Oliver Godow

For osloBIENNALEN FIRST EDITION, Oliver Godow produces a bilboard poster and a publication that shows scenes from the last five years' intensive reconstruction and development of Oslo, one of Europe's fastest growing capitals. His book ‘Oslo 2014-2019’, was launched in October 2019 by the publisher Hatje Cantz in collaboration with osloBIENNALEN.

Biography

Oliver Godow’s (b. 1968, Lübeck, Germany) poetic, incisive photographs observe fragments and details of urban spaces and objects and reveal how environments adapt and are adapted through use. His work reflects a fascination with the way the unregulated urban environment provides a rich and fertile ground for intervention by its inhabitants – whether through choice or necessity – who adapt and transform their surroundings both publically and in private. Godow’s images show tiny fragments of a world that we struggle with and brush past on a daily basis. Their quiet melancholy is often accompanied by a wry smile, delighting in the anthropomorphic qualities of architecture through isolated yet potent details.

Essay

Karen Irvine is Chief Curator and Deputy Director at The Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College, Chicago (USA).

The following essay was originally published as part of Oliver Godow’s book Oslo 2014–2019.

Read the text here:
FORM UNDER CONSTRUCTION

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