Adrian Bugge
Brian Cliff Olguin
Charlie Fjätström
Christina Leithe H.
Dag Nordbrenden
Heidi Sundby
Heini Hölttä
Ingrid Eggen
Ingvild Brekke Myklebust
Istvan Virag
Karoline Hjorth
Katharina Barbosa Blad
Kristina Kvalvik
Linda Bournane Engelberth
Marit Silsand
Maya Økland
Preben Holst
Rebecca Shirin Jafari
Signe M. Andersen
Siri Ekker Svendsen
Terje Abusdal
Ulla Schildt
Credit: Linda Bournane Engelberth
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THE ART OF SURVIVING ON YOUR OWN BY MONICA HOLMEN
Since its founding in 1998, Bjørka has been an essential gathering and production space for Oslobased photographers, and artists working with photography - in particular analogue photography. As Bjørka turns twenty this year it is fitting to talk about its founding, and the significance of such facilities, as well as to reflect on analogue versus digital photography. Bjørka has its roots, in a sense, from Kunstakademiet i Oslo, the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. One of its originators was Heidi Sundby, who is still a member today. She identifies the context and the dominant ideas of that period as much of the reason why photography was attractive for many of the students - despite the academy not having its own photography department. - ‘In the early nineties at the National Academy, students were encountering postmodernism and conceptualism; the ideas that artistry can be the staging of artistry and technique can be bought, not created. Sincerity was coming to an end, and reproduction, lies and appropriation were interesting. It was not so strange then that photography became attractive’, Sundby recalls, continuing: - ‘We also experienced a wave of challenging photography from the German contemporary art scene, and from the photography department at the Bergen Academy of Art and Design. The darkroom was upgraded with colour printers, and the school got cameras that could be loaned out. Mikkel McAlinden and Jonas Ekeberg were teaching photographic technique, and several of the students were exhibiting large-format colour photographs.’ Josephine Lindstrøm was also among those who started Bjørka, and she emphasises the fact that Bjørka stemmed from the Academy, not the photography scene. - ‘Every single one of us who were there in the beginning, was expressing ourselves across several media, such as installation, video and drawing, in addition to photography. None of us had a pure background in photography. We came from painting, graphic arts and sculpture at the National Academy. There was no photography department back then,’ she says. For her own part, Lindstrøm took a degree in sculpture, but photography was one of several media she started using. - ‘Photography had become a medium with which people wanted to express themselves: it was both, a poetic colour palette that was capable of challenging painting, combined with an excessive degree of documentary proof’, Sundby adds. ‘The challenge that eventually emerged was of where one could continue working with it after graduation. Lindstrøm was wondering the same. - As a final-year student I was wondering how I could get access to the necessary equipment to develop colour photographs on my own after the end of my studies. There was a need for a working community and the potential to share photographic equipment’, says Lindstrøm. The solution would turn up right round the corner. In the backyard of the place Sundby was living there was a building standing empty, and so came the idea of installing a darkroom. - ‘Towards the end of the final semester, Heidi told me that she was dreaming about starting a community and possible project/exhibition space located in her father’s old garage in the back garden at Hegdehaugsveien, where he had run a shop for many years. Svein Sundby, Heidi’s father, deserves praise for giving us a space that was so central and in one of the city’s most expensive business districts. He could have chosen to use the site for so much more, but chose instead to support our project. Eventually Ane [Hjort Guttu] joined in, and everything was under way,’ remembers Lindstrøm. - ‘Getting the spaces ready was a tedious process’, says Sundby, - ‘but by 1998 it was usable, and in 1999 we received non-profit status, an equally www.ucsscandinavia.com
laborious, but bureaucratic process. With the green light from BKH - The Relief Fund for Visual Artists - on our application for lab equipment, the umbilical cord to the National Academy was cut.’ Lindstrøm elaborates: - ‘We started out as idealists, driven by our need for a working community. Our energy levels were high and we had huge get-up-andgo attitude and we saw an opportunity to be able to share expensive equipment. We knew nothing about organisational or leadership structures, nor had any experience of building up something like Bjørka. Consequently, there were conflicts, disputes between conformists and nonconformists - all this is typical of so many artistic communities and artist-initiated projects; but it was unbelievably exciting and informative, and gradually we got a good all-round structure,’ Lindstrøm recalls. In time they had the space enlarged, and a project room was also established. This made larger projects possible, in addition to exhibitions. The shows contributed to raising Bjørka’s profile and, for a period, it was known as a prominent and vital actor among the artist run spaces in Oslo. Sundby adds that the membership quickly grew to around twenty artists, and has been stable since the start. Today, the founders no longer sit on the board, and members come and go. - ‘The foundation survives by itself, and is still run on a non-profit basis by artists who need facilities. So I think that this place is a success and continues to be necessary,’ says Sundby. The Greatest Benifits A large number of the current members work in analogue photography, and Bjørka is one of the few larger production and workshop communities for photography. In particular, the space has an advantage due to the possibilities for analogue photography, and especially for analogue colour photography, which demands a lot of equipment. Looked at this way, it is not difficult to envisage what significance Bjørka has had for those who have chosen to work with these techniques. For Maya Økland, an artist and relatively new arrival to Oslo, Bjørka’s work space for analogue photography is a major plus. - ‘Bjørka offers a unique and affordable workshop, and loanable equipment for photographic artists. Over the years the facility has been expanded, and today it is the largest camera-based workshop community.’ Lindstrøm also stresses Bjørka’s importance for female photographers. - ‘From the very beginning the scene around Bjørka has been dominated by women. A few years back when the survey into living conditions for artists was conducted, it was female photographic artists who were coming out worst. The necessity for the Bjørka Foundation can then be linked to many of these photographic artists having access to equipment, space to work and a community that has strengthened their circumstances and made it possible for them to survive, not just financially but also by finding support in their creative work’, says Lindstrøm. - In addition, the degree of importance that such a workshop community has had for the continuity of photographic artists in Oslo, cannot be stressed enough. This applies to production spaces, and especially the analogue darkroom, but also to the conversations that arise when one shares practices within art. ‘Every profession needs rooms like these’, points out Katinka Maraz, artist, former member of Bjørka and past chair of the board at Forbundet Frie Fotografer, the Norwegian Association of Fine Art Photographers. For Økland, Bjørka is one of the biggest advantages of moving to Oslo from Bergen. - ‘I have been a member of Bjørka for a year now, and this is the best thing about moving to Oslo. Before that, I hadn’t had a darkroom since
I graduated from the Academy of Art in Bergen, thirteen years ago.’ The return of analogue Økland recalls that when she was beginning to study photography, post-modern theory dominated, and analogue photography and darkroom techniques had ended up as a backwater. Digital photography was new and exciting and quickly took over, and this has continued - something that can be attributed to its relative cost-effectiveness as a technique. Today it seems as though analogue photography is almost drowning as an everyday technique in a world that is increasingly digitalised. From an art perspective, too, the relationship between the two areas is interesting. A quick look at the artists at Bjørka, but also at other artists, nevertheless demonstrates that analogue photography is not dead.
arise in a variety of ways. The reflection on these differences leads to questions related to the place of pictures in time and space, and where the pictures actually exist.’ The relationship between analogue and digital is often widely debated, and Økland remembers a conversation that she had with the American photographer Katy Grannan, where she posed the question: ‘Where are we going with photographs when digitalisation has made it so that everybody can take pictures?’ - Grannan replied that we need photographs in the same way that we need writers. Even though most people can write, and loads of words are produced every day, writers have a special responsibility to maintain quality and to take the discussion further.
Maraz stresses the importance of production spaces for art in the city centre. - It’s hugely important! Of course exhibition and conversation spaces are important, but without production itself, places lose their essence. We know that complex places work better than homogenous places, so it’s a win-win situation for a city. Artists deal with the present time they live in, and a city without artists at its centre risks losing its validity.’
Bjørka Foundation: Bjørka foundation for camera-based art was started in 1998 by Heidi Sundby, Josephine Lindstrøm, Ane Hjort Guttu and Gunnar H. Gundersen.
Maraz shares the same ideas. - It seems like young artists are beginning to rediscover analogue techniques, such as selenium toning, cyanotypes, and solarisation, says Økland, continuing: - ‘There is a very big difference between sitting in front of a screen and relating to the infinite possibilities of digital editing, and standing in an analogue darkroom. Time passes slower and the old machines are less predictable. Most of all one’s own machine, ones body, is less predictable in what it remembers and knows at any one time. There is space for experimentation and failure that balances out the short time it often takes to take a picture. That Bjørka has had this facility for all these years shows how dedicated the members have been and continue to be.’ Sundby identifies a physical, bodily explanation of why analogue techniques are still held in such high esteem by artists.
- ‘Photography is used and shared as never before. But that does not, unfortunately, mean that those who are always using and sharing it understand the significance and the power than can be contained in a picture - either analogue or digital. On the other hand, though, we are seeing that many artists are taking this seriously, and are problematizing it in their own work.’ Økland highlights the future and the preservation of history as another essential aspect. - ‘In a hundred years there will perhaps not be so many everyday digital images left from our times. They’ll be sitting on out-dated hard drives or will disappear in the undercurrent of unpaid hosting services. What happens to all of the pictures if Facebook or Instagram go bust? It is more likely that pictures by professional artists and photographers will be better taken care of.’
- ‘Many artists, but also the audience for art, are likely interested by - and enjoy - the particular expression of analogue photography. It is employed according to need, together with digital methods. Moreover, I think that there are several generations of visual artists who love their familiar, extremely expensive cameras, have their habits when it comes to taking pictures, and are in the habit of looking at negatives. They still want to hold the physical apparatus in their hands as they are working, because of the way it feels.’
Art in the city centre That Bjørka has been in existence for the last twenty years is an occasion in itself. Artist-run initiatives like this one have a tendency to have short shelf lives.
Maraz has noticed the same tendency.
So how has Bjørka survived for so many years, and with a changing membership base? Lindstrøm thinks it’s down to having a good structure from the very start.
