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?

A portrait of a man with a beard. He is dressed in black and looks down as he appears to be speaking. The background is gray.

About the artist

Two pictures on a steel structure. The picture on the left is in black and white and depicts water. The image on the right depicts a yellowish landscape with threes..

About Scar

A man dressed in black with open arms stands in front of a white table. On the table are some large pictures in orange and black and white. It is not possible to see what is depicted in the pictures. The background is gray.

About the process

About the artist

About Scar

About the process

About the artist

About Scar

About the process

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.