Virta // Block

The exhibition »Virta // Block« juxtaposes works by the Finnish photographers Ida Pimenoff and Aapo Huhta. Both artists deal with questions of presence and absence in everyday situations. As Ida Pimenoff’s works are closer to nature, warmer and more colorful, Aapo Huhta’s photographs are more constructed, more graphic and desaturated. This unorthodox confrontation of both positions enables a different view on both artists and their works.

Ida Pimenoff’s »Virta« revolves around ideas of joy and sorrow, life and death and involves personal memories as well. Her work moves about the borders of reality and phantasy and praises the beauty of the passing moment. Her latest publication »Book of Hours« draws on the idea of the carefully illustrated devotional books from medieval times.

Aapo Huhta’s »Block« is a photographic essay, shot in New York. The works are amassed as a set of visions, offering hints for storylines in a murky, dystopic scene of the city witnessed by a stranger. Focusing on gray, concrete features with some people as spectators, narrowing down the elements in the frame, driven most often by the observation of the shapes the light creates, it alludes to a mute perspective toward contemporary city life and the people’s role in it. The publication »Block« won the German Photobook Prize 2016 in silver and the PDN Photo Annual 2016 in the category »Photo Book«.