Fresh Eyes

Teresa Meka visited Aarhus on residency in June 2016, at the same time as another young female participant in the FRESH EYES project, Anushree Fadnavis (IND). The pair explored the city separately and together, searching for inspiration and Fresh perspectives on the city, to create their contribution to FRESH EYES. Meka works with both art and documentary photography. Her photographs are often humoristic, detail orientated and very personal. Her work is a process of questioning and selfdiscovery, as she seeks to document her relationship with the society and how that evolves with time. Her choice of subject comes from her life experience, observing and questioning the various interactions that transpire in her space.

Bio
Teresa Meka (b. 1990) lives and works in Accra, Ghana. She studied at the College of Digital Photography, participated in projects with the Dei Centre Ghana, Invisible Borders and Sudanese Photographers’ Group “Where the Nile meets” Master Class Khartoum, Goethe Institut Dakar/Berlin workshop Accra, Johannesburg Master Class and Gwanza Month of Photography Moonwalking exhibition Harare.

Exhibitions
Invisible Borders exhibition at the Photography Museum in Amsterdam (FOAM) titled Collectivism. Collectives and their Quest for Value 2017KNUST MFA Thesis Exhibition “Memory and Amnesia: In the Presence of Absent Futures” Ghana, 2017Invisible Borders exhibition at Aperture New York The exhibition titled “Collective Thinking, 2017Fotoparty Lagos, 2017Invisible Borders Installation at the 56th Venice Biennale, 2015Mugran Foto Week “Where the Niles Meets” Group exhibition Khartoum, 201413th Edition of Gwanza Month of Photography “Moonwalking” exhibition Harare, 2014

The Indian artist Anushree Fadnavis visited Aarhus on residency in connection with the project FRESH EYES – International Artists Rethink Aarhus in 2016. Fadnavis has studied photojournalism at the Udaan School of Photography in Mumbai. Her artistic expression is accordingly journalistic, documentary and observing. Her photographic works often revolves around people in transit in the fast moving metropolis of Mumbai and is therefore accustomed to training her camera on a city and its inhabitants. In relation to the concept behind the FRESH EYES-project few eyes could be fresher; her stay in Aarhus was also the first time she travelled outside India.

In Anushree Fadnavis’ best known work, the series #traindiaries from 2014, she captures female travelers in the endless trains that function as the city’s veins. Here she has achieved a personal and individual portrayal of the people who easily could disappear in the masses. At the same time she documents the relationships between the travelers who often form strong bonds on their daily journeys from A to B. It’s been an ongoing work for the last 3 years and has been exhibited at the Indian Photography Festival in 2016 which was held at Hyderabad, India . It was also exhibited at the Serendipity Arts Festival at Goa, India in 2016 .

Fadnavis was also a panelist at the Indian Photography Festival last year which was held at Hyderabad as well as a speaker at TedXEMWS held in January 2017
Anushree Fadnavis has been featured in India’s first Instagram-based magazine Kartha Collective, and has worked on a project with the National Film Board of Canada

Website: http://anushreefadnavis.weebly.com/
Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/anushree_fadnavis/?hl=en 

Rana ElNemr, visual artist, born 1974 in Egypt. Lives and works in Cairo. Works primarily with photography, exploring urban life, social constructions and architectural traits. She is the co-founder of The Contemporary Image Collective (CIC) in Cairo. She has had international solo exhibitions amongst others one at Galleri Image 2006, and she also took part in the group exhibition She Who Tells A Story at The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in 2013. In 2005 she won the Grand Prix at Bamako Photography Biennale, Mali.

The Chinese photographic, performance, and video artist Liu Jin visited Aarhus in May/June 2015 on a DIVA residency supported by The Danish Arts Foundation. While here, he explored Denmark from coast to coast and created a selection of images for FRESH EYES as well as his own ongoing photographic series exploring common points of cultural heritage affecting people in both China and the west.

Liu Jin (1971), born in Jiangsu Province, China, graduated from the Department of Arts and Crafts at Jiangsu Xuzhou Engineering Institute in 1995. He works with globally current issues such as nationality, identity, technological development and the status of the individual in society in a wide field of photography, painting, video, sculpture and performance as intervention in the public space. His works are often inspired by the poetry of everyday objects such as toys, the German national anthem, plastic tubing, and flowers – often involving either his own body or the bodies of the participants in his performances.

His practice gathers its subject matter from the cultural crossroads between Western and Chinese culture. For example, one of his most frequently recurring characters – a nude, wounded angel with white wings – is an important part of Western religion and visual tradition, but receives a far broader and more earthly role (as well as gaining a human perspective) in Liu Jin’s works. The vulnerable angelic form is used as an image of the modern human condition in a world constantly up-ended by new technological leaps.

