Selfie : from Self Portrait to Staging the Self is presented at Brandts, in Odense, Denmark, through October 25th 2015. Lady Gaga, Helle Thorning Schmidt and former Pope Benedict do it. Probably you, your family and friends also do it – take selfies. This summer’s large-scale exhibition at Brandts will embark on a journey into the peculiar world of the selfie, place the phenomenon in a historical context and ask the question: What do we really want with these portraits of ourselves?
Focus on the Self
Previously a mirror, a canvas and painting equipment or an advanced camera with a self-timer cable release was needed to make a self portrait, while all you need today is a smartphone – and the results can be shared on social media immediately. The front facing function on smartphones has almost turned the camera into a device for the study of oneself, rather than something you point at the world. The exhibition Selfie – from Self Portrait to Staging the Self takes a look at this both introverted and extroverted phenomenon.
Look at Me… See Me
The self-centered photo has become so predominant that “selfie” has been chosen as the 2013 Word of the Year by Oxford Dictionaries. What is actually going on when people all over the globe turn the lens on themselves? Sceptics fear that we are becoming superficial super-narcissists, preoccupied mainly with staging stories of our own lives on social media. Others see the phenomenon as far more nuanced. For people have always been interested in their own faces.
Who Am I?
For centuries artists have portrayed themselves in an attempt to answer the difficult question of “who am I”, but also as a statement: “Here am I”. Does the selfie pose the same big questions, or does it have its own set of values? The exhibition looks at some of the many questions posed by the explosive spreading of the selfie and examines a visual phenomenon that tells a story of our present day, but also tells an age-old story of what it means to be human.
Artists, Celebrities and All the Rest of Us
The Selfie exhibition ponders the relationship between ourselves and ourselves as images. It invites you into a world of self images and self exploration, drawing lines between significant artists ranging from Andy Warhol and Rudolf Schwartzkogler to Sally Mann, Sophie Calle and Cindy Sherman and to the many known and unknown people who today are constantly staging themselves on social media.
Selfie – from Self Portrait to Staging the Self is curated in collaboration with Lars Schwandler.
Brandts presents a new strategy for photography and camera-based media
In connection with the opening of the Selfie exhibition, Brandts presents a new strategy for photography and camera- based media. It develops further the strategy inherited from the former Museet for Fotokunst and Kunsthallen Brandts and will include both classic photography and the multi-faceted visual culture of today.
Vision: Brandts becomes Denmark’s leading museum of photography and camera-based media.
Director Mads Damsbo states: Brandts has been given a broad assignment and covers both classic art and visual culture in the wider sense. The museum is under a special obligation in relation to photography and camera-based media, and it is our vision to become the leading museum in Denmark in this field. We will carry out to this task in the coming years by presenting a series of great masters in photography and film and by discussing the present-day status of photography and moving pictures.
EXHIBITION
Selfie – from Self Portrait to Staging the Self
24 April – 25 October 2015
Brandts
Brandts Torv, 1
5000 Odense
Denmark
