SIMONE SASSEN
ULTIMA THULE
20 January – 2 March 2013
Monday and Wednesday
on appointment
The exhibition
SIMONE SASSEN
ULTIMA THULE
20 January – 2 March 2013
Ultima Thule: legendary name for a country still to be discovered, a name for the “end of the world”. Spitzbergen, the group of islands in the Arctic Sea, was once one of those far away and unreachable places. The islands were only first discovered in 1600 by Dutchman Willem Barents, who was searching for a passage through the Arctic Sea. The first inhabitants were whalers and trappers, later they were polar explorers and miners, excavating the local coal reserves.
This exhibition presents images Simone Sassen took during a journey to Spitzbergen: expansive views over a barren but never monotonous landscape. Fjords, lichen-covered rocks, snow-filled ravines, drift ice on shiny gray water. In contrast to the peaceful landscape, she exposes the oppressive silence of an empty city: ‘Pyramids’, a recently abandoned Russian mining settlement. It appears as if the inhabitants left everything behind them in a hurry; the industrial compounds, their apartments and the city. What remains is an empty backdrop at the end of the world.
Exhibition opening
Saturday, 19 January 2013 at 5 pm
bildkultur | galerie, Markelstr. 19, 70193 Stuttgart
Introduction
Dr. Matthias Bullinger | bildkultur Stuttgart
Prof. Dr. Nils Büttner | Staatl. Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart
The exhibition is on view
from Sunday 20 January – Saturday 2 March 2013
Gallery
hours
Monday and Wednesday
on appointment