This theme is picked up by Liu Jin in his controversial series “Injured-Angel”. The series was created as part of “A Starting Point: Intrude Art & Life 366 Days” at the Shanghai Zenda Museum of Modern Art, where several realistic angel sculptures were suspended as if they were clinging to window blinds and gutters on buildings and factories in public spaces. They not only showed the vulnerability of the individual, but also suggested a different perspective on the city they were looking at. The series also points to another characteristic feature of Liu Jin’s works: His inclusion of the physical body, used as a multifaceted signifier of the human self, focus of various artistic genres, and problematized as “society’s” property or used as concrete material in his practice.  

Selected solo exhibitions:
2016: The Danish Cultural Center in 798 Art District, Beijing
2013: Nowhere to Escape, Matthias Küper Galleries, Stuttgart / Beijing
2012: The Spectacled People, Four-Face Space Gallery, Beijing
2011: The Second Face, White Box Museum, Beijing
2010: Injured Angel + Religion Space, TIVAC, Taipei
2008: Lost Paradise, Art8 Gallery, Beijing
2006: Ascending Angel, Studio Rouge Gallery, Shanghai

Liu Jin has also participated in group exhibitions in China, USA, Canada, France, England, Spain, Italy, Germany, Czech Republic, Belgium, Norway, South Korea and Singapore, in cities such as New York, Paris, London, Berlin, Toronto, Madrid and Milan.

Read more: https://www.lensculture.com/ljin

Nature and culture, East and West, subjects and objects meet in Hyun-Jin Kwak’s photo-based art. In her works she lets the potent symbols and myths from her Korean home and childhood reflect and confront the imagery of adult life and the western world. “Girls In Uniform”, an ongoing photographic series since 2003, originated as a form of self-analysis, where Kwak looked at her background from her new vantage point of woman and artist. The large-scale, staged photographs that constitute the series feature uniformed school girls inhabiting urban and natural landscapes. Barren industrial sites mingle with rivers, waterfalls, cliffs, and dense, almost impenetrable greenery setting the stage for tense and slightly threatening teenage episodes, frozen in time. Kwak’s artistic method is rooted in a thorough, almost scientific, approach. Over time the “Girls In Uniform” series has developed into studies of settings where historical and architectural aspects carry increasing importance. It has also become a reflective tool, to look at, and investigate foreign places. Hyun-jin Kwak states: “The uniformed girl somehow came to represent my own foreign perspective and placement and displacement in different geographies of the West, functioning as a Fresh Eye.” Hyun-Jin Kwak first came to Aarhus for in 2015 to scout locations and do the preliminary research for her contribution to FRESH EYES. She returned on a longer residency in 2016 where she carried out the work with staging and shooting the photographs for FRESH EYES.

Bio: Hyun-Jin Kwak (1974) was born in South Korea but lives and works in Stockholm. Her works have been shown both in group and solo exhibitions in most major European exhibition spaces. In Kwak’s artistic projects, the photographed spaces often appear as theatrical sets, dressed and constructed solely for the camera lens. In recent years, the place itself has increasingly been allowed to take center stage. One example is the project The Island, in which the artist engaged in an in-depth investigation of an abandoned and dilapidated palace in the town of Reggio Emilia in Italy. With an almost anthropological approach, she examined the history, meaning and in particular the symbolic and political significance of the place, resulting in an extremely compelling photographic series.

Selected exhibitions:
Galleri Fagerstedt, Stockholm, Sweden, 2016
Kalmar Konstmuseum , Kalmar, Sweden, 2016
ARARIO GALLERY, Seoul, South Korea, 2013
Peter Lav Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2013
Galleri F 15, Moss, Norway 2013
Sven Harrys Konstmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden 2012
Fotografins Hus, Stockholm, Sweden, 2012
Technoloplis, Athens, Greece, 2011
Museum Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova, Turku Biennial 2011, Turku, Finland, 2011  
Kulturhuset, Stockholm, Sweden, 2009
Platfrom Seoul, Seoul, South Korea, 2009
Haninge Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden, 2009
Hasselblad Center, Gothenburg, Sweden, 2006
Art Pavilion Zagrab,  Zagrab, Croatia, 2006
Uppsala Konstmuseum, Uppsala, Sweden, 2006  

Publications:
Hyun-Jin Kwak “The Island – A Case Study of a Collectors Mind”, Revolver Publishing
Hyun-Jin Kwak “Study of Elements”, Kulturhuset Stockholm Hyun-Jin Kwak “A Script for Verification”, Uppsala Konstmuseum  

