Exhibition - Hubris! by C.Y. Frostholm

C. Y. Frostholm’s solo exhibition Hubris! at Galleri Image is a photographic installation based on the visual artist and author’s latest book Til den ven jeg aldrig har kendt (To the Friend I Have Never Known). The exhibition will open on Friday 10 January 2025 at 4-6 pm.

The book, which was published in autumn 2023 by the publisher Tredje September and was nominated for both Politiken’s Literature Prize and Information’s Montana Prize, is a 688-page novel and travel diary in words and pictures dedicated to the French writer and photographer Hervé Guibert (born 1955 and died of AIDS in 1991).

The Hubris! installation represents an updated version, where the images are the main focal point, and in which, supplemented by ‘special features’, new works and photographic objects, unfold hidden layers of the material and the creation process behind the book.

The project’s hubris/nemesis theme draws on mythical-historical references, but in equal measure examines the human hubris of our own time, which has led to ecological disturbances such as climate crisis and invasive species, HIV/AIDS and covid-19.
The theme simultaneously connects Hervé Guibert’s honest and photographic-visual obsession and often transgressive andartistic approach with C.Y. Frostholm’s own maximalist, almost stalkerish attempt to approach and mirror himself in his autofictional double practice.

The main axis of the exhibition consists of a frieze of larger colour and black and white photos from the travels that were part of the project. As a prelude, the series Autoportrait cassé (2019) will be shown with book pages partially obscured by leaves, Frostholm’s first discreet take on Guibert’s work.

In direct continuation of Til den ven jeg aldrig har kendt’s preoccupation with friendship, three new works will also be presented in collaboration with a group of Frostholm’s artist friends, who all appear as characters in the story and have played an important role in relation to the artist’s work over the years: scenographer Tinne Borgland and the visual artists Tatiana Maria Lund, MC Coble and Louise Wolthers.

Hubris! is an exhibition that makes use of photography in many formats – analogue and digital photography, slides, video and photo book objects – and which through investigative and archaeological approaches gathers times and questions that may appear separate, into a picture-poetic whole.

In connection with the exhibition, Galleri Image will present two events. On January 11, Galleri Image will host a reading event with C. Y. Frostholm and Johan Feierskov. On February 8, we’ll show Hervé Guibert’s film La pudeur ou l’impudeur at Øst for Paradis Art Cinema, with an introduction by C. Y. Frostholm and readings by Iben Engelhardt Andersen and Frederik Bakke.

About the artist
C. Y. Frostholm (b. 1963), first name: Cyf, is a Danish writer and visual artist, graduated from the Writers’ School in 1989. He often works at the crossroads between visual art and literary production, where poetry, photography, prose, memoirs, installation and performance are fused to create strong, engaging works that defy conventional genre designations. His climate activist novel Træmuseet (The Tree Museum), which like Til den ven jeg aldrig har kendt included photography, was nominated for Politiken’s Literature Prize 2018 and the Critics’ Prize 2018. In 2021, he received the Otto Gelsted Prize for his artistic work.
https://cyf.dk/tildenven

The exhibition is supported by the Danish Art Foundation, the New Carlsberg Foundation, the Augustinus Foundation, the L. F. Foght Foundation, and the Danish Tennis Foundation.

Host or Publisher Galleri Image