- ‘What we’re seeing now is a return to analogue, even among those in the younger generation. I think that one works differently with analogue photography than with digital pictures; the process is more introspective and takes longer. For some this is a strength in itself, it provides a different kind of esteem than the quicker, more adjustable form that digital photography, to a greater extent, has. - Analogue photography lives on! Lindstrøm enthusiastically comments from the side, bringing up her own experiences. - ‘The choice of analogue is not connected to nostalgia or a fascination for an earlier photographic means of expression. It’s a matter of the visual qualities of the analogue, and a problematising of the picture surface, of the relationship between the surface and the reality that the film actually captures. It’s about tones, nuances, softness and the transitions that light and glass lenses make possible, and that, digital equipment has not been able to achieve.’ It is, thus, about the physical qualities of analogue photography. But Lindstøm also believes that the marginalisation of analogue photography comes into play, making analogue more meaningful. - ‘Placed alongside digital, the physical qualities of the analogue become all the more visible and interesting. Analogue photography is physical, material and concrete - the picture and its portrayal are one with the finished surface, the paper or the film. Digital photography, on the other hand, consists of numbers or electronic impulses that can be removed from the material source and
Bjørka was first located on Hegdehaugsveien in Majorstua, then Sørligata in Tøyen, before moving to its current address in Schweigaardsgate in Grønland. Organised as a foundation and run by the board Terje Abusdal (chairman), Ulla Schildt, Adrian Bugge and Karoline Hjorth. Darkroom technicians: Dag Nordbrenden and Jason Havneraas. Today, Bjørka has twenty-eight members, all of whom exhibit domestically and abroad. www.bjorka.org Current members are: Terje Abusdal, Signe M. Andersen, Rodrigo Solis Aguilera, Katharina Barbosa Blad, Morten Borgestad, Ingrid Eggen, Adrian Bugge, Karoline Hjorth, Linda Bournane Engelberth, Christina Leithe Hansen, Jason Havneraas, Preben Holst, Heini Hölttä, Rebecca Shirin Jafari, Marte Danielsen Jølbo, Ingvild Brekke Myklebust, Jon Marius Nilsson, Brian Cliff Olguin, Marit Silsand, Line Fasteraune, Dag Nordbrenden, Charlie Fjätström, Istvan Virag, Heidi Sundby, Siri Ekker Svendsen, Ulla Schildt, Kristina Kvalvik, and Maya Økland.
- But maybe they are only meant to last a short time, they take their power precisely from arising spontaneously and vigorously, and deliver good projects before suddenly it’s all over, says Lindstrøm.
- ‘A good structure with a changing board was assembled, a board that administered money in a foundation, where no single person was able to dominate for a long period. We have received solid support from Arts Council Norway and The Relief Fund for Visual Artists, because some have seen the necessity and the usefulness of supporting a community, rather than individuals. In addition, many enthusiastic, fiery souls have burned themselves out at the same time as gathering management experience by sitting on the board. It is fantastic that Bjørka lives on after twenty years!’ - ‘And there is a lasting commitment from the membership, which is large enough that it can continue for many years more,’ adds Økland. Maraz emphasises that Bjørka is just as important today as it was twenty years ago. - ‘The biggest change is that we are seeing that production spaces for artists in Oslo are getting more and more cramped, and it would be a shame for both artists and the city if they were to disappear altogether.’ ‘Cramped space is a challenge for Bjørka, too,’ admits Økland. - ‘In a few years we’ll have to find new premises, and we need somewhere that is both reasonable and central. It is desirable to stay in the city centre. Having said that, we do know that gentrification follows artists around. A city that wants to stay lively and dynamic ought to keep its artists close,’ Økland says.
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www.terjeabusdal.com
Hope Blinds Reason
TERJE ABUSDAL
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SIRI EKKER SVENDSEN “THERE IS NO ASSURED HAPPY OR UNHAPPY ENDING - SOCIALLY, ECOLOGICALLY, OR SCIENTIFICALLY. THERE IS ONLY THE CHANCE FOR GETTING ON TOGETHER WITH SOME GRACE.”
DONNA J. HARAWAY www.siriekker.com siri.ekker@gmail.com
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CHRISTINA LEITHE H. Landscape. Albums beskriver en reise fra et nordlig opphav og en dragning mot syd, med fasinasjon for det portugisiske begrepet saudade. I uttrykket saudade beskrives en dyp nostalgi eller melankolsk lengsel etter en fravÌrende noe eller noen som man elsker. Et savn som er forplantet i fortiden og som blir grunnlaget for en søken og en reise videre.
Landscape.Albums describes a journey, one that started in the North and drew her towards more southerly climes, lured by the Portuguese concept of Saudade. The term refers to a profoundly nostalgic or melancholic yearning for either someone or something that is loved yet absent. A longing that has been propagated in the past and forms the basis of a quest and a journey into the unknown. www.christinaleithe.com/ christina.leithe@gmail.com
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Olanda - Alto Boa Vista, Mato Grosso - 2013 www.ucsscandinavia.com
Alto Boa Vista, Mato Grosso 2013
Fernando & Olanda - Alto Boa Vista, Mato Grosso - 2013
Cicero & Fernando - Alto Boa Vista, Mato Grosso - 2013
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PREBEN HOLST Things that never happened Julie er nabojenta jeg aldri kjente. Hun var lillesøsteren til hun som var for ung til at vi var venner. Det var først da jeg ble voksen at vi snakket sammen, Julie og jeg. Jeg var hjemme for sommeren og bodde på det gule rommet i et hus jeg hadde vært for lenge i. Kunne jeg ta bilder av henne ved vannet ved kirken? På vei til badeplassen som var litt lenger inn i skogen? Der jeg pleide å være, som oftest sammen med han som var et år yngre enn meg og han som var et hode høyere enn oss. Jeg var der også alene. Noen ganger gikk jeg meg vill med vilje og det tok litt tid å komme hjem igjen.