Hyun-Jin Kwak’s website: www.hyunjinkwak.com/index.htm

The Finnish artist Markus Henttonen (b 1976) was on residency in Aarhus for FRESH EYES in august 2015 where locations in Aarhus came under the inspection of his particular photographic eye. Henttonen started working with documentary photography in the 90s when he, due to his interest in skateboarding, decided to photograph skateboarders for Finnish magazines, since he didn’t think that the existing images where of sufficient quality. Henttonen’s photographs have since then been moving towards a more narrative style – albeit without staging or attempts to control the action in front of the camera. The photography of Markus Henttonen is storytelling, cinematic and poetic. His timeless and beautiful images of landscape and people create palpable atmospheres and lingering moods. Markus has a prominent style that is at the same time sensual and honest with a tiny hint of melancholy underneath. Henttonen’s works deal with the relationship between people and their everyday environment. He is interested in those places and situations that might at first glance appear mundane – but in reality are far from it. His photographs of anonymous locations and everyday events are often clouded in a melancholy ambience. The images in the photographic series Silent Night from 2012-14 are examples of this. Here, Markus Henttonen has photographed houses, driveways, and front lawns, decorated with fairy lights and cleansed of all human activity. Bathed in the artificial light, the images acquire an almost hyperreal expression, making the houses appear more like scale models than actual places.

Bio: After graduating from Turku Arts Academy in Finland in 2002 Markus Henttonen moved to Barcelona where he created his first personal art project “Paral-lel City”, which was published as a book and exhibition in 2004. Since then he has shared his time between art and commercial photography working with numerous editorial and commercial clients and having his works shown in over 100 solo- and group exhibitions throughout Europe.

Markus Henttonen has released three monographs, most recent “Twisted Tales – Road to Hope” worldwide via Hatje Cantz. Lately his works have been exhibited in major International group shows alongside renowned artists such as David LaChapelle, Pierre&Gilles, Martin Schöller, Mitch Epstein and Robert Polidori. His works are held in public and private collections in Finland, USA, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Belgium, Spain, and the Netherlands.

Markus Henttonen currently lives and works between Berlin, Barcelona and his native country Finland.

Markus Henttonen’s website: www.markushenttonen.com

Danish Maja Ingerslev’s contribution to FRESH EYES represents an insider’s view, as Ingerslev is the only visual artist participating in the project that both lives and works in Aarhus. Ingerslev’s work on the FRESH EYES project extended a full year as she visually manipulated the seasonal transformation of the natural landscape in and around Aarhus with subtle evocative interventions.
Her work is site-specific, located in nature, and approximating to the land art genre. Delicate paper formations of running streams, snow drifts, flowers, roots, and feathers are inserted into landscapes whose rough surfaces and rugged environs are in stark contrast to the smooth whiteness and fragile materiality of the paper. By placing the characteristic three dimensional paper cuttings in the landscapes Ingerslev provides the viewer with a new perspective on nature as a poetic call to reflection and contemplation.

BIO
Maja Ingerslev was born 1972 and lives and works in Aarhus. She graduated from the Jutland Art Academy in 2002 with additional studies at the School of Photography, Aarhus in 2001. Ingerslev’s artistic praxis is characterized by a varied use of materials and media. Ingerslev works in photography, video, animation, installation, sculpture, drawing, artists’ books and paper cuttings – as well as combinations of these media.
Her work has been exhibited and published in Denmark and internationally – and Galleri Image was proud to show her solo exhibition in 2010. Her works have also been shown in the group exhibitions in Russia, Finland, Germany, Lithuania, Norway, and Sweden. Her work can be found in public collections at Brandts (Museet for Fotokunst) in Denmark, Rikhardinkatu Library, RikArt in Finland and also as part of “The Image Collection” at Galleri Image.

For more information see www.majaingerslev.com

Photo credit: Maja Ingerslev “Anemone” 2015. From the series “Season is home”

The German photographer Thomas Kellner was the fourth artist to pay Aarhus a visit in connection with FRESH EYES. During his visit to Aarhus he worked to transform his conception of Denmark as a northern country by the seaside into a visual expression. He plans to achieve this by visually converting one of the iconic buildings by Aarhus harbour – The Iceberg – into a wave.

Thomas Kellner is known for his photographs of seemingly dancing architectural exteriors and interiors of tourist attractions from all over the world. Even though his photographs show popular motives that have been mass-produced, his work is unique due to his new artistic method called “visual analytical synthesis” in which he does not take one shot but several thoughtfully planned ones in order to create a picture out of contact sheets. His work is often referred to Cubism considering that his creative process includes a construction but the results resemble a deconstruction. Thomas Kellner’s works imitate the wandering look of the eye, showing us segments of the total which come together as one image. Therefore his photographs do not deconstruct architecture but reconstruct our view on it. At the same time his work also reflects the flood of pictures we live in nowadays and furthermore contains the question of decaying cultural values.

