We are excited to be showing our work in Reykjavik, Iceland this spring. The exhibition will showcase a selection of works from the Volume Series, as well as images from our ongoing series Places in Between. The exhibition is part of the Design March 2013 programme.
The Long Moment
9.march – 21.april 2013
Nordens Hus
Dunkers Kulturhus in Helsingborg showing a selection of our work spanning the Volumes Iceland, Kyrgyzstan and Qatar, as well as from Places in Between.
June 2012 – February 2013
Dunkers Kulturhus
Helsingborg
Sweden
My Quiet of Gold
February 25 – April 22, 2012
Västerås Kulturmuseum
The solo exhibition My Quiet of Gold, with photographs from a journey to Kyrgyzstan, showing at Västerås Konstmuseum.
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It was wonderful to have been presented at the Armory Show in New York 2012.
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www.thearmoryshow.com
Our book “My Quiet of Gold” / SEEK Volume 02 Kyrgyzstan has been selected for the Swedish Book Design Prize 2012 and is now officially one of the 25 most beautiful swedish books published 2011.
http://svenskbokkonst.se/
My Quiet of Gold
Show in Berlin
October 27 – November 27, 2011
Gestalten Space
We are happy to have the opportunity to exhibit our latest project in Berlin at Die Gestalten Space, Sophienstraße 21. For those of you who are in Berlin, the exhibition will be up until November 27th.
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My Quiet of Gold exhibited at Hasselblad Center
25.2.2011 – 15.5.2011 / Gothenburg, Sweden
About the exhibition
by Dragana Vujanovic, curator
Photographs from a journey to Kyrgyzstan are the focus of Sarah Cooper and Nina Gorfer’s solo exhibition My Quiet of Gold. Kyrgyzstan is a country with a strong tradition of storytelling where folk tales are part of everyday life. Cooper and Gorfer approached the culture by allowing the people they met to stage their own stories. The artists’ personal conversations with people gave rise to the portrayals. The images were digitally processed to create painterly collages, depicting more than one level of reality. Sarah Cooper and Nina Gorfer’s work stems from a narrative tradition within photography with roots in 19th century painting. Their pictures are imbued with understated drama and an enigmatic tone – a typical characteristic of staged photography in which unpleasant stories are often narrated with a seductive aesthetic. The beautiful picture attracts the viewer, who soon perceives other meanings. Unlike the discrete passer-by who single-handedly waits the decisive moment, Cooper and Gorfer carefully direct choreographed productions. The time they invest in creating a picture can be likened to that of a painter in a studio.
Cooper and Gorfer’s staged folk tales draw a picture of Kyrgyzstan’s contemporary history, creating unique portraits at the same time. The duo avoid making a traditional documentation of the country, instead they describe the culture through a fertile mix of fact and fiction. The images are also indirectly self-portraits of Cooper and Gorfer; picture editing and the selection of stories unveils their own interests and preferences. The image that comes through portrays two socially committed romantics.
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SEEK Volume 02
Kyrgyzstan
We are happy to announce the release of our second book: My Quiet of Gold, SEEK Volume 02 / Kyrgyzstan, launched together with our exhibition My Quiet of Gold at Hasselblad Center in Sweden this spring. Follow us on our travels to the rural areas of Kyrgyzstan where we collected sagas and stories in conversations and interviews with local inhabitants. Out of these tales, are created photographic portraits that go far beyond mere documentation to tell and visually interpret romantic-melancholy stories of love, sorrow, and betrayal. Numerous essays and excerpts accompany the striking images in My Quiet of Gold, giving you behind the scenes, interviews and hopefully a deeper understanding of our travel and way of work.
Available through Die Gestalten
SORRY, SOLD OUT!
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Cooper & Gorfer
Interview at Hasselblad Center
Interview by Dragana Vujanovic, curator Hasselblad Center
Film by Conny Fridh and Fredrik Egerstrand
The interview was conducted in correlation with our exhibition My Quiet of Gold at Hasselblad Center, 2011.
Exhibition at Christian Larsen
Aug 2010 / Under Nomadic Surfaces
The exhibition, Under Nomadic Surfaces, shows a selection of work from two of our series locations, Kyrgyzstan and Qatar. On these journeys we work in parallel as directors, photographers and authors – casting the people we meet into the stories we gather. By focussing on the cognition of the human element, rather than on political, religious or social views, we attempt to bridge the differences between two countries. Places, that despite their disparity, share elemental features: nomadic history, Islamic culture, and almost more importantly, a confrontation with change and an attempt to redefine their identity on the cusp of transformation.
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SEEK Volume 01
Iceland
Our first volume is a heavy visual novel with nine short stories from an autumnal Iceland. A book where fact and fiction are combined – starring a cast of Icelandic characters in fragmented and intricately collaged and conceptual narratives that seamlessly merge into one another. It presents an opaque and desolate mystique of place where personal tales meet history.
Winner of the Swedish Book Art Award 2009
Available through Die Gestalten
SORRY, SOLD OUT!
Exhibition at Kulturhuset Stockholm
Stockholm, 2008
The exhibition In a House of Snow, showcases 30 works from our first book, SEEK Volume 01 / Iceland, at Kulturhuset Stockholm in 2008. A supremely evocative exhibition, compelling photographs record timeless legends, ghost stories, and personal histories from Iceland. Starring a cast of Icelandic characters the exhibition reveals subtle narratives. In a House of Snow is a body of work with vivid and striking impression, it presents an opaque and desolate mystique where the bizarre meets history.
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