Distance and Intimacy. Contemporary Icelandic Photography.
The exhibition is a collaboration between the museum and FÍSL (The association of Icelandic contemporary photographers).
In the exhibition Distance and Intimacy. Contemporary Icelandic Photography, we hear the voices of some of those who have made their mark on contemporary Icelandic photography over the past two decades. Visitors are invited to “see more“ and to consider what happens when one looks at photographs for a long time. The photographs have been selected on the grounds that each individual image speaks in its own way to our time. Some depict reality in an uncompromising manner, while others lead us into confusion. All make us think about current affairs and take a stance regarding life and the society of which we, and they, are a part.
The photograph lies somewhere between commonplace social media and the elevated art space, but in contemporary photography, a view is taken on the medium and its historical properties. Contemporary photography depicts our time as a specific condition which is manifested in the constantly-changing relationship of the individual with their own time – either identifying with it, or distancing themselves from it, generally with the objective of better perceiving the time that passes, and even of analysing it. Contemporary photography thus entails a certain process of moving back and forth between distance and propinquity, present and past, memories and the issues of today.
Curator Æsa Sigurjónsdóttir
The exhibition showcases the content of a new book, Fegurðin er ekki skraut. Íslensk samtímaljósmyndun. (Beauty is not an ornament. Contemporary Icelandic Photography). Editors Sigrún Alba Sigurðardóttir and Æsa Sigurjónsdóttir, Reykjavík: FíSL / Fagurskinna, 2020, 328 pp.
The exhibition will be open from 19 September 2020 to 10 January 2021.
Exhibitors:
Agnieszka Sosnowska
Bára Kristinsdóttir
Bjargey Ólafsdóttir
Bragi Þór Jósefsson
Claudia Hausfeld
Daníel Þorkell Magnússon
Einar Falur Ingólfsson
Guðmundur Ingólfsson
Gunnhildur Hauksdóttir
Hallgerður Hallgrímsdóttir
Katrín Elvarsdóttir
Kristinn Ingvarsson
Kristleifur Björnsson
Orri
Pétur Thomsen
Spessi
