Torbjørn Rødland

The two photographs that open and close Torbjørn Rødland’s exhibition at the Consortium Museum represent a baby and an old man, respectively. The exhibition is designed as a journey leading from one to the other, namely from childhood to old age. It is therefore a highly narrative project, and for Rødland, an unusual approach to the concept of exhibition.

The exhibition highlights Rødland’s photographs in which two contradictory characters are featured. The artist often employs this type of “disruptive casting” to emphasize the oddness in the photographed scenes. The "scenario" created by the curator for this exhibition – titled "Oh My God You Guys" as agreed with the artist – takes the viewers on a journey from the dawn to the dusk of life, exploring sophisticated and troubled human relationships.

"Oh My God You Guys" unfolds across eight different rooms, with each featuring increasingly older characters – starting with the baby and progressing through children, teenagers, adults, and ultimately the elderly – and producing a large fresco reminiscent of Edward Steichen’s 1955 landmark exhibition "Family of Man" at MoMA.

— Éric Troncy

Torbjørn Rødland

Born in Stavanger, NO, 1970
Lives and works in Los Angeles, USA and Oslo, NO

Torbjørn Rødland’s photographs are produced through film-based cameras and chemical processing. His self-aware and often uncanny photographs, films, and books are saturated with symbolism, lyricism, and eroticism. They take on existing visual forms and genres from still lives to portraits to landscapes, but without the research tone of first-wave conceptual art or the ironic commentary of the subsequent Pictures Generation. In his work, Rødland attempts to seize and integrate truth, rather than deconstruct it, reflecting his inclination to delve into the problematic aspects of contemporary photography and the history of art. He probes popular visual languages in search of both spiritual and perverse qualities, aiming to prolong our engagement with both still and moving images. His works do not offer quick readings; instead, they invite us to explore the layered nature of each image, encouraging personal interpretations based on our cultural, political, and personal contexts.

Inserting his work in a wide array of contexts Rødland’s pieces can be found in art magazines, like Middle Plane and Numéro Berlin, and in the public sphear, like his large-scale installation on the side of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City. His work has also been the topic of traditional solo presentations at art institutions such as Serpentine, London; Fondazione Prada, Milan; MoMA P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center; KIASMA – Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki; The Contemporary Austin, Texas; Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm; Kunsthal Stavanger, Stavanger; Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima; and Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art.

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Torbjørn Rødland: Oh My God You Guys, Consortium Museum

Torbjørn rødland
OH MY GOD YOU GUYS

october 27, 2023 – march 31, 2024

Consortium Museum, Dijon, FR

Torbjørn Rødland

CONTACT

GLENTEVEJ 49

2400 COPENHAGEN

HOLBERGSGADE 19

1057 COPENHAGEN

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Torbjørn Rødland: Oh My God You Guys, Consortium Museum

Torbjørn rødlandOH MY GOD YOU GUYS

october 27, 2023 – march 31, 2024

Consortium Museum, Dijon, FR

Torbjørn Rødland

Torbjørn rødland
OH MY GOD YOU GUYS