Mette Tronvoll
dal 23/6/2011 al 27/8/2011
Segnalato da
23/6/2011
Mette Tronvoll
Haus am Waldsee, Berlin
At Eye Level. Since the end of the 1990s Tronvoll has worked making portraits indoors, seeking out people on the edge of civilisation where they work and live in isolation. Tronvoll captures lives along these edges. These lives are examples of an existence that does not speculate on media impact and representation but relies on primal instincts and trust.
The artist Mette Tronvoll (b. 1965 in Trondheim) follows the people, who sit for her
portraits, into their own habitat that is at the same time their professional space:
Japanese women collecting kelp on a rocky shore, nomads in the wide steppe of
Mongolia, young and old in the hot springs of Greenland or elite soldiers of a secret
unit in the depths of Southern Norway. Each to their own, they form an allegiance in
Tronvoll‘s photographs, an allegiance that includes their nourishing as well as
threatening environment.
Since the end of the 1990s Tronvoll has worked in the open air, seeking out people on the
edge of civilisation where they work and live in isolation. Entering into a personal relationship
with them, the artists evidently wins their trust. They seem to stop and listen for something
alien to them that does not frighten them but seems to arouse their curiosity and to cheer
them.
In our globalised world, Tronvoll works out the individual and the authentic along the edges
of a perception that is situated below the radar of our commercialised present. Tronvoll
captures lives along these edges. These lives are examples of an existence that does not
speculate on media impact and representation but relies on primal instincts and trust.
Even in the 1990s, while still in New York, Tronvoll was making portraits indoors which give
us persons of all ages before a neutral background. In everyday clothes and lacking the
shelter of their own ambience, they open themselves up to the gaze of the camera as though
it was accomplice and confidante, all at once. The photographer‘s gaze seems equally close,
almost intimate, when she approaches the deserted glaciers of Greenland. In the leeward of
civilisation, yet not completely detached, they, like all things transient, are subject to the
processes of change.
Whatever is off-key, unspoken and ageing forms the subject Mette Tronvoll has been
addressing for more than 15 years. Her practice is based on a great respect for her sitters
and brings out traces of pure joie de vivre which shine forth in the moment of isolation and
distance to modern event culture.
Mette Tronvoll‘s images are faithful to the tradition of full figure portraits employed by her
compatriot Edvard Munch by the end of the 19th century and revived in photography after
world war I by August Sander with documentary meticulousness. Tronvoll‘s strength lies in
her emphatic gaze, exchanging objectivity for humanity and creating the tranquility of a still
life.
At Haus am Waldsee, Mette Tronvoll will take the visitors of her summer exhibition
"at eye-level“ on a journey to Japan, Mongolia and Greenland and familiarise them with their
own perception as well as everyday moments of happiness on the edge of the world.
A catalogue including essays by Stephanie von Spreter, David Elliott und Vibece Salthe is
published. "Mette Tronvoll. Photographs / Fotografien", Schirmer/Mosel, English/German,
€ 29,-.
Supported by
Norwegian Embassy, Bezirksamt Steglitz – Zehlendorf;
Berlin, Freunde und Förderer des Hauses am Waldsee e.V.
Partner ATRIUM Malereibetrieb GmbH, Farrow & Ball, Gebr. Tonsor
Press Relations
Veronika Floch phone: +49 (0)30 8018935 fax: +49 (0)30 8022028 e-mail: presse@hausamwaldsee.de
Press preview: Friday, June 24, 2011, 2 p.m.
Haus am Waldsee
Argentinische Allee 30 - 14163 Berlin
Opening Hours
Tue-Sun 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Admission € 7,- / Reduced rate € 5,-