HELENE SCHMITZ

Thinking Like a Mountain

WILLAS contemporary is thrilled to present Helene Schmitz’s Thinking Like a Mountain— photographic explorations of the power balance between man and nature – and what happens when it goes off kilter.

OSLO NEGATIV at Det Gamle BiblioteketArne Garborgs Plass 4

From September 23rd to Oktober 16th

Opening hours Friday - Sunday 11:00 - 18:00 & by appointment

Events

23.9 at 6-8 pm Afterwork (AW) with Helene Schmitz in her exhibition in room 21- by invitation only. Room 21.

24.9 at 12 pm A Bubbly Conversation with Helene Schmitz on books followed by a signing of Thinking Like a Mountain (winner of the Swedish Publishing Prize in 2019). Moderator Silje M. Engja Sigurdsen from kunzt.no - Mainstage.

24.9 at 3 pm Guided exhibition tour with Helene Schmitz in Thinking Like a Mountain. Room 21

25.9 at 12 pm Artist talk with Helene Schmitz - Moderator Silje M. Engja Sigurdsen from kunzt.no - Mainstage.

25.9 at 3 pm Guided exhibition tour with Helene Schmitz in Thinking Like a Mountain. Room 21

WILLAS contemporary offers a guided exhibition tour in Thinking Like a Mountain every Saturday and Sunday at 3 pm - room 21.

Location and Opening Hours

OSLO NEGATIV at Det Gamle Biblioteket, Arne Garborgs Plass 4 - Room #21 (To the left of the ticket counter - main entrance. Walk down the stairs and to your right.

From September 23rd to October 16th
Friday - Sunday 11:00 - 18:00 & by appointment

Contact Ellen-K Willas +47 913 33 343 or Linda Sofie Bern +47 466 33 230

“We abuse land because we see it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.”

― Aldo Leopold

Helene Schmitz’s work is a photographic account of the indelible mark left by the abusive relationship between humans and nature. Schmitz links her sober and revealing photographs to the rich tradition of landscape painting, using a large-format, analogue camera that enables the viewer to study both the overall vista and the small details. At first glance Schmitz’s works are silent and majestic accounts, hiding more than they reveal. Upon further investigation, the eerie silence piques our instincts telling us there is more than that which meets the eye.

Schmitz’s work focuses on sites where the view of separating human life from its natural surroundings is most tenuous. This investigation has brought her from still life to landscape photography; from Suriname in South America to the deserts of Namibia in Africa. The photographs meditate on the history of colonization over territories, people and resources.

Her images represent conflicts where the anthropocentric perspective is challenged by botanical and geological oppositional forces. Many of Schmitz’s images have this in common, the quiet vibrations of energy, ready to shatter equilibrium at a moment’s notice.

Helene Schmitz was born in 1960 in Stockholm, Sweden. She studied at Stockholm University and has a BA in Film and Art History. She has had numerous solo shows worldwide. Schmitz has also produced several award-winning books where she has collaborated with writers, philosophers and historians of ideas.

Text by Johan Vikner, Director of Global Exhibitions, Fotografiska