Magnus Cederlund (SE)
Intime
Cafe Intime is the oldest gay bar located in the center of Copenhagen. Intime feels like entering a living room filled with old paintings, furniture and fresh flowers. The interior of the bar has been influenced by the life at Montmartre and Unter den Linden in the 1920s. It’s the place where people take their first date for a drink whilst listening to jazz. The artist Magnus Cederlund has been visiting this place for the past seven years, photographing random guests for his future photo book. The series Intime, however, only displays a specifically chosen selection of photographs from the bar, depicting the trans gender community. Various artworks of the artist were exhibited at the National Museum of Finland and JCDecaux Finland. AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Magnus Cederlund is a Swedish artist who has been living and working in Copenhagen, Denmark for the past 30 years. Cederlund’s first book SKIN CLOSE was published by journal-photobooks.com in 2018. The artist is currently working on his second photo book Cafe Intime that is soon going to be released by Journal. Cederlund has been exhibiting his photographic work both locally and internationally since 1989. His latest achievements include, for example, a photography exhibition at Fotografiska, Stockholm in 2018 and Tevere Art Gallery, Rome in 2019.
Carl-Mikael Ström (SE)
Inevitably it will rain Carl-Mikael’s latest project Inevitably it will rain is based on a quote by Ludwig Wittgenstein: ”What can be shown, cannot be said” (Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus). In this project, he wishes to challenge the idea that photography is a language. Through his work, the author is questioning the viewer by asking: What is in his photographs that can be shown but cannot be said? According to Carl-Mikael’s belief, how people see and perceive images is a reflection of their cultural knowledge, learnings, language, and life experiences. This is what the artist calls the “logical picture”, for example: If we see an image of an apple, we identify the object as an “apple” within the “actual image”. Anything that we are able to identify within the image he calls a “logical picture”. He suggests that there are two types of images: “Actual images” and “possible images”. The “actual images” depict
the subject matter as an object contained within the “logical picture”. This way, he refers to the physical reality of an image: Frame, book, canvas, screen, etc. Within the above-mentioned connotations lies the question of whether people have the ability to step outside of their limiting minds to reach the “possible images”. “Possible images” are those images that go beyond the “actual image”. They contain surreal elements, poetry and emotions that cannot be properly identified or explained through language or rationality. This is why CarlMikael believes that being skeptical about objects within the frame of the image is a prerequisite necessary to consider when viewing photography. Poetry has to be pragmatic to be relevant. There is an isomorphic tension between the photograph and the actual object it depicts. Within this tension for him lies photography’s strength. The photographs presented in his series aim to be seen as a visual mental ladder for the viewer to bridge the gap between the “actual” and the “possible” image. Various artworks of the artist were exhibited at the National Museum of Finland and JCDecaux Finland. AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Carl-Mikael Ström was born 1986 in Sweden. He currently lives and works in France. The artist studied photography at Fatamorgana in Copenhagen, Denmark, between 2013-2014. He was an assistant to a Swedish photographer JH Engström between 2014-2018. Ström works with photography, writing and film. He moves between the different mediums, using time as his essential tool to let the frame of the project become visible. Intrigued by what cannot be explained through language within images his work revolves around the question: ”What is there that can be shown but cannot be said?” He believes that an image has endless forms and that time passing inevitably shows, even in a photographic image. Convinced that there is always more behind what you intend to say, he tries to accept the restraints and limitations of creations.
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