At the opening of Europe’s largest outdoor photography festival, fantastic photographs met Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 in F major, “Pastorale”.
Baden (OTS) – Under the motto WORLD.NATURAL.HERITAGE became On Sunday, June 23, 2024, at exactly 7:17 p.m., the La Gacily-Baden Photo 2024 festival was officially opened. In the choir, led by Member of the Lower Austrian state parliament Christoph Kainz – on behalf of State Governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner and the Chargé d’Affaires at the French Embassy in Austria Frédéric Joureau, The words that sounded like music to the ears of the festival team after a year of preparation work echoed through the ballroom of the Congress Casino Baden: “The festival is open”. Baden’s mayor Stefan Szirucsek, the member of the Austrian National Council Carmen Jeitler-Cincelli, the member of the Lower Austrian state parliament Helga Krismer and District captain Verena Sonnleitner and the State Guild Master Photography Lower Austria Christian Schörg Of course, they repeated the opening formula in French as well Organizer quartet, festival director Lois Lammerhuber, commercial director Silvia Lammerhuber, Beate Jorda and Florence Drouhet.
After the evening began with a highly inspiring new interpretation of the “Ode to Joy” by Kammersänger Wolfgang Bankl and six wind instruments from the Vienna Philharmonic – the “9-er Tusch”. Carmen Jeitler-Cincelli the round of speakers with a passionate plea for the festival. Her words became a kind of love declaration to the symbiosis between the art of photography and the traditions of the world cultural city of Baden and the resulting impulses from a cultural and economic perspective. A development that makes Baden more modern, intellectually challenging and even more livable.
Christoph Kainz emphasized in his speech: “The photo festival is a kind of humanistic educational institution with international appeal and also a huge stimulus for tourism. And I’m happy that under the guiding principle Culture of Solidarity The collaboration with the festival partners Garten Tulln and the Month of Photography in Bratislava will continue in 2024.
“
„Today we are once again celebrating the close cooperation between Austria and France in the field of art and the bilateral partnership between two inspiring regions: on the one hand Brittany and on the other hand Lower Austria and of course the beautiful city of Baden. This magnificent festival is the largest Franco-Austrian cultural event
“, appreciated Frédéric Joureau in a charmingly French way, the quality of the collaboration with the sister festival in La Gacilly in Brittany.
„The photo festival can be experienced in Baden from June 13th to October 13th, 2024. For the festival duration of four months, the spa town of Baden is the capital of photography in Austria. The city is the setting for the galleries of the world’s best photographers, which can be seen in the landscaped nature of the parks and in the historic city center. Discover a section of humanity’s shared “world.natural.heritage” at the photo festival in Baden. The photo festival makes Baden the center of international photography in Austria
“, formulated Stefan Sirucsek apt.
Lois Lammerhuber warmly thanked the state of Lower Austria and the city of Baden as well as the numerous media and sponsors present for their generous and friendly cooperation. Lammerhuber also felt the need to draw attention to the citizens of Baden, whose financial support made it possible to make the festival CO2-neutral by purchasing compensation certificates for the benefit of the “Ibanda – Makera Forest Cook Stove Project in Rwanda”. . Lammerhuber reported on the theme of the festival in drastic terms, quoting UN Secretary General António Guterres. In a passionate speech on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September 2023, he urgently warned of the terrible consequences of increasingly extreme weather events: Humanity has opened the gates to hell: We are very concerned that all climate measures will be dwarfed by the scale of the challenge as humanity is heading towards a temperature increase of 2.8°C.”An appeal to the world that has long been inscribed in the heart of our festival
“, so Lois Lammerhuber.
This set the festive framework for a completely new opening format: In the second part of the evening, the final concert of the Beethoven Spring took place, the passing of the baton from festival to festival, from spring to summer. The two festivals went together to look for traces in nature and created an audiovisual format that is as beautiful as it is touching. With the fusion of photographs that refer to this year’s focus WELT.NATUR.HERITA and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 in F major, “Pastorale” conducted by Dorothy Khadem-Missagh, their festival orchestra achieved the crowning finale of the Beethoven Spring. The picture cycle was curated by Florence Drouhet, Lois Lammerhuber and Jakob Bayer. Dirigentin Dorothy Khadem-Missagh: „I am convinced of the transformative power of music. Since the beginning, the Beethoven Spring has been an incubator of innovative ideas in classical music and plays Beethoven locations in Lower Austria. At the end of the fifth festival season, we have managed to demonstrate the timeless greatness of Beethoven’s work in the truest sense of the word
“. The evening ended with a standing ovation in the casino’s ballroom, which was filled to capacity.
WORLD.NATURAL.HERITAGE „It is our duty to preserve the poetry of creation for our children. We would like to use images to provide food for thought on the questions of urbanization, biodiversity, natural resources, environmental pollution and global warming. That’s why we’re showing the works of the great masters of environmental photography in our seventh festival year
: Nazli Abbaspour, Evgenia Arbugaeva, Yasuhoshi Chiba, Joana Choumali, David Doubilet and Jennifer Hayes, Hans Hass, Nadia Ferroukhi, Sacha Goldberger, Richard Ladkani, Lucas Lenci, Luca Locatelli, Pascal Maitre, Beth Moon, Maxime Riché, Sebastião Salgado, Alain Schroeder, Vee Speers, Brent Stirton, Lorraine Turci, David Turnley, Peter Turnley and Cássio Vasconcellos, “described Silvia Lammerhuber indicative of what is to be achieved with this year’s festival theme.
Also the bilateral one School photo project the Morbihan in Brittany and Lower Austria is the theme this year “natural heritage” dedicated. The festival invites young people to express their ideas about the challenges of today and, above all, tomorrow: How can we design social models to preserve our unique world for our children?
The exhibition is a very special visual highlight “The human footprint”images from orbit, prepared by Gerald Mansberger and Markus Eisl. Norbert Span shows in his pictures why snow crystals “Jewels of Heaven” are. Luigi Caputos Pictures tell of a magical world and provide a fascinating look at the mysterious places behind the stage Salzburg Festival. The exhibition of photographs Lower Austrian professional photographers and the exhibition „Director‘s Cut“ from jury president Michel Comte the largest photo competition in the world with over 500,000 images from 170 countries CEWEs „Our World is Beautiful“ will round off the festival as well as the review of 2023 in the pictures of the Artist in Residence Ina Künne.
The La Gacilly-Baden Photo festival will take place from June 13th to October 13th, 2024. A huge open-air gallery 7 km long shows around 1,500 photographs spread over 32 exhibitions in the historic center and gardens of the city of Baden. Admission is free.
In the press link you will find pictures of the opening as well as photographs
Impressions of the Festival La Gacilly-Baden Photo 2024.
https://press.lammerhuber.at/lagacilly2024
Questions & Contact:
Lois Lammerhuber
Direktor Festival La Gacilly-Baden Photo
Festival La Gacilly-Baden Photo
Dumbagasse 9
2500 Baden
Austria
T +43-699-13583989
festival@lagacilly-baden.photo
https://festival.lagacilly-baden.photo