Soil Studies – New Danish Photography of Nature is a touring exhibition with five Danish artists Ditte Knus Tønnesen, Lotte Fløe Christensen, Veronika Geiger, Inuuteq Storch, Kirstine Autzen. The exhibition has been shown in Poland as part of the festival FFWRS and will continue to in China in 2023.
Soil Studies – New Danish Photography of Nature is an exhibition about ‘soil’ as concrete, physical material, and as the basis of belonging and identity. The exhibition brings together the works of five Danish art photographers and reaches beyond Danish soil into the Greenlandic and Icelandic landscapes: rock, sea, botany and the human body meet in very experimental and spatial works. The selection of works places emphasis on the paradoxical relationship between humans and nature, in which we simultaneously turn to nature to feel small and to feel connected to a system much larger than ourselves – and all the while, we are increasingly becoming aware that we as a species excerpt immense control over this same global ecosystem. How do we connect intellectually, emotionally and pragmatically to nature at this point in time? To what extent is our conception of nature a construction?
The artists of the exhibition each had their own approach to working with the theme but they share an interest in using the image-creating process itself as a source of knowledge and to express personal experience, and they testify to both cultural, scientific and emotional meanings of the earth beneath our
feet.
The director of Galleri Image Beate Cegielska curated the exhibition Soil Studies – New Danish Photography of Nature together with Kirstine Autzen.
The exhibition was shown at Goyki 3 Art Inkubator as part of FFWRS (Festiwal Fotografii W Ramach Sopotu) 2 – 18 September 2022 in Sopot, Poland.
The exhibition was originally meant to be part of Pingyao International Photography Festival 2020. Following the festival, the art photographers were meant to participate along with their artworks as a touring exhibition in China during 2021 to the cities Beijing and Chengdu. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the exhibition has been pushed, and is now scheduled for 2023.
In Beijing, the exhibition will be shown at the Danish Cultural Center (DCC), which promotes cultural exchange between Danish and Chinese parties.
The exhibition is supported by the Danish Arts Foundation, The Danish Ministry of Culture and The Royal Danish Embassy in Poland.