In 2016 Thomas Kellner was awarded the Award of Excellence at the 2nd International Industrial Photography Festival, Shenyang, Tiexi, Peoples Republic of China.

His works have been published among other places in the monographs Tango Metropolis (w Text by I. Chmyreva), Siegen: ASK, 2016, Black & White (w. Text by H. Fogel). Lüdenscheid / Berlin, seltmann + söhne, 2016, Contacts (w. Text by Arrouye) 1997-2013. Lyon: Galerie Vrais Reves, 2014 and Genius Loci (w. tekst by Irina Chmyreva, Andreas Bingener, Artjem Berkovitch), Lüdenscheid / Berlin: seltmann + söhne, 2013.

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS:

focus Galerie, Cologne, Germany, 2016
Ballarat International Photobiennale, Ballarat, Australia, 2015
photovisa, Krasnodar, Russian Federation, 2014
Pingyao International Photography Festival, Pingyao, Peoples Republic of China, 2014
Metenkow House Museum of Photography, Yekaterinburg, Russian Federation, 2013
Lishui Museum of Photography, Lishui, Peoples Republic of China, 2012
ECCO,  Brasilia, Brazil, 2010
Galerie Poller, Frankfurt, Germany, 2009
2008 The Boston Athenaeum, Boston, USA
2005 Galleri Image, Aarhus, Denmark

For more information visit: www.thomaskellner.com

In the works of Irish photographer Miriam O’Connor, everyday impressions are frequently transformed into artistic expressions through her special talent for observing and sensing beauty in random occurrence.  In her work for FRESH EYES O’Connor reflects on what it means to cast a ‘fresh eye’ on a city which has been photographed innumerable times by tourists and city dwellers alike. She is curious about what might happen if through the course and direction of looking, by shifting the focus in another direction, something new might be revealed. During her time in Aarhus, O’ Connor adopted the position of a typical tourist, visiting the city’s hot spots seeking out something new in what is already known. During her ‘tourist trails’, steering off track, embracing chance encounters and looking the other way all informed her unique approach in reimagining the city.  In presenting this new work, O’Connor is also interested in engaging with the materials and tools which helped her navigate the city, such as tourist maps, written notes and handouts or oral directions received from those she met along the way.

BIO
Irish photographer, Miriam O’Connor lives and works in Cork. She holds a BA in photography from Dublin Institute of Technology, and completed a Research Masters at the Institute of Art, Design & Technology, Dun Laoghaire in 2011. Drawing inspiration from the language, sights and sounds of the everyday, O’ Connor’s practice frequently engages with matters which reflect her everyday surroundings, as well as her day-to-day experiences of being a photographer. Her projects have explored themes around looking and seeing; the relationship between camera and subject; the circulation and consumption of images and the complex nature of photographic representation. She often employs wit and humour in her practice as tools to communicate her photographic inquiries.

Her work has been exhibited and distributed extensively, with features in magazines and publications including Camera Austria, Source Photographic Review, The New York Times, and The Guardian. Recent solo shows include Sternview Gallery, Cork, Galleri Image, Denmark, The Third Space Gallery, Belfast and during ‘THERE THERE’ festival, Cork curated by Stag & Deer. In 2012, she received the Alliance Française Photography Award, which included a residency at the Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris. She was the recipient of the Emerging Irish Artist Residency Award [EIARA] in 2015 which included a month-long residency at Burren College of Art, Co. Clare. She has produced two photobooks, Attention Seekers (2012) published by PogoBooks, Berlin and Galleri Image, Denmark. Her second photobook, The Legacy Project, an arts commission with The National Women’s Council of Ireland was published in 2013. She was one of the selected artists for Greetings from Ireland (2015) and New Irish Works I & II (2013, 2016). In conjunction with Galleri Image, Denmark, she is currently producing new work for FRESH EYES – International artists rethink Aarhus, which will be exhibited during Aarhus Capital of Culture, 2017.

For more information see www.miriamoconnor.com

In her photographic work the Portuguese artist Inês d’Orey combines her immediate sense for architectural details and structures with her ability to technically recreate spatial impressions and through the photographic gaze to create poetic and mysterious narratives. Inês’ residency in Aarhus in 2013 in connection with FRESH EYES resulted in a series of evocative images where some of the city’s most recognizable buildings are shown side by side with other more seemingly banal locations. Inês’ images share the quality of being desolate of human presence and she always chooses the least obvious perspective. These artistic interventions result in an original view on the otherwise so familiar city.

