Europe’s most significant photographic festival is touring to Baden, near Vienna for the first time in 2018.
Under the motto, “I LOVE AFRICA”, esteemed photographers will showcase a fascinating world of images in a gigantic open-air gallery: across four months, 36 exhibitions with 2000 large-format images – with each exhibition occupying up to 300 square metres – will transform the gardens, lanes and squares of Baden on a 4.5 kilometre stretch, into an “image-city”.
How it All Began
This annual festival was created in 2004 by Jacques Rocher, the current president of the Yves Rocher Foundation, in his birthplace of La Gacilly in Brittany. The festival has not only become a hot spot for photographic art and photojournalism but is now also a yearly destination for around 400,000 visitors. Upon the initiative of the photographers and the publisher Lois Lammerhuber, this year marks the inaugural cooperation with Baden, near Vienna.
Baden Becomes a Stage
The photo festival celebrates its première in Baden from June 8 to September 30, 2018: from Josefsplatz across the Hauptplatz, through Baden’s historical old town, to Brusattiplatz, across the pedestrian lanes of Schlossergasse and over to the Doblhoffpark, the Orangerie and the Rosarium, the La Gacilly-Baden Photo Festival guides and reveals to visitors how beautiful, fascinating and educational photography can be.
Nature and Beauty, Art and Well-Being
The public spaces become a stage for a gesamtkunstwerk, in which photographic art, horticulture and the landscape merge. The festival’s focus draws from two highlights: geography and the environment. In 2018 the spotlight of the world’s most acclaimed photographers is a country, in fact, a “half” continent, and particularly images from African portrait studios will tell the dreams of people who live south of the Sahara. Another focal point is comprehensive photo reportages telling stories of moving and unusual relationships between people and animals. Through the photographic artistry of global pressing environmental concerns, alongside the beauty of our world and our place in it, the festival reflects the collective human desire for a peaceful and prosperous life.
The festival also boasts a diverse programme of associated events that will take place across the entire festival duration from June 8 through September 30, 2018. Refer to the festival programme for a detailed list of artist talks, workshops, theatre performances and exhibition tours.
Festival La Gacilly-Baden Photo
8 June – 30 September 2018
A-2500 Baden / Vienna