Julie is the girl next door that I never knew. She was the kid sister of the girl who was too young for us to be friends. We first spoke as adults, Julie and I. I was at home for the summer and stayed in the yellow room in a house where I`d been too long. Could I take some pictures of her by the pond next to the church? On the way to where we´d go swimming, further into the woods? Where I used to go, most often with the guy who was a year younger than me and the one who was a head taller than both of us. I also spent time there by myself. Sometimes I would get lost on purpose and it would take me a while to get back home.
Jeg fikk fototgrafere Julie og en venn ved vannet. Det som så fint ut på overflaten, men som man ikke burde bade i.
I photographed Julie and a friend by the pond. The one that looked quite nice on the surface, but where you shouldn´t swim.
Things that never happened er fellesbetegnelsen på en gruppe arbeider som tar utgangspunkt i ulike faser av unge menneskers liv. Prosjektet er stadig påpgående og består av fotografier, videoarbeider og objekter.
Things that never happened is the common term I use on a body of work based on different aspects of young people´s lives. The project is ongoing, and consists of photographs, video works and objects. www.prebenholst.com preben@prebenholst.com
MAYA ØKLAND Stranger in Motherland I over femten år har kunstner og fotograf Maya Økland (f. 1980) dokumentert sine reiser til sin mors hjemland Brasil. Som en deltakende observatør med et nært blikk har hun fotografert familie, slektninger og steder, spredt over store deler av landet. Økland har brukt kameraet som et redskap for å utforske familierelasjonene og bli kjent med både mennesker og omgivelser. Alle disse reisene og møtene har etter hvert resultert i den fotografiske serien Stranger in Motherland, som nå for første gang blir presentert i bokform. Boken er et midlertidig stopp på reisen og viser fotografier fra fire av totalt fem reiser som Økland foretok i perioden 1999 til 2013. Portretter vises side om side med landskapsbilder, interiører og detaljerte nærbilder. Boken kan både sammenlignes med en utstilling, der utvalget, rekkefølgen og sammenstillingen av bildene skaper nye visuelle fortellinger. Den kan også minne om et fotoalbum der vi kan gjenkjenne menneskene fra bilde til bilde, og se hvordan de endrer seg med tidens gang. Samtidig bryter boken med albumets tidslineære logikk; vi møter de nyeste bildene først og blar oss tilbake i tiden - som en arkeolog eller en slektsforsker som utforsker historiens lag.
Alto Boa Vista, Mato Grosso - 2013
For over fifteen years, artist and photographer Maya Økland (b. 1980) has been documenting her travels to Brazil, the homeland of her mother. As a participating observer with an attentive gaze, she has photographed encounters with close family members, more distant relatives and places spread over large parts of the country. The camera is her tool for exploring family relations and to familiarize herself with the surroundings. These travels and meetings have eventually resulted in the photographic series Stranger in Motherland, now presented in book form for the first time. The book is a temporary stop in the journey, and consists of photographs from four in a total of five travels Økland did between 1999 and 2013. Portraits are shown alongside landscapes, interiors and detailed close-ups. The book could be compared to an exhibition where the selection, order and compilation of images create new visual narratives. It can also remind of a photographic album where people are recognized from image to image, and the changes in their appearance can be seen through time. Simultaneously the book breaks with the photo album´s linear logic; we meet the recent encounters first and turn the pages backwards in time - like an archeologist or genealogist exploring layers of history. maya.okland@gmail.com mokland.no www.ucsscandinavia.com
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ULLA SCHILDT The gardens www.schildt.no
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INGVILD BREKKE MYKLEBUST www.ingvildbrekkemyklebust.no ingvildb@gmail.com
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SIGNE M. ANDERSEN Mr. and Mrs. Snipp www.signemarie.no post@signemarie.no post@galleririis.com
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ADRIAN BUGGE Bildene som presenteres her er fra Adrians langvarige Inngrep-prosjekt hvor han utforsker hvordan menneskelige inngrep forandrer naturen. Fra han debuterte med et Inngrep-bilde på Høstutstillingen i 2008 til han igjen stilte ut Inngrep-bilder på Høstutstillingen i 2017 har Antropocen - menneskets tidsalder - blitt lansert som en geologisk epoke. I august 2018 hadde Adrian en separatutstilling på Galleri BOA i Oslo hvor han viste arbeider fra hele perioden i lys av denne teorien og han jobber fortsatt videre med prosjektet.
