SPRING EXHIBITION 2018

” All images carry within themselves a dream of a specific kind of viewer. In the encounter with the image a space opens in which the audience can move in and out, alternate between being drawn into another world and observing it at a distance. It is a movement, an oscillation, between the image’s there and the observer’s here.

Art has always asked that the observer fulfill the work by projecting her or his own experiences and knowledge. With the photograph the demand for participation became more intense. Now the observer is called upon as the manager of a continuously increasing reservoir of images. The problem we have had – or, if one will, have had put upon us – since the last half of the 1800s always consists of having to gather, sort, and bring forth images at the right opportunity, so that an excerpt from this reservoir is activated and projected on the work of art. An image can be experienced with the same immediacy as a powerful light, it can unfold in several stages like a laborious excavation, or it can first become clear in memory, like an afterimage.

Each work in the Spring Exhibition of FFF (the Norwegian Association of Fine Art Photographers) explores in its own way varied strategies for drawing the perceiver in while also giving her or him distance. “

Nina Schjønsby & Halvor Haugen – Between here and there
Excerpt, catalog text 2018

The Spring Exhibition was established by Forbundet Frie Fotografer in 1976. It is a group exhibition, based on open submissions, where the participating artists are selected by a jury consisting of fellow art professionals. The exhibition is an important arena for Norwegian contemporary photography, and it has contributed to the promotion of camera based art both in the Norwegian cultural debate and the Norwegian art scene.

The jury for this year’s Spring Exhibition was Morten Torgersrud, Kobie Nel and Geir Moseid.

The Art Photography Prize of the Bildende Kunstneres Hjelpefond (BKH – The Relief Fund for Visual Artists) is awarded at the opening. The prize is given to one of the participating artists in the Spring Exhibition along with the work seen to be most meaningful for the exhibition.The prize was established in 2010 and has since then been awarded annually. The prize amounts to NOK 150 000 and is one of the largest art prizes awarded in Norway.

The jury for the Art Photography Prize 2018 is Christer Dynna, Margareta Bergman and Morten Torgersrud.

The Spring Exhibition is supported by Kulturrådet, Oslo kommune, Norsk Fotografisk Fond, BKH and Fritt Ord. It is produced by Forbundet Frie Fotografer in collaboration with Fotogalleriet.