Similarities and Differences – New Norwegian Photography
31 March-16 May
Opening: 31 March at 7 pm
Press conference: 30 March at 1 pm
Preus museum
Kulturparken Karljohansvern
PB. 254
NO-3192 Horten
Norway
post [at] preusmuseum.no
Curator: Jonas Ekeberg
Norwegian photography has undergone rapid development in the new millennium and a new generation of photographers have transgressed the boundary between modernist art photography and post-modernist stagings. The new generation of photographers moves effortlessly between straight photography and conceptual strategies, and often combine the two, which were previously regarded as diametric opposites.
Similarities and differences – New Norwegian Photography takes as its starting-point ways in which photographers use series, sequences and groups of photographs. The exhibition argues that this is a significant way of understanding recent developments in the field. Following the Becher school’s mechanical and repetitive work starting in the 1960s and the playful and eclectic colour photographs of the 1990s, both of these formal strategies are now used to link local places and situations with the notion of a multicultural and globalised world.
Similarities and differences – New Norwegian photography shows works that mix traditional genre such as landscapes, architecture and portraits with questions relating to social identity and visual culture. A number of photographers have rediscovered documentary photography, which is now being used with a clear awareness of the criticism to which the medium has been subjected. Others use collage techniques or take their visual raw materials from sources such as the family album or the internet. The most significant tendency in this exhibition is nevertheless that the photographers build on the media-critical awareness that emerged in the wake of post-modernism, while at the same time exploring the breadth of aesthetic opportunities available in the medium of photography.
Artists represented: Matias Faldbakken, Grand Royal Art, Jorunn Irene Hanstvedt, Heini Holtta, Katja Host, Ole Martin Lund Bo, Eline Mugaas, Dag Nordbrenden, Torbjorn Rodland, Birgitte Sigmundstad, Anette Sletnes, Camilla Sune, Vibeke Tandberg and Morten Torgersrud.
During the course of February and March Preus museum – Norway’s national museum of photography – has undergone a process of renewal. The museum has a new name, new exhibition architecture, a new graphic profile, new web site and the cafeteria now offers a wider selection of food and beverages. In the new, alternating permanent exhibition the museum will exhibit key works from the history of photography that form part of the museum’s international collection.
The opening on Thursday, 31 March will be the first opportunity visitors have to experience the “new” Preus museum.
For further information, please contact administrative manager Astrid Roberg .
