Critical Geography, FotoFest Biennial

Shona Illingworth's three screen video and multi-channel soundinstallation, Topologiesof Air, and large photographic wall text work was shown in the Critical Geography, FotoFest Biennial exhibition.

The FotoFest Biennial 2024 central exhibition, Critical Geography, reexamines traditional Western and historical understandings of geography while expanding these investigations to new realms. Borrowing its name from the subdiscipline of geography that questions and challenges power structures, inequality, and the dominant ideologies shaping physical space, Critical Geography explores how space, place, and communities are influenced by social, economic, ecological, and political forces. By critically analyzing these dynamics, the works in the exhibition provoke conversations around social justice, environmental sustainability, and transformative change.

“Our intent is that the 2024 Biennial, featuring both existing and newly commissioned works from local and international artists, will allow viewers to engage in important dialogues around the social dimensions of space and our shared planet,” says Steven Evans, Executive Director of FotoFest. “We look forward to once again celebrating Houston’s vibrant art and photo community while embracing these new perspectives around place-making, the image, and geography.”

Critical Geography features a diverse range of image-based practices, representing artists from photographers and storytellers whose works shed light on systemic oppression, violence, and urgent environmental concerns to image-makers who appropriate mapping, social media, and technology in order to explore inequality in colonial and post-colonial contexts. The exhibition highlights a range of unorthodox strategies employed to construct new narratives around place and community while imagining alternative organizations of social space. The Biennial exhibition includes several site-specific works and new commissions by FotoFest.

The FotoFest Biennial 2024 takes place in Houston from March 9 to April 21, 2024, at Sawyer Yards and venues city-wide. The exhibition is organized by Steven Evans, executive director, with support from the FotoFest staff.