FORMAT15: EVIDENCE

FORMAT International Photography Festival is celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2015. The next edition of FORMAT will bring together an exciting programme of international photography exhibitions and events under the theme of Evidence. The main exhibition at QUAD, co-curated by Louise Clements and Lars Willumeit, entitled Beyond Evidence – An incomplete narrative of photographic truths, takes its cue from the legendary 1977 work Evidence by Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel. Featuring a wide range of work by 26 artists, including photography by Natasha Caruana, Edmund Clark, Mishka Henner and Cristina De Middel, the exhibition explores the relationship between image and knowledge, reminding us that not only does the camera test our ability to trust but also provokes us to ask how we determine beyond a reasonable doubt, what is true. FORMAT’s Open Call, EXPOSURE, saw a higher standard of entries. Among the final selection of 76 photographers, chosen by an international panel of photography experts, are works by notable artists including Simon Norfolk, Chris Shaw, Sarah Pickering, Seán Hillen, Lisa Barnard as well as projects from a new generation of talented photographers, curators and collectives. At Derby’s Museum and Art Gallery, three exhibitions will examine the role of archival document. Renhui Zhao’s truth testing project A Guide to the Flora and Fauna of the World continues his fantastical subversion of scientific photography. Sarah Pickering’s series Art and Antiquities responds to the Metropolitan Police investigation into the art and antique forger Shaun Greenhalgh, and notions of authenticity in the art world, and Nick Sargeant draws from his own childhood memories in the series The Album. The Derby Police Museum is opening its doors to show its amazing archive of mug shots and crime scenes. At the Pickford’s House Museum, Mumbai-based curator Anusha Yadav from the Indian Memory Project will show The Photograph is Proof, a historical representation of criminal investigations in India. FORMAT will once again be partnered by New Art Exchange in Nottingham where Christine Eyene is curating Residual: Traces of the Black Body. The exhibition looks at the process of imaging the black body in relation to erasure, memory, transitory and ephemeral through photography, video, sound and text by artists Cristiano Berti, George Hallett, Zanele Muholi, Dawit L. Petros and Ingrid Pollard. Also at New Art Exchange, Mahtab Hussain’s new work, The Commonality of Strangers reveals personal contemporary accounts of people escaping poverty and persecution, set within the current political climate, in which immigration is often a devise issue. FORMAT15 opening weekend, 12th -15th March, will begin on the evening of the 12th March with private views taking place across Derby, followed by three days of keynote talks, artist performances and portfolio reviews. The full programme of exhibitions, photographers, guest curators and events will be released online in January. www.formatfestival.com