Coping with Distance

Coping with Distance

Curators: Andreas Hagenbach and Daniel Müller
Venue: Photoforum Pasquart, Biel (Switzerland)
Coping with Distance shows photography from Iceland in cooperation with Culturescapes Festival
Dates: 26.09.2015 - 22.11.2015

Artists: Olaf Otto Becker – Claudia Hausfeld – Einar Falur Ingólfsson – Mathilda Olmi –Ingvar Högni Ragnarsson – Pétur Thomsen

The experience of vastness in the landscape and that of time are existential experiences. What kind of photography emerges from this topological event? “Coping with Distance” shows photography from Iceland that addresses this experience of distance.

Concrete spillway chute, Kárahnjúkar dam, 2010. © Olaf Otto Becker

Think about Iceland and photography and vast landscapes, then large watercourses and volcanic activity come to mind, with little in the way of ground crew on this halfway house between the American and European continents. But it is in the summer months that many from more temperate regions head to this northern island to experience the seemingly untouched nature, which for some almost has the status of a paradise. The natural landscapes of Iceland inevitably impress, so many photographers try to capture the sublime in this landscape. The attribution 'being sublime' refers to the distance between us and the object of observation, but what else is this distance (experience) about?

Distance is first and foremost a spatial category, but the distance from and to something affects people's entire existence in northern latitudes. In the exhibition ‘Coping with Distance’, PhotoforumPasquart presents contemporary photography that shows the human experience of distance. Coping with spatial distances is also one of the great achievements of people living in the North. Distances characterise life in a physical way, so distance becomes a metaphor for many aspects of life, including that of time - how long will it be before we see each other again once we have said goodbye?

But people can also distance themselves from one another in cultural or temporal terms. The photography shown in ‘Coping with Distance’ traces the cultural ruptures that have occurred in Iceland. In earlier times, the extreme climatic conditions did not allow for denser settlement, as the land and sea could no longer support people. Today, many are fleeing from the northern regions, from their isolation to the urban centres. If, on the one hand, it is thanks to spatial remoteness that a tradition lasts longer, then, on the other hand, the lure of the new can be seen as a consequence of the accelerated development of today's world, to which we also have our questions in Switzerland.