Face to Face: Diep~Haven Festival 2016

About

Face to Face positions portraiture as a way to explore our society through its individual members. Identities are expressed and interwoven with the specific interpretation of the artist – their sensitivities to the codes of this form as well as to their sitters and to their own aesthetic language – in order to create unique representations of people and place.

In the age of digital photography – when anyone can photograph and be photographed – the forms and functions of the portrait continue to evolve and multiply. In this context, the work of the artist is to give new meaning to the now commonplace act of taking a photographic portrait, inviting us to relook at each other and to consider who we are, at a time when it is impossible for an individual to exist without reference to their self-representation.

The exhibitions, at the former Co-Op store, Newhaven Library, Hillcrest Community Centre and Sainsbury’s café, are built around a series of new commissions created by 11 artists earlier this year, during residencies on both sides of the Channel in collaboration with local communities and organisations.

This is the third year that the Diep~Haven Festival has crossed the Channel, continuing the collaboration between two countries, regions and towns.