The pictures presented here are from Adrian’s long-term Encroachment project, where he explores how human intervention changes nature. From his debut with a photo from the project at The national art exhibition in 2008 until he presented his latest work at the same place in 2017, the Anthropocene-human age has been proposed as a geological epoch. In light of this theory, Adrian had a solo exhibition at Gallery BOA in August 2018, which includes works from the whole period and he continues to work on the project. www.adrianbugge.no
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www.ingrideggen.no ingrid.eggen@gmail.com
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AUTISM = HUMAN
HEIDI SUNDBY Ingen tittel Samtale med ung autistisk jente i utfoldelse Arbeidet er del av prosjektet Autism=Human (2017 -), et pågående samarbeid med kunstnere med autismediagnose og kunstnere uten diagnose, dessuten designer, kunstpedagog og post doc i spesialpedagogikk, uio, Norge. Prosjektet ble startet i Tyrkia 2017 av Meltem Yilmas, mor til en autistisk kunstner og professor i arkitektur i Tyrkia.
Forstørre, poengtere, distrahere. Kile, erte, varme Magnify. point out, distract. Tickle, tease, heat up
No Title A conversation with a young autistic girl in expression The work is part of the project ”Autism = Human”, (2017 - ), an ongoing collaboration with artists with diagnose Autism and artists without diagnose, and also designer, art-teacher and post doctor from special needs education departments, uio, Oslo. The project was initiated in Tyrkia 2017 by Meltem Yilmas, mother to an autistic artist and aprofessor of architecture in Turkey. heidi.b.sundby@gmail.com www.autismhuman.com/
Repetere, forsikre og love. Repeat, ensure and promise
Diskutere, panikkavverge, le! Discuss, avert panic-attack and laugh!
Hud, mage, myk overarm og albuhase Tegndialekt, privat og universalt Feel the skin, the belly, the soft upper arm and elbow express sign language, both private and universal www.ucsscandinavia.com
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REBECCA SHIRIN JAFARI BEYOND SIGHT Riika Saulite er født blind og har aldri hatt evne til å se. Likevel, i hennes mørke, beskriver hun de vakreste bilder, tablåer fylt med lys. I seks måneder fulgte jeg Riika og ble kjent med hennes verden. Gjennom lange samtaler, spørsmål, fotografi og spiren i et nytt vennskap, begynte jeg sakte å forstå deler av hennes
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visuelle verden. Hun slapp meg inn og delte bildene sine med meg, og jeg lovet å lage dem for henne.
Riika Saulite was born blind and has never ben able to see. Still, in that darkness, she describes the most beautiful pictures, visions full of light.
visual world. She let me in and explained me her pictures, and I promised her I would create them for her.
Dette er historien om en ung, blind og modig kvinne. Men mest av alt er dette historien om magien bak det vi kan se.
I spent six months with Riika, getting to know her and her world. Through long talks, silence, questions, photography and a new friendship, I slowly started to understand fragments of her
This photo project is in one way the story of a young, blind and brave woman, but most of all, it is the story of the magic beyond sight.
rebecca.jafari@gmail.com www.rebeccajafari.com
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KAROLINE HJORTH Eyes as Big as Plates I samarbeid med den finske kostymekunstneren Riitta Ikonen er kunstprosjektet Eyes as Big as Plates nå inne i sitt sjuende produksjonsår, og har vokst til en serie på over 70 arbeider. Med utgangspunkt i personifiseringer av naturen og folkloristiske forklaringer på naturfenomener, har prosjektet utviklet seg til en søken etter det moderne menneskets tilhørighet i naturen, i tett samarbeid med pensjonerte pensjonerte agronomer, fiskere, rørleggere, zoologer, operasangere, husmødre, kunstnere, akademikere og 90- årige fallskjermhoppere fra 12 land. Samtaler med hver enkelt danner grunnlaget for individuelle skulpturelle kostymer, hvor natur fungerer både som innhold og kontekst, og hvor hvert bilde presenterer en ensom skikkelse i landskapet, kledd i elementer fra omgivelsene. Verk produsert i perioden 20112016 ble høsten 2017 utgitt i bokform på Forlaget Press og en vesentlig del av publikasjonen er viet prosessarbeidet, som anses som likestilt med de ferdige portrettene. Eyes as Big as Plates ble nominert til Paris Photo-Aperture Photobook Awards 2017, som en av 20 bøker av nesten 1000 innsendte titler og ble nylig tildelt Gull i konkurransen Årets Vakreste Bøker for beste omslag. Prosjektet har hatt en omfattende utstillingsvirksomhet internasjonalt og produksjonen av nye arbeider fortsetter med en rekke utstillinger og produksjonsreiser planlagt.
Eyes as Big as Plates is the ongoing collaborative project by the Norwegian-Finnish artist duo Karoline Hjorth and Riitta Ikonen. Starting out in 2011 studying personifications of nature and folkloric explanations to natural phenomenons in Norway, the project has evolved into a continual search for modern human’s belonging to nature. Driven by curiosity and imagination, the artists have travelled to a dozen countries on a quest to understand our relationship with our surroundings, and the series has grown to over seventy portraits. The culmination of the first six years of this ongoing project was published by Press Publishing in 2017, and each book in the first edition is hand-finished, unique with thinly pressed vegetation veiled underneath the cover cloth to honour each of the collaborators in the project.
