ÅRET x ON-THE-GO

In 2018, Blankt Papir in collaboration with 80 Copenhagen-based photographers initiated the project ”The Year, Copenhagen 2018". During the course of the year, the photographers, a mix of well-established and emerging artists, engaged in portraying the city of Copenhagen. The result was published by Blank Papir Press as a real-time photobook publication in 12 individual chapters - one for each month of the year - featuring contemporary works. Presenting different artists every month, Året/The Year gathered throughout 2018 a growing and diverse collection of photographic perspectives and practices. In the publication we are shown a Copenhagen brimming with contrasts, more and more so as the months and seasons pass by - it is a city that is colourful, monochrome, empty, fun-loving, introverted, dull, sunny, dark and cold, but also light and warm (oh my, how hot was 2018!?) It is an unfiltered look at the city and how this is interpreted in the end, all depends on the eye of the beholder.

With an image archive of 474 individual images, Året/The Year has an extensive back catalog that can be combined indefinitely. With a diversity of stories, themes, aesthetic expressions (and forewarnings), the Danish capital shows itself in all its complexity. Today, in light of the unreal happenings of 2020, we understandably see and read many of the images quite differently from what we previously would have done - and suddenly the year of 2018 seems both foreboding but also far, far away.

In curating for Fotografisk Center’s digital exhibition platform On-The-Go, Blankt Papir took into account the current reality in which we live, showcasing a selection of images that both warn and comfort. Handpicked are 20 pictures by 18 different artists - they are meant to remind us that even as we aim to live in the present, it is a repetition of the past.

Mette Sandbye from the Danish newspaper Weekendavisen wrote the following about the exhibition: “sense scintillating motifs that poke at your urge to cuddle, party and travel - or the urge to shy away from all contact” (own translation).

Like a physical exhibition this digital exhibition was also only viewable online for a certain period on On-The-Go.net - launching on April 21 and finishing on June 22nd 2020.