Bio:
Inês d’Orey was born in Porto in 1977.  She has a degree in Photography (London College of Printing, 2002) and a degree in International Relations (Minho University, 1999). She received a scholarship from Centro Português de Fotografia between 1999 and 2002, and in 2007 Inês won the Fnac New Talent prize in photography. She has been frequently publishing and exhibiting her work in Portugal and abroad since 1999. In 2010 she published her first book “Mecanismo da troca” and in 2011 her second book “porto interior”.

Recent exhibitions include Power and Illusion (Mira Fórum, Porto, Portugal, 2015), Rota das Catedrais, Museu de Artes Decorativas, Viana do Castelo, Portugal, 2015), Sous le sable, Encontros da Imagem Photography Festival, Braga, Portugal, 2014), Memory and Archive (MUMA, Curitiba and S. Paulo, Brazil, 2014), Caixa Negra (Galeria Presença, Porto, Portugal, 2014), Dear Stories (Plataforma Revólver, Lisbon, Portugal, 2013/2014), Territories of Portuguese Photography (Photoaumnales, Beauvais, France, 2013), Dear Stories (Museu da Imagem, Braga, Portugal, 2013), Nomadic Settlers, Settled Nomads (Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Berlin, Germany, 2011)

For more information: http://www.inesdorey.com/

Tom Lovelace spent the month of August 2013 in Aarhus as artist in residence for Fresh Eyes; hosted by Galleri Image. During this research visit Tom immersed himself into the fabric of Aarhus, gaining a unique insight into the character of the city and its inhabitants. This research has provided him with a rich platform of experiences, observations and visual material with which he is currently constructing a new series of work for Fresh Eyes. Tom also gave a public photography workshop at Godsbanen and an artist talk at Galleri Image during his visit. Tom Lovelace has developed an art practice which is rooted in photography, but also incorporates sculpture and staged, performative events. He is interested in both the possibilities and boundaries between the photograph and the sculptural object. His subject matter manifests in the everyday, minimal and seemingly mundane objects and environments that surround us. Through photography he transforms and reconfigures the ‘everyday’ within new visual structures and narratives. Lovelace’s project will culminate in two separate bodies of work. The first will consist of a range of photographic prints and objects which present fragments of and for the city; stripped down to minimal components and reflections. Lovelace is currently constructing a series of photographic sculptures, which are made in response to his Aarhus residency. He will be returning to Aarhus in 2014 to collect further visual material. The second presentation of work will take place during 2017 where Lovelace will unveil an installation within the city of Aarhus. This installation will effectively trace and document the year through photography in its most basic elements: the rays of the sun. The installation will also provide a meeting place for both residents and tourists to meet, socialize and reflect. Bio:
Tom Lovelace lives and works in London. He studied photography at Arts University Bournemouth, where he received top marks, after which he studied art history at Goldsmith’s College, University of London.Recent exhibitions and exhibitions include: Murmur (Flowers Gallery, London 2016), Tipping Point (Alma Zevi Gallery, Venice 2016), Groundwork (New Art Center, Salisbury 2015), Mirage Valley (Lendi Projects, Switzerland), Two Camera (Golden Thread Gallery , Belfast 2015), This Way Up (Flowers Gallery, London 2015), Against Nature (London Art Fair, 2015), Project 05 (Contemporary Art Society, London 2014), Sweep (Victoria and Albert Museum, London 2014) and Ristruttura Project B Gallery, Milano 2012). Lovelace has exhibited in Britain, Europe and the United States and has exhibited her works besides artists such as Martha Rosler, Richard Wentworth, Eva Stenram and Ai Wei Wei.In 2015-2016, Lovelace was nominated for The Foam Paul Huf Award, the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize, the Prix Pictet Award and the Infinity Award (International Center of Photography, New York). His books Work Starts Here (2013) and This Way Up (2016) are in the Tate Artists Book Collection.Lovelace is visiting lecturer at The Royal College of Art, London and at The Arts University, Bournemouth.
For more information about the artist visit: www.tomlovelace.co.uk

Jacques Jouet (born 6 October 1947) is a French writer and has been a participating member of the Oulipo literary project since 1983. He is a poet, novelist, short story writer, playwright, essayiste, and plasticine artist specializing in collages. As a member of l’Oulipo, Jouet became its focus in June 2009 when he began publicly writing a serialized novel in five days. He first became involved with Oulipo in 1978, stemming from a writing course directed by Paul Fournel, Georges Perec, and Jacques Roubaud.
His serial The Republic of Mek Ouyes was broadcast simultaneously on radio and on the web, through the site of his publisher, P.O.L. Jouet wrote Poèmes de métro while riding the underground trains of the Paris Métro.