“WE NEED TO LEARN TO SEE NOT JUST WITH WESTERN EYES BUT WITH ISLAMIC EYES AND INUIT EYES, NOT JUST WITH HUMAN EYES BUT WITH GOLDEN-CHEEKED WARBLER EYES, COHO SALMON EYES, AND POLAR BEAR EYES, AND NOT EVEN JUST WITH EYES AT ALL BUT WITH THE WILD, BARELY ARTICULATE BEING OF CLOUDS AND SEAS AND ROCKS AND TREES AND STARS”
ROY SCRANTON
Part sculpture, part installation and part photography, Ikonen and Hjorth work together from beginning to the end of the process with their different complementing skills. Karoline is the photographer in the duo while Riitta works mainly with the creation of the wearable sculptures in the images. Each image in the series presents a solitary figure in a landscape, dressed in elements from surroundings that indicate neither time nor place. Nature acts as both content and context and the characters literally inhabit the landscape wearing sculptures made in collaboration with the artists. Eyes as Big as Plates was nominated for Paris PhotoAperture Foundation Photobook Awards 2017, and won gold for the best book cover in Grafill’s annual book award show Årets Vakreste Bøker 2018. +47 45 77 57 67 www.karolinehjorth.com www.eyesasbigasplates.com
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CHARLIE FJÄTSTRÖM No one left to blame är ett projekt om platser där människor väljer att begå självmord.
No one left to blame is a project about places which people choose to commit suicide. www.charliefjatstrom.com charlie@ucsscandinavia.com www.ucsscandinavia.com
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KRISTINA KVALVIK Voices of the Unseen Videoinstallasjon. I et klassisk Skandinavisk urbant miljø; i en allmenn, tidløs, middelklasse gate, forteller en karakter om å se, bli sett, føle seg sett på og i installasjonen blir dette videreført til betrakteren som selv ser på eller kan bli sett tilbake på. Det er sen kveld eller tidlig morgen og det eneste man ser er tåken som sakte beveger seg. Video installation. The central character, depicted through the voiceover, is situated in a classical Scandinavian, urban environment; a street in a generic, timeless, middle class environment. The play of looking, seeing, watching and being watched does not stop within the videos themselves, but is extended in the installation towards the viewer. It is early morning or late evening, the only thing happening in the images is the mist slowly moving. kristinakvalvik@gmail.com www.kristinakvalvik.com
ISTVAN VIRAG Yujiapu er et ambisiøst storskala byggeprosjekt i Tianjin, Kina. Bydelen er inspirert av Manhattans byplan, arkitektur, og ikke minst ikoniske skyline. Selv om Yujiapu var planlagt ferdigstilt til 2014, pågår byggearbeidet fremdeles og mange av høyhusene er uferdige. De siste årene har byggeaktiviteten gått ned, noen byggeplasser er blitt forlatt. Om natten blir byen mørk og øde. Det er kun gatebelysning og LED-dekorasjon som lyser opp bygningene og smogen som ligger tung over byen. Vinduene er mørke og bygningene ser ut som at de er i dvale, de minner mest om arkitektoniske modeller. Utviklingen ble stoppet midt mellom idé og funksjon, og skyskraperne står i dag som idiosynkratiske produkter av en vekst- og utviklingkultus.
Yujiapu is an ambitious large scale construction project in Tianjin, China. The district draws inspiration from Manhattan with regards to city planning, architecture and the iconic skyline. Although the district was scheduled for completion in 2014, most of the skyscrapers are still unfinished. The past years have seen a slowdown of construction activity, some of the sites have become abandoned. When the night falls, the city gets dark and deserted. It is only street lights and LED decoration that illuminate the buildings and the smog that is filling the sky. The windows are dark, the buildings seem to be “hibernated”, bearing a resemblance to maquettes. Standing still in a state between idea and functionality the buildings appears to be idiosyncratic products of the cult of growth and development. www.istvanvirag.com
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DAG NORDBRENDEN
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KATHARINA BARBOSA BLAD The Ignored Jeg fotograferer de hjemløse mens de sover, på en måte som sikrer deres anonymitet. Etter å ha tatt bildet printer jeg den og kutter bort subjektet som er avbildet. Fotografiet av stedet minus individet i bildet er det jeg legger tilbake i det opprinnelige stedet hvor bildet ble tatt. Resultatet er den ferdige verk; Den består av stedet der de hjemløse sov og det sovende menneske som “fraværet”. Som et forsøk på å minne oss på at dette problemet ikke er en banalitet.
I photograph the homeless while they sleep, in a way that ensures their anonymity. After taking the picture I print the image and cut away the subject that is pictured. The photograph of the place minus the individual in the picture is what I put back in the original place where the picture was taken. The result is the finished work; It consists of the image of the place where the homeless slept and the sleeping human as the “absence”. As an attempt to remind us that this problem is not a banality. www.katharinabarbosablad.com
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Dette dokumentariske prosjektet forsøker å samle de ulike menneskene som bor kommunalt på Torshov i Oslo. Samle dem rundt det som er deres fellesnevner, ensomhet og lengsel etter noe har forsvunnet i tiden. Kommunale boliger i Oslo er i ferd med å gjennomgå en endring. Den nye politikken etterstreber en spredning av kommunale boliger, for å unngå konsentrasjon av sosiale problemer. Dermed har kommunen også begynt å selge flere av de kommunale boligene på Torshov. De nye beboere er oftest unge voksne med høyere utdannelse som tar første steget inn i en boligkarriere. Den eldre generasjonen og de som sliter med rus begynner å bli i mindretall og blir mer enn del av et kapittel av norsk bolighistorie.
