the photo book as an artistic medium and phenomenon.

Overview

We live in a time where the development of trends, technology, and politics is going at a breakneck pace. Moore's law predicts that the amount of information, the amount of computing power, and the amount of memory power required, will double every other year in our hyper-technological society. This rapid acceleration changes how we interact with information, texts, and images. The present suddenly feels shorter somehow. The future becomes a faster present and the present a faster past. Our ability to concentrate deteriorates as the amount of information steadily increases.

A book can be understood as a linear presentation of information, texts, and images. It functions as a container which structures our attention and delineates information. So, what can the limited book do to us at a time when our senses are under siege every day? Is the book’s limitations a problem or a solution? Is the photo book’s anachronistic nature also its superpower? Through its various events, the festival will explore the subversive potential of the photo book and speculate on its place in the future.

In 1984, philosopher and media theorist, Vilém Flusser published What If? (Angenommen) which is a collection of twenty-two scenarios for the future, divided into three main chapters; scenes from the family life, scenes from the economy, and scenes from politics. In these texts, Flusser explores ideas of fantastical futures, which, among other things, feature talking fetuses, exploding super-cows, and information-producing insects. Fotobokfestival Oslo 2024 is organised according to the same division; the family, the economy and politics. By utilising these divisions, around 80 books and three commissioned works will show us the way through the flow of information.

The festival was established by Forbundet Frie Fotografer (FFF) in 2009. Since its beginning, it has continued to feature widely recognized art photographers and young, new participants in photography, the photo book genre and publishing activity nationally and internationally. The festival is organized and shown in Oslo and is free and open for all. Also connected to the festival is a satellite program where relevant participants participate to the festival with their own events.