ANTJE LARSEN: EXPLORATIONS

Friday 10 November at 21:00 – ResidenceSEA

Exploration is a solo exhibition of Antje Larsen’s photography.

This Friday ResidenceSEA presents ‘Exploration’, a photography exhibition, about the interplay between lights and the dynamics of the sea. It is a solo-exhibition of the photography work of Antje Larsen, site-specific, combining photographs, poems and sounds, using the architecture and the space of ResidenceSEA, in collaboration with sound artists Rifa from Austria and Markos Mastorakis from Crete.

Antje is a self-taught photographer has supported ResidenceSEA with her photography since the start of ResidenceSEA. Antje is also a researcher at FORTH (Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas) in Crete. She is from Germany and has been living in Heraklion for almost 20 years. Antje has exhibited her work in Vienna (Austria) and Heraklion (Crete). She recently participated in Heraklion’s contemporary art festival Monitor Fest 2017 as part of the exhibition “From the Dream to the Defects”. Antje is fascinated of the natural phenomena of light: when sky meets the sea,  when day meets night.

Antje Larsen says about her work: “My motivation in contemplating the sea is to bring it into play with its inherent characteristics and utilize it as a rendering graphics software for the creation of images. Lots of efforts in new technologies have been made to give us control over the image making process, to allow us to direct the formation and modulation of compelling patterns, fascinating shadows and shades, mesmerizing colors and shapes, and many more, in short, to allow us to render engaging digital images, which in most cases are inspired by nature, often even mimicking nature. Instead of following the work flow of first being inspired by nature and then create my vision on a computer screen, I prefer to indulge in the visions nature itself creates and explore the interplay between topology and the dynamics of the environment. As a result, nature is the inspiration and the creator synchronously. Nature is in control, and thus, forging images with its own palettes and tools, with its own “graphics rendering software. So, I am not having the control here as opposed to what I usually try to do in my daily life, where I aim to control as much as possible. To be precise, the only thing that I control is what gets recorded, thus memorized, and the intensity of the record. All this is simultaneously governed by everything that lies outside of my control. It becomes an exercise in accepting what I cannot control and in how I can instead transform it into a creative process. Therefore, I must become part of everything that I cannot control in that instant to record visions that are intriguing to me. This is where it becomes magic to me and which I want to share through this presentation.”

Antje Larsen Biography

2010 Group Escape, Group exhibition at FORTH, Heraklion, Crete, Greece
2011 Argentinian Tango, Group exhibition at Vitturi Bastion, Heraklion, Crete, Greece
2012  Group exhibition at Saint George Gate – Freedom’s Square, Heraklion, Crete, Greece
2013 Phenomena, Group exhibition at Guido Van Rats Gallery, Vienna, Austria
2017 From dream to decay, Group exhibition Monitor Fest, Heraklion, Crete, Greece

2017 SOlO exhibition at ResidenceSEA, Heraklion, Crete, Greece