Noorderlicht Photofestival 2010, Groningen NL

Deadline: 11/04/2010
Open to: photographers, curators and institutions all over the world

On 23 May, 2007, the world was privileged to celebrate the ‘Urban Millennium’ . On this date, for the first time in history worldwide there were more people living in cities than in the countryside: 3.3 billion people, on 3% of the earth’s surface. For the coming two years Noorderlicht will be turning its attention to this phenomenon, beginning with the changing rural areas of the non-Western world.

Noorderlicht takes in 2010 the contemporary countryside as its theme. How is rural life changing in the current urbanised and global economy? Is it possible, against all economic logic, to find new values for rural life?

The festival is held from 5 September through 31 October (opening Sept 4th) with the Fries Museum as it’s central location. In a continuation of the Frisian Noorderlicht tradition, the exhibition will focus primarily on topical developments in the non-Western world, as visualised by non-Western and Western photographers.

Photo festival Noorderlicht wants to research the contemporary changes in non-Western rural areas. UN reports sketch a sombre picture of rural life in the non-Western world. The prospects for its inhabitants are even worse than those of the slum-dwellers in the cities. Poverty is rampant and there is a lack of schooling. Social mobility is limited to an exodus of the young to the city, so that the countryside is ageing. It is expected that by 2030 only 40% of the world’s population will be living in rural areas. In that year 80% of the urban population will be outside of the West, which means that particularly what are now smaller cities in Asia and Africa can expect rapid expansion by natural growth.

How is rural life changing in the current urbanised and global economy? Is it possible, against all economic logic, to find new values for rural life?

Noorderlicht calls on photographers, photography curators and institutions from all over the world to submit proposals for the exhibition. The deadline for submissions this year is Sunday 11 April. Submissions are possible by e-mail, post or ftp.

Submission

All submissions can be sent to our curator Wim Melis via email, post or ftp:

wim@noorderlicht.com

Check the additional info on noorderlicht official web page

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