Noorderlicht
Sunday, 2 September 2012 - Sunday, 7 October 2012
Museum Belvédère | Groningen and Leeuwarden | Netherlands
Noorderlicht Festival
Landscape as the illusion of nature
Mankind arose from the land, and has now definitively left it behind him. The earth has been subdued and cultivated, man has left the countryside for the city. The preservation of our natural environment is but a footnote on the political agenda.
Nevertheless, the desire for contact with nature remains anchored in our genes. The urge to travel toward an unknown horizon is stubborn. Knowing that the realisation of this desire is an illusion, that every horizon lies within our grasp and every experience of the landscape is stage-managed, in no way detracts from this.
The main exhibition of the Noorderlicht Photofestival 2012 examines our ambiguous relation with nature. Where reality proves recalcitrant, the imagination of the artist dissolves the boundaries. The photographer/auteur can appropriate the landscape to share his or her – and at the same time, our – dreams, and permit us to travel in an unreal world for a moment.
