This year's festival is one big experiment. Unlike other years, it is all dedicated to one theme, all the exhibitions in the Main Program – the cross-section, introductory exhibition on two floors of the Bunkier Sztuki Art Gallery, and the 23 exhibitions scattered around museums and galleries – have been created to order. The guest curators are the outstanding artists, Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin.

The Main Programme of the 9th Photomonth in Krakow Festival has been titled “Alias”, because the cornerstone is a specific concept. This is the heteronym, related to the concept of the pseudonym, but with one important difference. The pseudonym hides the creator’s identity when s/he does not want or is unable to publish under his/her own name; the heteronym creates a fictitious artist. This artist is endowed with their own biography, literary style, beliefs, and often interacts with the artist or other characters created by him or her, and often express opinions different from the artist’s own opinions. The master of the heteronym is generally considered to be Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa, who published at least 72 heteronyms (although it's quite possible that there were more). 

And so “Alias” is an artistic project based on the idea of the heteronym, and is based on the risk associated with rejection of one’s own identity and the infinite opportunities provided by embodiment as a non-existent person. 

The Bunkier Sztuki Contemporary Art Gallery will be presenting the cross-section exhibition, Alias. This review presents a historical outline of the concept. It is an original condensation of the history of heteronym photography, which, in a sense, is the easiest terrain to cover because it has already been tamed ¬ – it can be visited with a special guide presenting biographies and works by authors both fictitious and real. Here, everything is identified, all the works have already been exhibited; some are in art history books, including Marcel Duchamp as Rrose Sélavy  (in Man Ray’s photograph), the work of Walid Raad (displaying his work as The Atlas Group), Brian O’Doherty (appearing as Patrick Ireland), Renzo Martens, Simon Fujiwara (as his father), William Kentridge (as Kentridge vs Kentridge), Zbigniew Libera, Sophie Calle, Alec Soth, Roger Ballen, and many others who have used the heteronym in their work. 

This review is the final place where you will feel firm ground under your feet. The other 23 exhibitions have been created by literary and artistic (not only photographic) tandems. All these projects will have their premieres at this year's Photomonth. The task of the writers was to create a framework, i.e. coming up with artistic identities; whereas the artists’ job was to complete this framework with works. And although the names of all the artists are known, they will not – either now or after the festival – be matched to specific exhibitions. This, after all, is the idea of the heteronym and the creative strategy associated with it – to create a character and their works. This set forms a whole; an additional person, the real artist, isn’t required here. And for the curious, there is an additional element of fun: they can try to guess who is who, and think, by the by, about what it means, i.e. is it the label (the name of a famous artist) or the work itself which is important.