About The Exhibition
This exhibition poses a series of enquiries into our perception and experience of the built environment. It also explores the nature of photography and how the medium can be used to articulate some of the more imaginative or unsettling qualities of architecture. In Taiyo Onorato and Nico Krebs series ‘Building Berlin’, the artists installed simple temporary wooden structures in front of existing buildings. When photographed from a particular angle, the structures mimic the lines of the building, sometimes extending the lines and thus proposing new possibilities for the space. The temporary interventions disrupt the illusion of three dimensional space in the two-dimensional image, and play on the nature of photography as a construction.
Espen Dietrichson’s meticulously crafted, photographic collages were made following a series of extensive walks around major world cities and photographing the exteriors of buildings. He has then re-presented these buildings as opened up or ‘exploded’ forms. The fragments of the exterior are suspended in the air and they take on an uncanny and alien presence in an otherwise familiar cityscape.
Nina Fischer and Maroan el Sani have been working in collaboration since 1993 on film and photography projects that often involve abandoned utopian architectural schemes. They made the series ‘XOO EX OVO OMNIA’ in 2005 in the old head quarter of the Parti Communiste Francais in Paris, which was designed by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer in 1965 and completed in 1980. Like Onorato and Krebs, they staged a series of interventions within the existing space which they then photographed. By introducing actors into the building, and playing on the futuristic forms of the structure, the artists have created new narratives in this politically fraught space.
Jan McCullough has made a photographic survey of a house in Northern Ireland. In her series of small intimate prints she has observed the attempts made to repair and restore the building and the traces of human activity within the house. The title of the work is ‘Portrait as a Building’ which invites the viewer to make a comparison between the building and a person’s internal state.
The Artists
Espen Dietrichson Nina Fischer & Maroan el Sani Taiyo Onorato & Nico Krebs Jan McCulloughEspen Dietrichson (b.1976, Norway) attended The State Academy of Fine Art, Oslo between 2000 and 2004. He is currently working on a public commission for Nordland Hospital in Bodø in Northern Norway. In 2014, his works will be exhibited at Bomuldsfabriken Art Hall, Norway, in the group exhibition 'Polyfoni 2' at Thomas Wallner, Malmø, Sweden and as a part of Katya Tylevich's project 'Word Bites Picture' at Design Matters Los Angeles. His works have been aquired by public collections such as Statoil Art Collection and South Norway Art Museums collection. Dietrichson is represented by Galleri Haaken in Oslo.
Nina Fischer (b.1965, Germany) and Maroan el Sani (b.1966, Germany) Recent exhibitions include Architektonika, Hamburger Bahnhof─Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin, 2013; Quest for Vision vol.5: Spelling Dystopia, Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo, 2012; and Spell On You, Mediacity Seoul Biennale, Seoul, 2012.
Taiyo Onorato (b.1979, Switzerland) and Nico Krebs (b.1979, Switzerland) studied Photography at Zurich University for the Arts and have worked together since 2003. Solo exhibitions have included 'Adding, Adding, Adding' at FOAM, Amsterdam (2014) and 'Ready to be Made' at Le Bal, Paris (2013). They have been the recipient of many awards including the Foam Paul Huf Award (2013) and are part of the collections of CNAP, Paris, MOCP Chicago and at the National Museum of Photography, Denmark.
Jan McCullough (b. 1991, N.I) is a graduate from the Belfast School of Art. She has exhibited most recently at the International Biennial of Photography in Belgium, the Circulation(s) Festival in Paris, the Royal Ulster Academy, and as part of the Photocopy Club Collective in London and Berlin. Her work is part of the collection of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.
Events
Friday 15 August | 1pm | Belfast Exposed
Free AdmissionFriday 22 August | 1pm | Belfast Exposed
Free AdmissionFriday 5 September | 1pm | Belfast Exposed
Free AdmissionFriday 12 September | 1pm | Belfast Exposed
Free AdmissionThursday 9 October | 6pm | Belfast Exposed
Free AdmissionThursday 2 October - Saturday 11 October | 6pm | Belfast Exposed
Free Admission