Selected bibliography:
Le directeur du Musée des cadeaux des chefs d’État de l’étranger
Annette et l’Etna
Poèmes de Métro (Poems of the Paris Underground)
Mon bel autocar (My Beautiful Bus)
Actes de la machine ronde
L’amour comme on l’apprend à l’école hôtelière
Une mauvaise maire
MRM (Max Jacob Prize 2009)

Theatre:
La République de Mek Ouyes, staged in 2006 at the Théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers

Niviaq Korneliussen published her first book, HOMO Sapienne, in 2014 and has already established herself as one of the clearest contemporary voices from Greenland. The Nordic country is a returning theme of hers including (homo)sexuality and youth. This is also reflected in her contribution to the FRESH EYES project.

Aarhus Centre for Literature invited Niviaq Korneliussen to reside in Aarhus during April 2015 where she worked on a short story called “Århus isn’t like I remember it¨” about a young Greenlandic woman in the Jutlandic city”. The protagonist is lovesick after the break up with her partner in Greenland and the story takes places over one single night where she meets new people, steals a dog, drink beer with two homeless men etc. It is a touching piece about love and whether to hold on to it or let it go.

Bio:
Niviaq Korneliussen grew up in Greenland with her family and came out in her teenage years which had a clear effect on her writing. In interviews she has stated that she misses a more open debate in Greenland and hopes that her novel HOMO Sapienne will influence this. She speaks both Danish and Greenlandic fluently and translated HOMO Sapienne into Danish herself – the novel was nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize in 2015.

Photo credit: Helle Nørregaard.

The Icelandic author Andri Snær Magnason published his first book in 1995 and since then he has written several novels, collections of poetry, short stories, and plays. The future of our planet and environmentalism are returning themes in his works. In his latest book for children, The time casket, he describes an apocalyptic world as a result of the choices of human beings and the children is left alone to ask the crucial question, “why?” In 2016 he even ran as a presidential candidate for the Icelandic election.

Magnason came to Aarhus in September 2015 as part of the FRESH EYES project. During his residence Aarhus Centre for Literature hosted an artist talk between Magnason and the Danish author Kasper Colling Nielsen about the shared interest of writing about counterfactual worlds and about nature as a human construct. Andri Snær Magnason also worked on some one-minute poems for the project; he rented a bike and rode around Aarhus with the alarm set on his phone. Whenever it rang he would stop – no matter where he was – and write a poem for a whole minute about wherever he was. This way he has managed to write about a lot of different sites in Aarhus other than the rainbow and the city hall tower. In the one-minute poems he navigated around Aarhus and investigates the city’s aesthetical potential while searching for the underground crocodiles of Aarhus.

Selected bibliography:
1995: Ljóðasmygl og skáldarán.
1996: Bonus poetry.
1996: Very short stories.
2002: LoveStar.
2006: Dreamland – A self help manual for a frightened nation.
2013: The time casket.

Besides his many publications he has been nominated for and has one several Icelandic literary prices.

Web site: http://www.andrimagnason.com/

Photo credit: Matthew Eisman.

The great Faroese author and poet Carl Jóhan Jensen visited Aarhus in Oktober 2015 as artists in residence hosted by Aarhus Centre for Literature. Jensen is one of the most prominent Faroese authors and has been nominated for Nordic Councel’s Literature Prize five times – last in 2016 for the novel Eg síggi teg betri i myrkri. The author has developed his own unique language; it is characterized by old Faroese expressions and an old vocabulary which has either been forgotten or is rarely used. Jensen not only reintegrates this language in his literary work but also use them in new constellations and combinations – this is part of what makes his work so extraordinary.

As his contribution to the FRESH EYES project Carl Jóhan Jensen has created a long poem that explores Aarhus in a comparison in the Aarhus of 2015 and the Aarhus of 1975. The author first visited the city in 1975 as a young man of 18. This poem is not just a walk down memory lane but connects Aarhus and Denmark with the rest of Europe, European history, Christianity, Norse mythology, world literature, and much more.

Bio:
Carl Jóhan Jensen studied Icelandic language in Reykjavík (1981-1987) and in 1990 he got his master in Faroese. He has been nominated for Nordic Councel’s Literature Prize several times as one of the Faroese nominees, and he received the Faroese culture prize Mentanarvirðisløn M. A. Jacobsens prize in 1989 and 2006.
Since he published his first book in 1977 – a collection of poetry called Yrkingar – he has published five collections of poetry and three novels, including Tímar og rek (1997), Ó – Søgur um djevulskap (2005), and September í bjørkum sum kanska eru bláar (2006).

