Diffusion festival director David Drake explains the motivations behind introducing an international photography festival to Cardiff.
When did the idea for a photography festival first arise, and why does it suit Cardiff?
In 2010 I was invited to present an exhibition of eight Cardiff-based artists at Fotosommer Stuttgart. The exhibition was in the Town Hall and we called it Here We Are: Dyma Ni. There was a tremendous excitement around the Fotosommer festival in Stuttgart with some 3000 people attending the opening events. I started looking for a way to reciprocate by inviting German artists to present work in Cardiff, which is twinned with Stuttgart. This made me think that Cardiff is in many ways the perfect city to host an international festival of photography. It’s an exciting, diverse and welcoming city, combining a truly international outlook with a passionate local heart.
What considerations were made when compiling the festival’s exhibitions list?
This is the first Diffusion festival, and we wanted to create an international standard programme that is diverse, inclusive and engaging; both outward-facing and rooted in Welsh experience today. We asked artists, cultural producers, curators and programmers to address the question “and where are we now?” with their proposed contributions to Diffusion 2013. It’s a question we will be exploring with audiences and participants throughout the festival.
What are you most excited about within the festival programme?
So many things, but if you ask me to pick one, it’s the challenge of converting the tram shed in Riverside into one of the main festival venues. It’s a vast industrial space and a listed building. There are still buses, trucks and engineers in there at the moment, but we have two weeks from mid-April to transform the bus depot into a new venue for three exhibitions and I’m really excited about that prospect and bringing a historical building into a contemporary arts use for the first time.
How can people get involved in the festival beyond the exhibitions?
Diffusion is all about active participation. As well as the opportunity to visit exhibitions, there are creative projects such as helping us to build an ever-changing digital collage of the city through uploading photographs via mobile phones, Photomarathon, workshops, talks and discussions, family-friendly events, a photo book fair, parties and launch events. And of course dozens of volunteering opportunities and internships to give people first-hand experience of planning and delivering the festival.
Diffusion, Wed 1-Fri 31 May, various locations around South Wales. Info: www.diffusionfestival.org
Read our preview here: http://dev01.buzzmag.co.uk/uncategorized/diffusion-festival-event-preview/