(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
New Vision 2023, the second triennial of photography and new media, is named after Moholy Nagy. He is a Bauhaus multi-artist and photographer and known for adopting mechanical methods to stretch photographic practice.
A distance from conventional photographic method is a consistent approach in the new exhibition that has opened at Henie Onstad Art center (until 17.9). At the same time, several works are marked in a more literal sense: Household chemicals, algae, bacteria and other things are used to process the surfaces of prints and negatives. For example, Seif Kousmate's photographed Moroccan oases have acquired a mythical dream-like feel through such a process. Fireflies apparently cling to what looks more like huge tapestries than photography. The drastic intervention in the motif supports the fatal message. In about a decade, Seif's homeland has lost more than two-thirds of its palm trees and lost historically fertile waterholes. Political activism through fascinatingly seductive visuals is fresh, welcome and thought-provoking.
Estonian Kristina Öllek explores geomatter, marine ecosystems and toxic algae which she allows to grow as layered representations of pollution. The tactility of the works is complemented by the use of chain and limestone – which provide anchoring and weight.
HOK's investment in photography started in 2017 with the first triennial in 2020. This year, 22 artners with ties to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and Norway
– areas linked by raw material economies, but also energy production and distribution. Common is attention to the ecological, social and political consequences of the extraction of natural and man-made resources – from oil to data.
Horror movie
A meandering, glowing, monstrous, umbilical-like cable snakes its way through the dystopian airport landscape. Power sources are necessary for modern warfare.
The result is ominous, organic, adventurous and believable down to the level of detail.
Anna Engelhardt sits with me in a dark screening room while we watch her horror film. We talk softly about the process of becoming. Together with the Belarusian Mark Cinkevich, she searched for an expression that reflected alienation and brutal cruelty. Engelhardt is a Russian in exile, and her alias is a necessity to protect those in the family who have not fled. She says the film is based on satellite images processed in Unreal. She adds that the use of a game engine makes implementing lighting or fog very easy. The result is ominous, organic, adventurous and believable down to the level of detail. Neutral shots from the room have turned into subjectively suggestive horror with the help of changed light and the highlighting of the electrical power supply as the beast in the story.
Pulsating light
Electricity and light are also at the core of Lebanese Haig Aivazians video works All the stars are just dust on my feet – which refers to the protests in 2019. He uses lightning, light and light pollution to tell about violent conflict and governing infrastructure. Like Engelhardt's film, this one also has strong elements of sci-fi. At Haig, electric light manifests as terrifying detached formations that spring from high-voltage pylons and wires. They are metaphysical creatures that convey rawness and unpredictability. Aivazian commutes between different countries. He talks about growing up in a Beirut with constant power outages, about his time studying in Chicago and about the ongoing collection of video material as a method. Curious about how he weaves in his own footage, I get Aivazian to reveal which scenes he has used these in. They are characterized by depth in light and landscape and woven in seamlessly. Editing took three or four months, Aivazian whispers as pulsing lights and explosions draw me inward and into this electric dimension. In there – a tortured Syrian robbed of sun and light for two years in a dungeon. Some half-darkness under a door was all that could be seen.
And on Henie Onstad shows Lesia Vasylchenko radar signal that has been transformed into images – where, among other things, earthquakes and disappearing glaciers on Spitsbergen are materialised. She captures violent and stealthy changes in the installation Sensing the Near Real-Time.
Interactive summary
The triennial is rich, multifaceted and playful. A thermos or coffee visit is necessary even if you only want to experience a fraction of the exhibition. Repeated visits may be required to get a complete overview. A couple of hours were too short.
A two-part work by Neïl Beloufa undertakes the task of summarizing and helping the audience to digest all the impressions. Two figure installations are both logarithmic and critical to our increasing technological dependence – Yellowstone host welcomes you with inner visual glimpses from the exhibition.
Red host offers interactive surveys that require choice and personal reflection: What has influenced, among other things, colors and emotions, is specially adapted and printed on an A4 sheet. The art critic of the future has spoken. On my print there were traces of cotton flowers, worn Georgian symbols from plastic bags and bloody Central Asian revolution.
