Lene Marie Fossen – Human (1.9.22 – 26.2.23)

«I am not what they see, but what I see.»

The exhibition Lene Marie Fossen – Human presents for the first time the urgent self-portraits of Norwegian photographer Lene Marie Fossen (1986-2019) outside her country.

© Lene Marie Fossen, Untitled, Chios, 2017, Courtesy WILLAS contemporary.

Even though it is highly topical, the subject of anorexia is taboo. For the first time outside Scandinavia, the exhibition Lene Marie Fossen – Human will present the Norwegian photographer Lene Marie Fossen’s (1986–2019) powerful self-portraits. Fossen rejected the linear course of time that forced her into puberty and stopped eating at the age of ten. She struggled with anorexia for the rest of her life. Self-taught, she discovered photography as a medium with which she sought to freeze time. She created her deeply moving series of self-portraits in an empty hospital on the Greek island of Chios. Fossen decided to be open about her disorder and showed her works publicly. And she demanded to be seen as a photographer: “I’m primarily an artist, and then I’m sick. My work is not about eating disorders. It’s about human suffering.” On Chios in 2015, she also took photographs of stranded refugee children and elderly people. Her focus was always on the question of what it means to be human.

Curated by Ellen K. Willas, WILLAS contemporary, Oslo/Stockholm.

Accompanied by the prize-winning documentary Self Portrait, directed by Margreth Olin, Katja Høgset, and Espen Wallin (2019, Speranza Film), Music by Susanne Sundför.

Kindly supported by:

Susanne und Martin
Knechtli-Kradolfer
Stiftung

Lienhard Stiftung

E. Fritz und Yvonne
Hoffmann Stiftung