Alene Hjemme Før Norge ble en oljenasjon hadde vi en større arbeiderklasse som trengte å bo sentralt i byene. Det hadde i noen tiår strømmet mennesker til Oslo for å jobbe i fabrikkene langs Akerselva, og da Oslo kommune i begynnelsen av 1900-tallet bestemte seg for å bygge mange boliger til utleie var det for å bedre bosituasjonen til arbeiderklassen. Å leie av kommunen var både rimelig og forutsigbart, og det krevdes ikke mer av leietakerne enn at man kunne vise til arbeidskontrakt og rent rulleblad, men utover 1900-tallet endret beboersammensetningen seg. Flere av arbeiderne gikk over til å bli middelklasse og mange kjøpte sine egne boliger. De kommunale boligene gikk over til å få en funksjons som sosialboliger for de mest vanskeligstilte i samfunnet. De som står utenfor det ordinære boligmarkedet. I dag betyr det fattige familier, eldre og mennesker som sliter med rus og psykiatri. De få eldre som er blitt værende lengter etter en tid med ulåste dører og større dugnadsånd. De bor i dag alene med omgitt av vegger som vitner om slekt og generasjoner. Kåre som har bodd i samme leilighet siden 1940, prøver å stanse tiden med de mange klokkene han har i leiligheten sin.
BRIAN CLIFF OLGUIN
brian@briancliff.com www.briancliff.com
The public housing projects of Torshov in Oslo are slowly changing. As the new politics of the city is opening up to relocate some of the flats, a growing urban middle class consisting of young adults with higher education is changing the landscape as they buy flats. The older generation and substance abusers are slowly vanishing from this part of the city and housing history.
Before the oil boom and becoming one the wealthiest countries in the world, Norway had a larger working class who needed affordable accomodation. Especially in the capital of Oslo experienced a boom of people from around Norway migrating seeking jobs and opportunities in the factories along the river, Akerselva. These workers were in the early 20th century running out of living spaces, and large families were struggling in smaller private apartments. The public housing projects were a way to lift up the working class by offering good and affordable rental flats. All tenants were required a steady income and clean criminal record. Slowly throughout the later part of the 20th century most working class Norwegians were becoming middle class and the ones inhabiting the public housings became a more complex class with a different set of challenges. Today they span from the poorest families in Oslo to the ones struggling with substance abuse and psychological issues. The few and older inhabitants that are left still living in the same flats that their parents proudly rented, reminisce a time with less crime and more openness. Today most of the elderly live alone in the flats that carry stories on their walls. Stories of families and hope. Kåre is one of the few left who tries to freeze time. This project tries to unite the ones that today are living in these flats, in their loneliness and longing for something lost in time.
Home Alone I wanted to document the people living in the public housing projects of Torshov in Oslo Norway.
Issue 8
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Hölttä Sculptor, Riis - 95cm x 150cm, 1990.
HEINI HÖLTTÄ Opplevelsen av byen som landskap og som former av persepsjon og identitet har interessert meg siden slutten av 80-tallet. Gjennom årene har jeg brukt alternative fotografiske strategier for å undersøke perspektiver i det arkitektoniske landskap og forholdet mellom bevegelse og persepsjon. Arbeidene mine har et analytisk og strukturelt fotografisk uttrykk, hvor jeg har tatt utgangspunkt i byrommets arkitektoniske strukturer.
Since the late 1980’s I have been interested in the city as a particular landscape and shaper of perceptions. Throughout the years I have used different photographic strategies to explore perspectives in the architectural environment and it’s interplay with movement and vision. My works bear a analytical and structural expression, taking outset from the architectural structures in the cityscape. Heinimh@gmail.com
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MARIT SILSAND www.maritsilsand.com silsand.marit@gmail.com
Follow the Lines, 50 x 70 cm. www.ucsscandinavia.com
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LINDA BOURNANE ENGELBERTH I arbeidet PERSONA undersøker fotografen Linda Bournane Engelberth (f. 1977) sentrale problemstillinger knyttet til det fotografiske mediet som representasjon av virkelighet. PERSONA tar utgangspunkt i Bournane Engelberths mors liv, som var preget av alvorlig sykdom og etter hvert store utfordringer. Kunstneren iscenesetter seg selv som sin avdøde mor, og utforsker en alternativ virkelighet til det faktiske livsløpet. Når prosjektet begynner er kunstnerens mor 17 år og går på folkehøyskole, en periode hun selv beskrev som lykkelig. Dette er ett år før sykdommen, som skal prege resten av hennes liv, inntreffer. Engelberth benytter morens fotografier fra denne tiden som grunnlag for arbeidene i serien. Gamle klær og gjenstander gir en mulighet for å skape fotografisk gjenopplivning av øyeblikk fra morens liv. Hun har også hentet inn mennesker som ligner på andre personer som finnes i de originale bildene. Slik etableres historiske og billedmessige spenninger, hvor også fotografiet som medium i seg selv representerer en konflikt i forhold til virkelighetsforståelsen.
