It is the first major international presentation of its kind in Norway and fills all three gallery spaces of the ground floor at the museum.
The exhibition foregrounds practices that acknowledge the fluctuating and networked condition of contemporary photography and society more generally, while also articulating a keen sensitivity towards the history of photography and art. Abstraction, digital and manual collage, new configurations of still life and the human body are key tendencies. The works on view are produced within the last three years and several are exhibited for the first time.
The title New Visions, refers to the program for a New Vision developed by László Moholy-Nagy in the interwar period, and that greatly impacted experimental photography throughout the 20th-century.
In conjunction with the exhibition, a volume titled Why Photography? is published by Skira Editore. The publication includes pointed interviews with all artists, asking how they relate to photography as a technical apparatus and process, and why they have chosen photography. Following the interviews are presentations of recent work by all artists. Why Photography? is edited by Behzad Farazollahi, Bjarne Bare and Christian Tunge, and co-edited by Susanne Østby Sæther. Introductory essays are written by Susanne Østby Sæther .
