MARIE SJØVOLD
The Practice of Being Present
Marie Sjøvold (b. 1982) is a Norwegian visual artist who uses photography in her artistic practice. Sjøvold uses the camera to examine the outer limits of consciousness, human behavior, human relationships and transitional phases, which often result in timeless themes such as family, home and motherhood. These intertwined themes she intertwines in poetic, visual narratives about the relationship between dream, reality, time and history. With an autobiographical practice, Sjøvold draws parallels to his own experiences and experiences.
Marie Sjøvold has published a number of photo books, both at Journal Forlag and self-publishing. She has had several solo exhibitions in Germany, Norway, Denmark, Indonesia, Romania and Latvia, and a number of group exhibitions around Europe and in China. Her works have been exhibited in galleries, museums and photo festivals around the world, including Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, Calouste Gulbenkian and Le Bar Floréal in Paris, Hasselblad Center in Gothenburg, Kristiansand Kunsthall, Lumina Photo Festival 2012 in Lucca, Goethe Institut, Fotografisk Center in Copenhagen, Pingyao International Photo festival in China, Riga Photo Month in Riga and at the Photo Gallery, Kunstplass Contemporary and Nobels Fredssenter in Oslo.
The project is a photographic and social experiment where I disconnected social media and the internet from my own pocket for a year. These restrictions helped shape my gaze and presence as a photographer and human being. The photographs show, among other things, psychological processes and narratives that move between light and darkness, isolation and sensory closeness, chaos and silence, unity and loneliness, the organic and the man-made.
The prosjekt was exhibited at Fotogalleriet in the exhibition Le Book Club curated by Norwegian artist Nina Strand and Paris-based duo Anna Planas and Pierre Hourquet. An exhibition dedicated to the photobook as an exhibition space of its own, divided into different, weekly chapters.
In five chapters unravelling over five weeks, the exhibition Le Book Club exploreed the photobook as an exhibition space. A key question was whether the book can be the primary exhibition space. And if so, what will that exhibition space be?
Marie Sjøvold made a special edition of her ongoing project for this exhibition, as an examination of the curators' questions. A book project divided into 4 four chapters, where each chapter was a separate book. The release was exhibited on four tables, in four different installations, to see how the audience related to the book and the book in the room. Two static installations and two dynamic ones.
Marie Sjøvold (f. 1982), is a Norwegian artist based in Oslo, that work with photography, photo books and video.
She has published six photo books: Oppvåkning (2016), Midnight Milk(2015), Just a Small Piece of Nature at the Centre of the Universe (2014), Dust Catches Light (2011), Disappearing Hours (2007) and Pust (2006).