Photo credit: Bárður Lydersen.

Abdellah Taïa came to Aarhus in February 2016 as artist in residence hosted by Aarhus Centre for Literature. Taïa is a Moroccan author of prose fiction living in France and has published several novels inspired by his own life. During his stay two of his books were published in Danish, Salvation Army and An Arab Melancholia; both books describe young Moroccan boys experiencing their homosexuality for the first time and experiments with it while having to keep it a secret from family and friends. In 2006 the author became the first openly gay Arab writer and with Salvation Army he supposedly gave the Arabic world its first gay protagonist. Since then he has become an iconic figure in Morocco where homosexuality is illegal.

During his residence he participated in two artist talks; one hosted by the international literary scene of the local libraries called Authors in Aarhus in which he talked with his Danish translator Simon Hartling and another one hosted by Aarhus Centre for Literature in which he talked with FRESH EYES-author Niviaq Korneliussen.

As a result of his residence Taïa has written a love story which takes place in Aarhus and in the form of a love letter. It is a moving piece about a relationship between two men, what joins them, and what separates them again.

Bio:
Taïa studied French Literature at the university while he still lived in Rabat but scholarships moved him from Morocco to Switzerland and then to France to finish his thesis. Now the author lives and works in Paris.
He published his first book, My Morocco, in 2000 and since then he has published seven novels (e.g. Le Rouge Du Tarbouche Séguier (2004), Le Jour Du Roi (2010), and Un Pays Pour Mourir (2015).
Besides his literary work Abdellah Taïa also directs and writes films. He has directed the adaptation of his own novel Salvation Army which was screened for the very first time at the Venice and Toronto film festivals in 2013.

Photo credit: Abderrahim Annag.

Tsitsi Dangarembga, Zimbabwean author and filmmaker, started her career as a playwright in the 1980s and published her first literary piece in Sweden in 1985 in the form of a short story called “The Letter”. Three years later she published her first novel Nervous Conditions; a novel about race, colonialism, and gender in the post-colonial Zimbabwe. Nervous Conditions won the African section of the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize. Dangarembga later studied film direction at the Deutsche Film und Fernseh Akademie in Berlin; here she also produced several film productions which made her the first black Zimbabwean woman to direct a feature film. Watch the trailer for Everyone’s Child below.

She was invited to Aarhus in April 2016 by Aarhus Centre for Literature in connection to the FRESH EYES project as an artist in residence, and during her stay she participated in an artist talk with the Danish poet Mette Moestrup about women in literature and imperialism. During her two week stay she also worked on her contribution to the FRESH EYES project; the short story “Jana Dives”, a modern retake of a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen.

Bibliography:
Nervous Conditions, novel, 1988.
The Book of Not, novel, 2006.

Trailer for Everyone’s Child

The Indian author Amitabha Bagchi was invited to take part in the FRESH EYES project by Aarhus Centre for Literature and came to the city in the summer of 2016. Bagchi published his first novel Above Average in 2007 and has written two additional novels since then. There is no common theme that characterizes his writing but each novel takes on its own narrative like neighborhood, power relations, and youth – making each novel unique in its own way.

For two weeks, Bagchi explored the city of Aarhus – an exploration that included visiting the main sites as well as the more anonymous parts of the city. The result is the short story Danish Crowns which is both a reference to the Danish trees the narrator admires as well as the Danish monetary standard. In this novel the narrator visits different sites in Aarhus that makes him reflect on the history and the culture of the city and Denmark but also Aarhus’ relation to the rest of the world – including India – with perspectives to philosophy, world history, extinct species, and much more.

Amitabha Bagchi’s first novel, Above Average, was published in 2007 by HarperCollins India and became a bestseller. His second novel, The Householder, was published to critical acclaim in 2012 by Fourth Estate, an imprint of HarperCollins India. This Place, his most recent novel, was published in 2013, also by Fourth Estate. It was nominated for the Dublin IMPAC Literary Prize 2015 and shortlisted for the Raymond Crossword Book Award 2014. Bagchi lives in New Delhi with his wife and son.

Bibliography
This Place, 2015
The Householder, 2013
Above Average, 2007

Gitte Broeng is the curator of the FRESH EYES exhibition that will take place at six different ‘stations’ – both indoor and outdoor – at Galleri Image and in the surrounding urban space. Showing literary texts and photographic works by the 18 participants. Gitte is working with literature as well as visual art, often in relation to specific sites and places, which makes her a perfect fit for FRESH EYES. The exhibition is laid out in a way that invites visitors to explore the exhibited works within a micro-geography.

