SCAR

A photographic exhibition featuring pictures of the two sites targeted in the terror attack of 22 July, taken by the artist Werner Anderson between 2016 and 2021. The exhibition invites audiences to reflect on perspectives, proximity and distance, and on how we as individuals and as a society make choices about what we see when we approach this difficult story.

Scar

TEMPORARY EXHIBITION

In Scar one meets 22 July through Werner Anderson's photo series from the two scenes of terror.

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The photographs form an art installation in two parts: the landscape images from the island of Utøya are photographed with a 360-degree camera and exposed on infrared film. The black and white photos from the Government Quarter show details and sections of twisted steel in the wreckage caused by the car bomb blast. The terror attacks in 2011 are the subject of both parts of the art installation, but the perspectives and sites differ.

The exhibition invites audiences to reflect on perspectives, proximity and distance, and on how we as individuals and as a society make choices about what we see when we approach this difficult story. What is it possible to understand, and what aspects of the terror attack do we wish to take on board? What remains concealed, what do we prefer to push to the side?

What does seeing really mean?

Photo of a quadrangular black and white image with an abstract motif. Blurred background where other abstract images are seen.

A scar is a visible bodily mark that forms an explicit connection between the past and the present. Our scars are testimonies to the painful events of the past – and the potential for renewal. In this sense, even the title of the exhibition – Scar – reflects the duality that often characterises the memory processes of individuals and communities after major traumatic events.

The themes are conveyed in Anderson’s poetic language, where composition, materiality, dimensions and colour contrasts play important parts. The apparent beauty of the motifs imposes a choice on audiences in respect of what it means to look back at the past from the present day. That choice is about point of view, and about what we decide to see.

Scar is an art installation in two parts: the Utøya landscapes were photographed using a 360-degree camera and exposed on infrared film. The black and white photographs from the Government Quarter show fragmented details of twisted steel from the wreck of the car that carried the bomb. The terror attack in 2011 is the backdrop as well as the motif in both cases, but the perspectives and the points of view are different.

The exhibition deals with all the invisible layers of the stories about 22 July, and the contradictions that emerge when we direct our gaze towards the deep wounds that the events of that day have left on the fabric of society.

In this way, the artist encourages audiences to continue asking new questions in the public conversation about 22 July.

The photographic series Scar will be exhibited at the 22 July Centre from 14 July 2022 to 26 February 2023.

About the artist

Black and white portrait of a man with a white beard.

Werner Anderson (born in Ålesund, 1972)
Norwegian photographer, director and visual artist

Anderson’s artistic production is heavily influenced by his photographic work in areas of conflict. Working for humanitarian organisations like the Red Cross and Norwegian People’s Aid, he spent many years documenting the removal of explosives and the lives of civilian victims of war in the wake of armed conflict. For several decades he worked in various countries in South East Asia, Africa, the Middle East, the Balkans and South America.

Rooted in his socially engaged approach to art, Anderson’s poetic pictures ask open-ended questions about our collective and individual processing of the past. The artist also works with themes linked to the relationship between man and nature.

Werner Anderson’s pictures have been exhibited by the Preus Museum, the Nordic Light International Festival, and in a number of galleries in the United Kingdom, Russia, Italy, Spain, Jordan and Ireland.

He has won several national and international awards and prizes for his work.

Scar –| Press Kit

Thanks to:

National Support Group after 22 July, Cathrine Lyngholm (DSS)

Project leader: Ana Rita Ferreira
Technical leader: Christina Marwold

Project Group 22 July Centre: Ana Rita Ferreira, Christina Marwold, Jarl Omestad, Maja Gudim Burheim og Stine Furan

Photography and sound design: Werner Anderson

Logo: Vidar Andersen
Fine Art Print: Akthar Issak, Ottar André Breivik Anderson
Vinyl lettering: Megaprint
Carpentry: Alliero
Assembly: Gisle Borgen, Stine Nygaard
Electricians: Abmas elektro
Translation: Akasie språktjenester
Project owner and media spokesperson: Lena Fahre (22. juli-senteret)

Published Oct 21, 2022 Last updated Oct 14, 2024