Documents

The exhibition will present works by Danish and international artists who in a variety of ways use photography or other camera-based media in their practice to investigate, illuminate, contest or challenge photography's status as document, truth or evidence - materially as well as thematically and culturally. Participating artists includes, among others, Klara Källström & Thobias Fäldt (SE), Charlotte Haslund-Christensen (DK), Joachim Koester (DK), Olafur Eliasson (DK/IS), Mohamed Bourouissa (AL/FR), Hanna Råst (FI), Nanna Debois Buhl (DK) and Hiromi Tsuchida (JP).

Since the invention of photography, the medium has been associated with a certain truth value by virtue of its indexical relationship to reality – a kind of visual document that has been able to record, retain or depict reality and events apparently soberly. Throughout time, the photograph has thus had the status of a proof or document among, for example, scientists, historians or investigators to examine and understand the world or as a medium to search for or obtain a truth with.

At the same time, the notion of the photograph as a document and its relation to truth and evidence has also been questioned and contested by the fact that photography can also be for example staged, fictious or manipulated and that photographs are always just a part of reality. Today, photography's status as a document of reality is further contested by, for example, the technological development and artificial intelligence (AI) which also raises questions about whether technology contributes to devaluing or strengthening photography's status as a document.

The exhibition Documents is the third and last in a series of exhibitions that, through different themes (Disappearances in 2023 and Memories in 2024), has focused on some of the unique characteristics associated with photography as a medium. The exhibition trilogy will contribute to investigating and discussing photography's current artistic and cultural role.

Image credit: Klara Källström & Thobias Fäldt, Wikiland, 2007-07-12-00.59.46, Wikileaks (2007-07-12) + Klara Källström & Thobias Fäldt (00.59.46)©2014