Exibition opening story

Martin Bogren
Hollow
Curated by Tina Schelhorn

Hollow was photographed in Northern Europe during the winters of 2008-2018.‘The city seems in the grip of an insurmountable winter. Unless it is him who holds it in thrall; he drifts alone, a stranger to himself. Trapped in the absurdity of being in the world when any horizon looks like a dead end. Here everything is cold. Plagued by deaf, white apparitions, he wanders in search of an anchor, perhaps redemption in the blinding light, a little warmth. The warmth of another - human tenderness - which always eludes him and turns its back, bringing more anxiety than comfort. The warmth of another who gives herself or refuses, but remains irrevocably a desert island, like a mirror to his loneliness. His quest could be a failure. As if, each time he glimpses a way out, he tries to capture the hazy visions into which he seems to stumble - and we who look at his images stumble with him, shaken - and then he loses his way again, in the world and in himself, only to reveal more flashes. His photographs are vertiginous, they have the beauty of the vanquished returning to the light, they give voice to the loneliness of one who is lost, who feels wretched, but confronts the fear of emptiness and of not being able to exist. Thus they capture as much light as despair and hint that winter is not ultimately insurmountable.’ Text by Caroline Benichou published in the handbound artist's book.

Nina Korhonen
Anna – Amerikan mummu
Curated by Tina Schelhorn

The show is a story and a tribute to Nina Korhonen`s beloved grandmother Anna. The photographs have been taken in New York and Lake Worth, Florida between 1993-1999. The photographs are close to everyday life, sensual and warm – with lot of humor. The exhibition is a tribute to an elderly woman who was seeking a different life and found it. The journey to America had been grandmother’s big dream since she was eight years old and promised to follow her aunt to the great “Wonderland”. Anna was 40 years old and it was a bad time in Finland and impossible to find a job. Her husband Kalle had travelled as the chief engineer to all the great ports of the world, now he thought that it was his turn to stay at home. In spring 1959, Anna realized her life’s dream and alone, with couple of hundred dollars and no special skills in the English language, she took the airplane to New York. She lived in Brooklyn and worked as a cook in a wealthy family in upper Manhattan. Anna flew to Tampere, Finland every summer and Kalle flew to her in New York every winter. When Kalle died in 1985, Anna gave Nina his camera. A few years later when she found old color photographs from their trips, she decided to keep portraying Anna in her own way. She visited Anna regularly for two, three weeks at the time and photographed her in her home and favorite places. Anna called Nina her “back-scrubber” and she listened Anna’s stories and learnt to her “American mummu”. Anna got 40 years in America. She died from cancer, 83 years old. For the last six years, she had the beloved sunlight all year round. She travelled between her three homes – spring and autumn in New York, summer in Finland and winter in Florida. It was exactly as she had dreamt it would be. "Memories form an important element in Nina Korhonen’s autobiographically motivated series of photographs. Starting from found color snapshots of her grandfather, she develops her own history taken from the world of the "American way of life" at which in the center is her grandmother who emigrated to the U.S. in 1959. In large format color photographs a dialogue is created between two women from different generations.

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