“In my eyes, the presentation of Marie Sjøvold’s photo book The Practice of Presence was Le Book Club’s most refreshing element. Among other things, it was about the experience perspective that both the book and the installation of the book opened up for; a perspective that is strikingly unexplored in the photobook literature. ”
Heidi Bahle Amundsen has written a really good text about the exhibition “Le Book Club” in the Norwegian Art Yearbook. The exhibition was shown at Fotogalleriet in Oslo January/February 2020, curated by the Norwegian artist Nina Strand and Paris-based duo Anna Planas and Pierre Hourquet. In five chapters unravelling over five weeks, the exhibition Le Book Club explored the photobook as an exhibition space.
From Heidi Bahle Amundsens text in Norwegian:
I mine øyne var presentasjonen av Marie Sjøvolds fotobok The Practice of presence Le Book Clubs mest forfriskende element. Det handlet blant annet om det erfaringsperspektivet som både boken og installasjonen av boken åpnet opp for; et perspektiv som er påfallende uutforsket i fotoboklitteraturen. Sjøvold bok består av fire publikasjoner i en boks, som hver beskriver nærværserfaringer fotografen hadde i løpet av et år med begrenset bruk av smarttelefon og sosiale medier. Dette nærværet i egen erfaringsverden ble speilet i publikums omgang med boka, siden fire ulike installasjoner av verket inviterte til fire ulike opplevelser.
Blant annet ble man som leser invitert til å legge igjen hver av de fire delene av The Practice of Presence åpne på det oppslaget man hadde opplevd sterkest, som ble neste lesers inngang til prosjektet. Interessant nok var det ikke disse oppslagene som satt sterkest i meg etter utstillingen, men de som andre hadde åpnet for meg. Den erfaringen sier noe om betydningen av andre leseres blikk og meninger for leseropplevelsen.
From Heidi Bahle Amundsens text translated to English:
In my eyes, the presentation of Marie Sjøvold's photo book The Practice of Presence was Le Book Club's most refreshing element. Among other things, it was about the experience perspective that both the book and the installation of the book opened up for; a perspective that is strikingly unexplored in the photobook literature. Sjøvold book consists of four publications in one box, each of which describes the photographer's presence experiences during a year with limited use of smartphone and social media. This presence in one's own world of experience was reflected in the audience's interaction with the book, since four different installations of the work invited four different experiences.
Among other things, the reader was invited to leave each of the four parts of The Practice of Presence open on the post they had experienced most, which became the next reader's entrance to the project. Interestingly enough, it was not these postings that stood out the most in me after the exhibition, but the ones that others had opened for me. That experience says something about the importance of other readers' views and opinions for the reading experience.
