Artist
Marcus Gustafsson
Filling in the Gaps
In Filling in the Gaps, artist Marcus Gustafsson delves into the deeply personal and complex story of his father’s alcoholism, exploring its impact on himself, his family, and even his father. This project is a symbol of Marcus attempting to reconcile fragmented memories—his own and those of others—to better understand the circumstances that shaped his life and relationships. At its heart, the work is also an attempt at healing, where Marcus seeks to rebuild a connection with his divided family. He reflects: “We still call each other father, son, and brother, but it has been a very long time since those titles held meaning. What we’ve been through has pushed us away from one another, and to some extent, from ourselves. It’s been a necessity for survival.” The project confronts the dualities of growing up with an alcoholic parent: the struggle to break free while remaining tethered to a shared history, the chaos of a fractured family, and the void left when the family’s unifying figure passes away. Filling in the Gaps examines how addiction alters the inner workings of familial relationships, leaving lasting marks and challenging the possibility of ever moving forward. Marcus utilises photography as his primary medium, combining original imagery of his family with archival photographs from the families photo albums. The archival family images are physically manipulated through painting, taping, and drawing. The artist’s manipulation of the photos transforms them into both intimate acts of reclamation and sites of inquiry. Through his childlike, gestural approach, Marcus symbolically reclaims memories that originally belonged to others, infusing them with his own voice and agency. The process reflects a vulnerable yet powerful reimagining of his family’s shared history, filtered through the lens of his own experience. Filling in the Gaps is an emotionally charged exploration of trauma, memory, and reconciliation, underscoring how process and diving into memories of a troubled past can serve as a means of understanding, and making peace with the story.
Frida Jersø
Through her project ‘Frida Forever’, young Danish photographer Frida Lisa Carstensen Jersø (b. 1997) explores the living state of being sick while being young. In 2012, the photographer went into an accident that broke her back and left her paralyzed. During her numerous stays in the hospital, Jersø photographed herself. Through intimate images, the artist documented a life of illness in contrast with the vibrant youthful life beyond the hospital walls. Jersø uses her visual apparatus to reveal deeply personal experiences of embracing the vulnerability of the body with a sharp gaze into her own body and the condition of being physically confined. The project thus grants the viewer access to a world and a process that are otherwise hidden behind the hospital curtains. Jersø’s images unveil a state of transition from youth to adulthood in sharp duality of freedom and the limitations caused by diseases, leading the viewer to ruminating on the impermanence of “being healthy”.
Andreas Hopfgarten
Andreas Hopfgarten (b. 1987) is a German visual artist and photographer based in Reykjavik, Iceland. Hopfgarten’s project „Where there is a will…“ sets its focus on the town of Espelkamp, once a World War II refugee camp and later transformed into a modern settlement for displaced populations in northern Germany. As our gaze is directed to enigmatic objects, spaces and situations in the images, we can almost picture the artist walking, seeing and encountering in his environment. „Where there is a will…“ offers a different perspective on the history of Germany through zooming in on the evolving story of town Espelkamp. With a research-based approach, Hopfgarten uses the medium of photography to provoke our thoughts on memory, identity, and the cultural forces that shape them.
Marcus Gustafsson
Marcus Gustafsson (b. 1990, Sweden) works primarily with analogue photography. In his deeply personal project ‘Filling in the Gaps’, the artist meditates on memory, family history and human connection. Here we see the photographer’s own photos intertwined with archival family photos with traces of manipulation of painting, taping and drawing that transform photographic processes into intimate acts of reclamation and sites of inquiry through seemingly naive gestures. This exchange being his own photos and the archival sends us a visual nonverbal journey where we instinctively try to fill the gap between the past and present, the child and the grown-up, trauma and reflection. We encounter an emotionally charged photography project on coming to terms with one’s own past, as we are confronted with the artist’s, and perhaps even our own, attempts to reconcile.
Maria Høy Hansen
Danish photographer Maria Høy Hansen’s (b. 1995) work often revolves around people who live on the periphery of the society, self-chosen or not. The project ‘Hidden Away’ captures daily lives of patients in ‘Centrul de plasament Bădiceni’, one of the remaining ‘temporary homes’ for people with disabilities in Moldova. Through strong visuals that portray the people and environment inside the institution, the project allows the viewer to access the psychological and physical conditions of the people in Bădiceni. Hansen’s images call for sympathies and bear witness to the agony of the community, along with its long endurance of violence, negligence and cruel living conditions.
The festival’s program committee consists of the following members:
Patricia Breinholm Bertram | Curator and Head of Communications at Martin Asbæk Gallery
Stinus Duch | Publisher and Founder of Disko Bay Books
Søren Pagter | Head of Photo Journalism at the Danish School of Media and Journalism/DMJX
Maja Dyrehauge Gregersen | Managing Director of Copenhagen Photo Festival
