Curatorial Statement

For the eighth consecutive year, we open the doors to the Copenhagen Architecture Festival (CAFx) in Copenhagen. Together with our sister festival, the Aarhus Architecture Festival in Aarhus (AAFx), we present a wide range of events, all related to this year's theme 'Landscapes of Care'. Amidst COVID-19, biodiversity crises, dramatic climate changes, and economic pressure on the welfare state, questions of care, empathy, and sustainability seem to be more urgent than ever. This is especially true within architecture and urban planning, which deal with creating and regulating the spaces we live in together, and which have the potential to provide citizens with safe frameworks and public spaces in which they can freely unfold.

At the same time, architecture and urban planning paradoxically constitute one of the largest CO2 sinners, historically supporting and maintaining existing power structures at the expense of our planet. The ways we build, live, and consume have undeniable consequences, highlighting our interconnectedness in a globalized era.

In 'Landscapes of Care', we focus on the shift in direction towards the new values, interests, and priorities that must drive architecture and urban planning in light of current challenges. We will explore how care is practiced and manifested in architecture and urban development from a historical, contemporary, and future perspective, and how our understanding of care helps shape our daily lives - both in the immediate and in the broader lines of urban planning visions. 'Landscapes of Care' will address three main directions: 'Health and Architecture', 'Diversity and Community', and 'From Climate Sinners to Climate Agents'.

At the same time, we celebrate the wide variety of architects, artists, and practices out there that help shape our understanding of the spaces we move in - real or fictional - which we cover in the chapters 'Portraits, Projects, and Practices' and 'Open House'. This year, we focus on figures such as the filmmaker and artist David Lynch, a performative program at Thorvaldsen's Museum, and visits from speculative architect and filmmaker Liam Young - the man who, according to the BBC, 'designs our future'.

The program offers spiritual and physical nourishment for every taste - with over 100 events such as city walks, film screenings, symposia, performances, exhibitions, open houses, debates, etc. The events take place in a multitude of spatial typologies, anchoring the conversation in the diversity of the city. One thing is certain: Architecture touches us all as the frame of our lives and the condition for our unfolding.