When it comes to values, politics or religion, most of us are willing to accept that people’s outlooks and world views are different. But what about the everyday things: places, objects, people, even our own emotions and memories? Are they not just as open to interpretation? Are they similarly devoid of any fixed, permanent core?

The exhibition Rarely Pure, Never Simple deals with uncertainty and ambiguity from different perspectives. The starting point has been to look at ordinary and familiar things with new eyes. The exhibition features four young photographic artists who took part in the international exchange and mentorship programme PARALLEL – European Photo Based Platform during its first phase. All the works in the exhibition are completely new, created in 2018. Joséphine Desmenez (born 1993, France) has photographed portraits in a way that departs from tradition and particularly the conventions of social media. She has hunted for moments of imperfection and loss of control to reveal the vulnerability of the models. Philipp Meuser (born 1986, Germany) sieves through the sediment of history and mythology in one of the most popular tourist destinations in Germany. The island today known as Rügen has an exciting history, but what is the meaning of the past in a geographical place? Are there traces from the past other than the sediment investigated by archaeologists? And if the place has been mythical in the past, can there still be some true magic?

Livia Sperandio (born 1991, Italy) explores ways of perception via photography. What is the relation between an everyday object and a photograph of it? An ordinary object that is in everyday use can be so banal it becomes almost invisible. Can that same object in a photograph be something else, something we observe or sense differently?

Nita Vera (born 1986, Finland) has written autofictional love stories, and to create a textual basis, has worked in cooperation with psychotherapists and theatre-makers. In an intense working process, she has dived deep into her experiences from psychological and physical perspectives. The project highlights memories and histories as a story, many times told and always a construction.

In the context of Nita Vera’s project, the name of the exhibition could easily refer to love and relationships. The name could just as easily denote photography. Both are “rarely pure, never simple”. Primarily the name is a reference to Oscar Wilde and the original quotation in full is: “The truth is rarely pure and never simple” (from The Importance of Being Earnest, 1895). In the light of everyday reason, we believe we know what is true. It makes everyday life uncomplicated and smooth. Therefore, rejecting certain truths can feel scary. However, an inquisitive mind can find that a wider horizon of possibilities is revealed from behind the ready answers. Because if nothing is certain, everything might still be possible.

Maria Faarinen

Artists

LIVIA  SPERANDIO

PHILIPP MEUSER

JOSÉPHINE DESMENEZ

NITA VERA

Curator

MARIA FAARINEN