FORMAT’s FOCUS section is our innovative and ambitious curated programme of events and exhibitions which take on the ‘focus’ of the festival’s theme and ethos; to bring the wealth of contemporary international photography and some of the world’s best practitioners to FORMAT.
Alinka Echeverría
Echeverría explores religion versus industry through images of ‘Milagritos’ (or ‘Small Miracles’) – tiny bronze mass produced pendants that can be attached to shrines and icons in Mexico.
Archive of Modern Conflict
Notes Home celebrates the dying art of the picture postcard, exploring the holiday time of the working class and factory workers, featuring postcards sent from English holiday resorts.
Atsushi Fujiwara
10 editions of Asphalt and related photobooks published in Japan between 2008 & 2012.
Beijing Silvermine / 2009 -2013
A unique photographic archive of rescued negatives portraying people in China after the Cultural Revolution, covering a period of 20 years from 1985 to 2005. By Thomas Sauvin from The Archive of Modern Conflict.
Belén Cerezo
In a new commission for FORMAT13, in collaboration with Synapse Arts, Cerezo has researched within Derbyshire based archives – including The Silk Mill and Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site.
BlindBoys
As part of The Press, BlindBoys will work in Delhi/Dhaka/Djakarta/Bangalore with people who collect and sell other peoples trash, giving them camera phones to document their daily struggles at the fringes of our modern cities.
Brian Griffin
In a new commission for FORMAT Griffin has created a cinematic series of portraits featuring the business leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs who have influenced the shape of Derby’s cultural, economic and industrial landscape.
Brian Griffin: Vinyls
An homage to FORMAT Patron’s work for the music industry in the ‘70s and ‘80s. BPM featuring album covers of Depeche Mode, Iggy Pop, Kate Bush and Brian Eno, among others.
Chris Coekin
Inspired by Trade Union banners Coekin photographed workers, at a now defunct factory, within the workplace. Accompanied by seven-inch vinyl records with sounds from the factory.
David Moore
In the mid 1980s Moore knocked on the doors of working class homes in Derby, photographing the effects of poverty in a decade of Thatcherism and obsession with material gain.
Edward Burtynsky
The Deda Chicken Processing Plant in Dehui City in China, part of a huge conglomerate, manufactures food on an industrial scale. Burtynsky is interested in how nature is transformed through industry.
Erik Kessels
An ode to the vanishing era of the photo album. Erik Kessels magnificent exhibition Album Beauty has its UK debut at FORMAT13.
Hemera Photocollective
Featuring a selection of postcards that signaled the arrival of the mass-media and the photographic factory. From the St Andrews Library Photographic Archive which holds over 120,000 photographs and postcards from Valentine & Sons (1855).
Human Printer
Unlike any other printer the Human Printer creates unique, individual images each time it prints. Following the same process as a digital printer, the Human Printer generates the printed product by hand, a collaboration with the design school of University of Derby.
Huw Davies
In 1986 Davies photographed Derby-based companies, exploring post-industrialization and the decline of manufacturing, returning in 2013 to re-photograph some of the people.
Ian Teh
China’s ‘economic miracle’, fueled by an insatiable need for coal, has come at a great cost. Images explore heavy clouds of acrid smoke, landscapes ravaged by industry and portraits of an anonymous workforce.
Mark Curran
The Breathing Factory addresses the role and representation of labour and global labour practices in the newly industrialized landscape of shifting economic alliances.
MobFORMAT: The Press
The Press is an interactive mobile photo exhibition which visualises the mass production of mobile phone photography worldwide, and transforms it into a real-time, audience-curated work of art.
People’s Zoetrope
The People’s Zoetrope is an interactive art installation bringing the concept of a Victorian zoetrope into the digital age by combining mass participation, performance, choreography, sound, and photography to empower participants as they become an integral part of the artwork.
Piece of Cake
Featuring the work of the international collective POC, including Seba Kurtis, Matthias Koch, Chan-Hyo Bae, Simon Roberts, Bert Dankaert, Charlott Markus, Loan Nguyen and more.
Pierre Bessard
Revealing and intimate portraits that document ordinary Chinese workers often overlooked as the country rose to be a manufacturing superpower.
Polly Braden
Huaxi is the self-proclaimed richest village in China. In its advertising and in the state media it is a perfect marriage of socialist collectivism and modern capitalism.
Realism in Rawiya
Rawiya is the first all-female photographic collective from the Middle East. Between documentary and art photography the exhibition represents their vision on gender and identity, racism and orientalism.
Simon Roberts
Let This Be A Sign. An eclectic collection of original placards, from UK protests against economic cuts. Trade Union artefacts from the Silk Mill collection will also be on display.
Stood Still In Time
A collection of photographs discovered within Derby’s expansive Local Studies Library archive. Curated by Shain Bali, Margaret Dewhurst, Kate Warsop and Sally Barker.
The Developer
A unique residency responding to the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site for FORMAT13 using a combination of photography, archive images, music and film. Live performance at The Chocolate Factory on 6 April
Darley Mill
Darley Abbey Mills are a collection of historic mill buildings dating back to the late 1700’s
John Smedley
John Smedley was founded in 1784, at Lea Mills, in Matlock, Derbyshire by John Smedley and his associate Peter Nightingale.
Museum and Art Gallery
In the heart of the city, Derby’s Museum and Art Gallery is home to a fascinating and diverse range of nationally (and internationally) important collections.
New Art Exchange
New Art Exchange was formed in 2003 as a new organisation to steer and manage the development of Nottingham’s first dedicated cultural facility for Black contemporary arts.
QUAD
QUAD is Derby’s £11 million centre for Art and Film. It houses a Gallery, Cinema, Café Bar and Workshop.
St. Werburgh's Chapel
The 17th-century tower and old chancel of this large church are in the care of the CCT – but not the 'new’ 19th-century church attached to it which was built by Sir Arthur Blomfield in 1895.
The Beetroot Tree
The main gallery for our temporary exhibitions is housed in a beautifully restored Jacobean barn dating back to the late 1600s, still featuring a host of the original wooden beams.
The Chocolate Factory
This former factory turned exhibition space is an exciting new addition to the FORMAT venue line-up and a huge development for the festival.
The Silk Mill
Derby’s stunning Silk Mill building stands on the site of the world’s first factory and is the gateway to the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
