ETHEREAL PHOTOGRAPHIC ART FROM NORWAY

The subtleties of light are on focus in the works of Dag Alveng, A K Dolven and Linn Pedersen, presented in ETHEREAL. PHOTOGRAPHIC ART FROM NORWAY. With photography, video and installation the three Norwegian artists examine the effect of light on perception and desires. The exhibition is the FFF contribution to Norway’s Guest of Honour Programme for the Frankfurter Buchmesse 2019.

The light of Norway is legendary. Shimmering, glistening, sky-lit, and always a little more intense than elsewhere in the world. It covers landscape and nature with sharp contrasts, soft colours or mystical veils. Present in midsummer and fleeting in winter, the familiar time patterns seem to dissolve. It surrounds people - with clarity, with melancholy, altering inner perspective, memories and moods, the unconscious and the unknown.

With the exhibition ETHEREAL. PHOTOGRAPHIC ART FROM NORWAY the Fotografie Forum Frankfurt (FFF) presents exceptional works of Dag Alveng, A K Dolven and Linn Pedersen about the subtleties of light in their home country Norway. With photography, installation, video and traditional photographic methods, the three artists examine how various qualities of light influence their perception and their own desires.

For more than 20 years, Dag Alveng (*1953 in Oslo) has photographed summer scenes: People in the garden or by the water, shadows in the sand or on the shed wall, forest paths to the sea. The subjects of the large-format black-and-white photographs seem secondary, for the focus of the long-term series "Summer Light" is light - intangible yet physically perceptible. In the finest grey tones, Alveng tells of relaxed summer moments beyond time and space. Images that convey something primeval in a place, and a visceral atmosphere.

The works of A K Dolven (*1953 in Oslo) also seem irritatingly timeless. The artist, who became known for her sculptures and installations, has long used video and photography, especially in her subtle ironic reflections on the photographic medium itself. The sunset in the land of the midnight sun is the theme of her video "melankoli". As often, Dolven is her own protagonist, observing the spectacle of nature from an unusual perspective. In "vertical on my own" Dolven takes up the interplay of light and shadow and thus the dynamics of time and movement.

Linn Pedersen (*1982, Kristiansand) exhibits a colossal camera obscura with which she photographed Norwegian landscapes at different seasons over several months. She cut holes in the walls of the installation "Pupill" to open up new perspectives for the viewer to experience her works – portraits, nature, body parts, printed as cyanotypes or giclée prints.

ETHEREAL. PHOTOGRAPHIC ART FROM NORWAY provides insight into Norway's lively contemporary photography scene and presents the works of these three exciting artists for the first time together. The exhibition was curated by Celina Lunsford, Artistic Director of the Fotografie Forum Frankfurt, and is FFF’s contribution to Norway's Guest of Honour programme of the Frankfurter Buchmesse 2019.

CURATOR’S TOUR
Sunday, 27 October and Sunday, 15 December, 3pm
with Celina Lunsford, Fotografie Forum Frankfurt [in German]

GALLERY TALKS
Thursday, 3 October
1 pm: with Linn Pedersen [in English]
2 pm: with A K Dolven [in English]
4 pm: Lecture with Dag Alveng [in English]

PHOTOGRAPHY PLAYERS: NORGE Night [in English]
Freitag, 18. Oktober 2019, ab 18 Uhr
"Books, Drinks and Conversations" inklusive
18.45 Uhr: "100 Norwegian Photographers" mit Ina Otzko
19.30 Uhr: "Slash & Burn" mit Terje Abusdal
20.30 Uhr: "In and Out of Norway" mit Antonio Cataldo

WORKSHOP
Saturday/Sunday, 19 & 20 October, 10am – 6pm
"Tackling the Mid Project Crisis" with Terje Abusdal [in English]

FINISSAGE
Saturday, 11 January, 6pm
Performance with Maria Pasenau & Una Mathiesen Gjerde