FRACTURES
Bucharest Photofest has the honour to invite and host the Icelandic artist Maria Kjartans during the 8th edition of the festival at Bucharest to show her work. Maria has attended at the international photography festival with the accession of a two-weeks residency. The bilateral initiative mentioned above is implemented within the RO-CULTURE Programme, funded through the EEA Financial Mechanism 2014-2021.
WHEN AND WHERE
Oct 8, 2023. 6 PM. The National Museum of The Romanian Peasant (sala Noua Galerie): Fractures – photography series: María Kjartans
Oct 10, 2023. 8 PM. The National Museum of The Romanian Peasant (Cinema Muzeul Țăranului): Fractures – short film: María Kjartans & Vala Ómarsdóttir / with a Q/A session with Maria Kjartans
About Project
Fractures / Sprungur is a multimedia piece (a poetic short film and photography installation) written and directed by María Kjartans & Vala Ómarsdóttir. The project was made in Rauðfeldsgjá gorge and its surroundings on Snæfellsnes peninsula, Iceland, at the beginning of June 2021.
The project aims to inform the public about the prejudices, isolation, and loneliness many individuals with mental health problems face after illness and how difficult it can be for them to get back into life. With the project, we hope to bring a new artistic angle to the discussion about mental health and to give people with mental health problems a voice in the fight for equality and the possibility of everyday life without prejudices after recovery.
The character’s ideas and voices are based on interviews with these individuals and their families.
Fractures was made in Iceland in 2021 and previewed in the gallery of The Association of Icelandic Visual Artists. The film premiered at RIFF – Reykjavik International Film Festival in 2022.
About Maria Kjartans
María graduated from the Iceland Academy of the Arts in 2005 (BA) and the Glasgow School of Art in 2007 (MFA) and is currently the Chair of FISL (Association of Icelandic Contemporary Photographers). María has exhibited her photographs and short films in over 70 exhibitions and festivals around the world, most notably at RIFF, the Arken Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen, the Museum de Nervi in Genoa, Italy, the Arsenal Gallery in Poznan, Poland and the Ljungberg Museum. in Ljungby, Sweden. She has won first prizes for her photography series at Magnum Photos, Ideas Tap, the Art Elite Signature Art Prize in London, and the Helsinki Photo Festival in Finland. María’s work is presented by the Degree Art Gallery – Contemporary Collective in London.
María’s most recent project was the artistic short film and photographic series, Fractures, which premiered at RIFF (Reykjavik film festival) in September 2022.
In addition to working as an independent photographer and filmmaker in Reykjavík, María co-founded Vinnslan, a collective of Icelandic artists who create and curate interdisciplinary art projects. They have produced numerous Art festivals and projects for the last ten years and premiered a multi-disciplinary project in the Shakespeare Theater in Gdansk in 2023.
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