BIO
Gitte Broeng (1973) is a Danish author and has a degree in Literature and Art History from Aarhus University. Gitte made her debut with ‘Interiør’, a collection of poetry in 2006 and since then she has published a number of books. In addition, she was a co-editor of the literary magazine ‘Den Blå Port’ during the years 2008-2012. She has collaborated with visual artists on numerous occasions. The collaborative book project ‘Skarpretteren’ by visual artist Ursula Reuter Christiansen, graphic designer Louise Hold Sidenius and Gitte Broeng was awarded with Schadeprisen 2016. For Galleri Image Gitte curated the group exhibition ‘Korrespondance’, presenting works by artists who are both writers and visual artists, and she also edited the accompanying book, 2015.

Selected publications:
Oliekrisen (radio play)
PUZZLE t.w. Lasse Krog Møller (one act play)
Frøken Klokken (novel)
Lima India Foxtrot Echo (artist’s book/poetry)
Croquis (short prose)
Planetbyen (short prose)
Interiør (poetry)

Selected exhibitions:
Fuga, Udstillingsstedet Spanien 19C, Aarhus
Vizura Aperta 2017, Art Festival, Croatia
PUZZLE t.w. Lasse Krog Møller, ‘die raum’, Berlin

Lasse Krog Møller is the graphic designer behind the book which will be released in connection with the FRESH EYES exhibition – book launch October 12th. FRESH EYES is very fortunate to have access to the mind and eye of Lasse Krog Møller as he has worked both as an artist with photography and visual art and also as a writer and publisher. In this, he is a perfect match for FRESH EYES’ combination of literature and photography. In addition to the book, Lasse will be designing the graphic communication surrounding the project – posters, postcards, and signage.

BIO
Lasse Krog Møller (1972) is a Danish visual artist and publisher. He recieved his education from the Jutland Art Academy, were he went during the years 1996-2001. Lasse works with installations, photography, text, drawing, and book publishing. Book publishing has come to play a large role, as Lasse is co-founder and editor of the publishing house and journal *[asterisk]. Additionally, he has organised several art related book launches and won prestigious awards such as the Sven Dalsgaards mindelegat in 2016.

Recent selected exhibitions:
Opslag nedslag -Danske kunstnerbøger, Det Kgl. Bibliotek, 2016.
Allerede lavet Vestjyllands Kunstpavillion, Videbæk, 2016.
Puzzle (m. Gitte Broeng) Die raum, Berlin, 2016.
Den Frie Forårsudstilling Den Frie Udstillingsbygning, 2016.
L’Hombre invisible Piscine, Årh. 2015.
Laminat -en bibliotekshistorie Åby Bibliotek, 2014.
Vedr. Ålborg -en ekskursion KUNSTEN Museum of Modern Art Aalborg, 2014.
Sydhavnseffekter Udstillingsstedet Sydhavn Station, Kbh. 2014.
Orders of the Day (m. Jeuno JE Kim) OK Corral, København, 2014.

Recent selected publications:
Jorn in Lisboa *[asterisk], 2016.
Puzzle -ein einakter (m. Gitte Broeng) *asterisk, 2016.
Black Square *[asterisk], 2015.
Alle frisørsalonerne på Amagerbrogade *[asterisk], 2015.
Jordarbejder Antipyrine, 2015.
Banale intimiteter -Asger Jorns marginalia ARK, 2015.
Laminat -en bibliotekshistorie 2015.
Vedr. Ålborg Kunsten, 2014.
Vanløses Monumenter *[asterisk], 2013.
Ang.: Hellerup -En ekskursion *[asterisk], 2013.
100000000000000 stykker smørrebrød *[asterisk], 2013.
En samling in ”At samle / En samling / Inventarium”*[asterisk], 2012.

Selected graphic book design:
Fetich – Begærets objekter Holstebro Kunstmuseums Forlag, 2016.
The Image Collection – Photographic Art Works Galleri Image, 2016.
Leonard Rickhard Mellem krig og fred Aros Aarhus Kunstmuseum, 2016.
Det stille liv -illusion & virkelighed Holstebro Kunstmuseums Forlag, 2015.
Maskine! Holstebro Kunstmuseums Forlag, 2014.
Emil Westmann Hertz De Smukke Drømmes Lagune Holstebro Kunstmuseums Forlag, 2013.
Peter Linde Busk The staging Area Holstebro Kunstmuseums Forlag, 2013.
The Piccadilly Line No. 4 forlaget *[asterisk], 2012.
Henning Christiansen Komponist, Fluxist og uden for kategori Sohns Forlag, 2011.
Søren Dahlgaard Hibalhidhoo Galleri Image, 2011.

Website: http://arkivlkm.blogspot.dk/