New Visions

The Henie Onstad Triennale for Photography and New Media

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Henie Onstad presents the second edition of New Visions—The Henie Onstad Triennial for Photography and New Media. The triennial takes the pulse of experimental practices within contemporary photography and new media.

Date Place
Main Gallery
Kamerabasert kunst treffer endelig tidsånden
— Christian Belgaux, Morgenbladet

This second edition of the triennial presents works that push the boundaries of photography and automated image-making, to examine acutely relevant issues such as resource extraction, energy distribution and data harvesting.

The exhibition brings together works by 22 artists that tackle urgent questions relating to energy production and distribution, the extraction of natural and humanmade resources—from oil to data—and the ecological, social and political consequences of these ventures. The artists have ties to Norway, the Middle East, North Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia; regions that are connected by extractive economies.

Anna Engelhardt Mark Cinkevich

Anna Engelhardt and Mark Cinkevich, Still from Onset, 2023. Courtesy of the artists.

New Visions 2023 includes several new commissions, some tailored to the spaces of Henie Onstad.

Visitors are invited beneath the surface in search of underseas data cables or into the sky for aerial views that reveal geological change through satellite images. Artists present light both as an information source and as a tool for policing visibility. They explore national identity building by repurposing traditional symbols, ornaments, and patterns.

Many works combine photography with unexpected materials, including salt, algae, silicone, cotton, and simulated nuclear glass. Others explore new technologies such as artificial intelligence and synthetic aperture radar – radar signals bouncing off surfaces and made into images – and their roles in surveillance and planetary observation.

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Seif Kousmate, WAHA / Untitled, 2021. Courtesy of the artist.

The title of the triennial refers to the Hungarian artist and photographer László Moholy-Nagy’s text A New Instrument of Vision (1932), which greatly influenced the development of experimental photography in the 20th century. In the early decades of the last century, photography enabled new perceptions of an increasingly mechanized and industrialized world. Similarly, today’s artists use photography to explore the entanglements with machines and processes of automation and extraction.  

New Visions 2023 is accompanied by a comprehensive English publication edited by Susanne Østby Sæther. This publication includes a foreword by Caroline Ugelstad, a curatorial statement by Inga Lāce, Reem Shadid, and Susanne Østby Sæther, and an essay by scholar Eglė Rindzevičiūtė, in addition to artist presentations. Design by Håkon Stensholt, ANTI and publishing by Henie Onstad Kunstsenter and Mousse Publishing.

  • New Visions – The Henie Onstad Triennial for Photography and New Media

A special thanks to Aars for Aars Commission.

The exhibition has been generously supported by Aars, ABG Sundal Collier, Reitan Retail, IFA and SAHA.

  • Myriam Boulos

    Myriam Boulos, What's ours, Beirut, Lebanon, 2019. Courtesy of the artist.

  • Basim Magdy

    Basim Magdy, Someone Tried to Lock Up Time, History of the Stars, 2023. Courtesy of the artist.

  • Farah Al Qasimi ny3

    Farah Al Qasimi, LED Rose, 2023. Courtesy of the artist.

  • Almagul Menlibayeva

    Almagul Menlibayeva, AI Realism, Qantar 2022, 2022. Courtesy of the artist.

  • Marat Dilman

    Marat Dilman, Untitled, 2019. Courtesy of the artist.

  • Lesia Vasylchenko

    Lesia Vasylchenko, InSAR-image from SNRT, 2023. Image: Andreas Kääb and Thomas Schellenberger, Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo. Copernicus Sentinel-1 data / European Space Agency (ESA). Courtesy of the artist.

  • Kristina Õllek

    Kristina Õllek, Surface Accumulation no. 2, 2022. Courtesy of the artist.

  • Ketuta Alexi Meskhishvili

    Ketuta Alexi-Meskhishvili, Georgian Ornament, 2021. Installation view, Les Rencontres de la photographie d’Arles, 2021. Courtesy of the artist, Galerie Frank Elbaz, Paris and LC Queisser, Tbilisi

  • Istvan Virag

    Istvan Virag, Pixel Pitch vol. 4, 2023 (detail). Courtesy of the artist.

  • Haig Aivazian

    Haig Aivazian, Still from of All of Your Stars Are but Dust on My Shoes, 2021. Courtesy of the artist.

  • Emilija Skarnulyte

    Emilija Skarnulyte, Still from RAKHNE, 2023. Courtesy of the artist.

  • Dilyara Kaipova

    Dilyara Kaipova, Curse of Cotton, 2022. Courtesy of the artist.

  • Anna Ehrenstein

    Anna Ehrenstein, Still from Capitalocene Safari Collage, 2019. Courtesy fo the artist, KOW Berlin, Office Impart.

  • Tekla Aslanishvili Giorgi Gago Gagoshidze

    Tekla Aslanishvili and Giorgi Gago Gagoshidze, Still from Stone of Hell, 2021. Courtesy of the artist.

  • Monira Al Qadiri

    Monira Al Qadiri, Reservoir Ten, 2022. Courtesy of the artist / photo: Ludger Paffrath.

  • Köken Ergun and Sasha Azanova

    Köken Ergun and Sasha Azanova, Polar Silk Road, North Pole, 2023. Courtesy of the artist.

  • Neïl Beloufa cropped

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