The exhibition “Duration” features a new photographic series, with the same title, and the video work “Calmation”. In her new works, Maria Friberg explores how the modern technology with computers and the Internet has changed our way of socializing with one another and how we communicate and interact. While we today are able to keep in touch with people on the other side of the world, the technology at the same time makes us increasingly isolated from each other in everyday life.
The photographs are taken in historic settings where people in black clothes are placed like dark silhouettes in desolated rooms. The children in the pictures belong to the first generation growing up entirely surrounded by the modern technology and the new ways of socializing and communicating. In the photographs we see a child sleeping with an earphone in its ear, and a small group of boys sitting together but each one busy playing with his own mobile phone. The adults are only present in the pictures as dark shadows, and the distance between the old and the new way of socializing is visualized both by the distance between adults and children in the pictures, and by the contrast between the new technology and the old, worn palace setting.
“Calmation” shows a man floating in a river with strong currents. Unlike the children in “Duration”, the man in the video does not attempt to escape into a virtual reality but instead tries to find balance and control in the place where he is.
We see how the man is trying to keep afloat and remain calm in the water that threatens to pull him away. From loudspeakers the sound of the streaming water fills the exhibition and underlines the power inherent in water. It also reminds us of the constant noise that surrounds us in today’s society, which we need to find our balance in and navigate through.
Press images are available on request. The exhibition opens on 14 March at 6-8 pm. Download press release.
Review in Dagens Nyheter (in Swedish).
Review in Svenska Dagbladet (in Swedish).
Review in Konsten (in Swedish).
