Rotwand is very proud to present two young Nordic artists. Via the media of photography and video, the Finn Hannu Karjalainen and the Swede Lovisa Ringborg examine the boundaries between reality and fiction. When and how does illusion become reality and when does the construction of fiction begin? In their work both Karjalainen and Ringborg take up very decidedly the subject of painting and transform it into the medium of video or photography.

Hannu Karjalainen (*1978 in Haapavesi) often chooses the portrait as his starting point. What especially fascinates him is the interplay between static and dynamic images that, sometimes, he underscores with experimental sound.

In his newest work "Surfer" (2008), to be viewed at Rotwand, Karjalainen continues to use the same motifs as before, but in a more poetic form. The viewer is enveloped in oceanic waves, exposed completely to the element of water and its sensational whirl. He is subject to the full force of the waves that break around him, is caught up more and more in their maelstrom and carried away. Suddenly, from out of nowhere, a surfboard appears but with no sign of a surfer. Karjalainen accentuates this moment with an acoustic accompaniment of dramatic booming that underscores the boundless force and might of nature.

Hannu Karjalainen graduated in 2005 at Helsinki University of Art and Design's Department of Photography. He lives and works in Strasbourg.

Lovisa Ringborg: Following the white rabbit, 2004

from the series Wonderland, C-Print, 74 x 98 cm, 29 1/8 x 38 5/8 in.

Click on image to enlarge.

Lovisa Ringborg (*1979 in Linköping) presents the viewer with a disconcerting, but at the same time magically fascinating universe. In her staged and aesthetically brilliant photographs that often recall works by old masters, the boundary between fantasy and reality are erased. Artificial scenarios with bizarre constellations are presented and conjure up unavoidable questions. Where is this taking place? Who are these children? What laws reign here?

In deserted landscapes, solitary, often masked, childlike figures appear, who radiate an incredibly forlorn insularity. They seem to live in a kind of in-between world, too pure and innocently naïve to be adult, and already too serene and wise to still be children. The inner and outer worlds, once stood on their heads, leave all possibilities open.

Lovisa Ringborg is completing her degree at University of Photography in Gothenburg this year. She lives and works in Gothenburg.