“Simulacra” (en kopi av en kopi) er et begrep som beskriver et illusorisk duplikat, en imitasjon av et menneske eller en ting. Den franske sosiologen Jean Baudrillard (1929-2000) hevdet at begrepet ikke kan forstås kun som en blek og falsk kopi av virkeligheten, men som grunnlag for å komme enda nærmere en sannferdig virkelighetsopplevelse. Linda Bournane Engelberth tar utgangspunkt i fotografiet som et simulakrisk medium, som bilder av bilder, kopiert i det uendelige og på grensen mellom virkelighet og fiksjon. Baudrillard hevdet at vi opplever virkelighet som noe som allerede er vevd sammen med fiksjon, livet som hyperrealitet. Slik kan man også lese fotografiene til Linda Bournane Engelberth, hvor ulike narrativ overlapper. Historien utforskes, fanges og fryses på nytt, som et påstått sannhetsvitne. Søken etter slike bekreftelser finner man flere steder i fotografiets historie, blant annet i etterkrigstidens Susan Sontag som betrakter bilder fra konsentrasjonsleirer, hos den sørgende Roland Barthes som leter etter sin mor, og i ’pictorial turn’ hos W.J.T. Mitchell.
Utstillingen viser nye fotografier sammenstilt med originale fotografier. I noen av verkene smeltes kunstnerens identitet sammen med hennes mor, gjennom bruk av fotocollage. I disse komposisjonene oppstår det negasjoner, hvor man som betrakter forøker å forstå sammenhengen: Hvis bildet av moren er sant, så er det andre bildet falskt, og omvendt. Sammen blir derfor de to kvinnene og deres historier, i det de blir lagt over hverandre, del av et nytt narrativ. Engelberth utforsker i PERSONA hvordan man gjennom en ny og annen fotografisk fortid kan skape en ny virkelighet - et hyperreelt simulakra. I denne fotografiske fiksjonen iscenesetter kunstneren en ny livshistorie.
Through the artistic project PERSONA Linda Bournane Engelberth is researching central problems connected to the photographic medium as a representation of reality. The starting point of PERSONA is the life of the artist’s mother, a life dominated by serious illness and immense challenges. The artist is staging herself as her deceased parent, investigating an alternate fictional reality, a flipside of the life lived. The venture starts when the artist’s mother is at the age of seventeen. She’s attending college at the time, a period which she describes as blissful, unaware of a disease that’s one year away from breaking out, leading to a physical condition that will change her life forever. Engelberth is applying her mother’s photographs as a foundation for her own work. Old pieces of clothing and objects generate the possibility for a photographic reanimation of moments from her mother’s life. By introducing models functioning as of her mother’s friends, she’s establishing historical and pictorial tensions, where photography as an autonomous medium of truth
and representation are questioned - a medium in conflict with reality itself. Simulacra is a term which describes an illusory duplicate, an imitation of a human being or a thing, a copy of a copy without an apparent original. The French sociologist Jean Baudrillard claimed the term can not be understood simply as a pale and false replica of reality, but as a term that gives the premise and possibility of generating a more truthful perception of existence. Baudrillard claims further that we perceive reality as intertwined with fiction from the starting point, experiencing life as hyperreality. Through this project, the photographic medium is treated as such a simulacra, as photographs representing photographs, copied infinitely, pivoting between reality and fiction. The photographs represented in this exhibition might also be read through this perspective, because in these images different narratives are overlapping. The story is explored and framed, then frozen once more, into an alleged witness of truth. This quest for authentication is a recurring theme in
the history of photography, described through Susan Sontag’s contemplations on photographs from The Holocaust, the grieving Roland Barthes in desperate search for his deceased mother, and in the ‘pictorial turn’ described by William John Thomas Mitchell. The exhibition consists of new photographs paired with original photographs. In many images the identity of the artist merges with the identity of her mother, through the use of photographic collage. In these compositions negation is revealed. The audience is presented a challenge in the attempt to uncover the connections; if the image of the mother is true, then the new image is false, and vice versa. A new narrative appears in the merging of the two individuals through the assemblage. In PERSONA Linda Bournane Engelberth investigates how one can generate a alternate reality through reevaluation of the past; a hyperrealistic simulacra. Through the space of photographic fiction the artist is renegotiating a neoteric memoir. lindabournane.com @lindabournane
Uncertain States Scandinavia is a non-profit lens based artist collective who are passionate in creating, discussing and promoting photography. In this volatile global climate the work reflects some of our current concerns and challenges how perception is formed in our society on issues as diverse as politics, religions and personal identity. For your on-line copy, visit www.ucsscandinavia.com Subscribe to the newspaper at info@ucsscandinavia.com | Follow us on Instagram: ucsscandinavia Uncertain States Scandinavia DA NO 916337027 Edited by Astrid Gjersøe Skåtterød, Tor S Ulstein and Charlie Fjätström. Designed By James Young. Printed by Sharman & Company Ltd, Peterborough.
We welcome submissions from lens-based artists for further publications. For all enquiries please contact info@ucsscandinavia.com If you really like this paper as much that you say, please donate a dime or two. Vipps (Norway) 516266. You can also find us @ Patreon.com http://www.patreon.com/uncertainstatesscandinavia/
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