Between These Folded Walls, Utopia

Cooper & Gorfer

What do you hold close? Where is your secret place of belonging? If you had to leave everything behind and begin again – who would you be? As the world around us is unravelling, have we stopped dreaming of another?

– Between These Folded Walls, Utopia

In a series of richly-imagined portraits, the artistic duo Sarah Cooper & Nina Gorfer explore the idea of Utopia in the age of the new diaspora. Young women who have been forced to uproot their lives are photographed like goddesses inside lustrous and surrealist-inspired sets. These vivid portraits are a judicious and of-the-moment examination of our historical memory and possibility. Between These Folded Walls, Utopia is on view at Fotografiska New York.

Cooper & Gorfer

“The construction process was important to us, that we literally build them, putting things onto them. It’s this idea of now that they are here in Sweden, they will be influenced by this culture, clothed and constructed by it. Each society also has its own preconceptions – how it wants to see and understand certain things, groups, and people.” – Cooper & Gorfer

Cooper & Gorfer

Sarah Cooper (b.1974, US) and Nina Gorfer (b.1979, Austria) have been collaborating since 2006 and work in Gothenburg, Sweden. Their work has been shown at the National Museum of Photography in Copenhagen, NOMA New Orleans Museum of Art, Nuuk Art Museum in Greenland, and Fotografiska Stockholm among others. In 2018, Cooper & Gorfer won the prestigious German Photo Book award for their monograph “I Know Not These My Hands.”

Cooper & Gorfer, Between These Folded Walls, Utopia / still, Trailer

Behind the Scenes with Cooper & Gorfer will feature the world premiere of Between These Folded Walls, Utopia, a 15 minute short film featuring the stories of young women whose lives have been affected by forced migration. Linnea Larsdotter, Creative Director and Founder of the NIFF (Nordic Film Festival) will introduce the artists Sarah Cooper & Nina Gorfer for the live Q&A following the screening as they tune in virtually from Sweden. Audience members will have an opportunity to ask questions about the film and to learn how the artists reimagine the tradition of portraiture by deconstructing the narrative of their protagonists.

Between These Folded Walls, Utopia
Cooper & Gorfer
August 28, 2020 – March 28, 2021 / Fotografiska, New York
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