Misha Vallejo Prut, Secret Sarayuku

With REGENERATE as its theme, the 2023 festival brings together works that explore the changes modern society must face. Where people in today’s world experience a sense of being displaced, regeneration means seeing ourselves and the world as built around reciprocal relationships that benefit all parties. Such a renewed worldview means that people (including their technological achievements) and other living beings within the world’s ecosystems depend on each other for their health, well-being and survival.

By exhibiting projects from this new thinking, the festival aims to ask questions about where we want to go and how to get there, about the time we live in and the time to come.

Misha Vallejo Prut, Secret Sarayuku

At Museum Belvédère, Noorderlicht presents artists who explore how we humans relate to nature. How are we connected to it? In what ways can we work together to improve both our own and the planet’s well-being? The works on display reveal alternative ways of looking at, experiencing and relating to a world that doesn’t revolve around humans alone.

With REGENERATE as its theme, Noorderlicht International Photo Festival points to the desire to restore and strengthen nature’s health and resilience. This can be done in various ways. Sometimes by actively intervening or by simply taking a step back and trusting the restorative power of nature itself. The goal is to protect our environment and ensure that the world remains a liveable place.

Rebecca Najdowski, Wavelength: Frequencies of Wildfire

Ole Witt, Food Sync

Vincent van Gaalen, Absence

Consuelo Oppizzi, Wiphala

Our instinctive relationship with nature encourages us herein. Humans still feel a deep-seated emotional connection with nature, which we are part of, like all other living beings on this earth. Recognizing this is invaluable. Especially in our Western world, where everything strives to be ever more individualistic, materialistic, faster and efficient, we tend to forget this. Yet in some other cultures, we see this connection with nature coming to the fore.

The various works on display invite us to reflect on the immediate impact our actions have on the environment, on how ecologically fragile nature is, but equally how strong its self-healing and regenerative capacity is. In the global ecosystem, all life is interconnected. Nature deserves as many rights as humans and their modern developments. With this idea in mind, the festival encourages the exhibited works to question the direction we want to take and how to get there, to question the times we live in and the times yet to come.

Noorderlicht International Photo Festival 2023 kicks off at Museum Belvédère. The festival, which became a biennial two years ago, offers exhibitions throughout the Northern Netherlands – from Friesland to Groningen and Drenthe – on various dates from now until early December. The festival theme REGENERATE is motivated by the widely-shared feeling that a new, fresh start is needed in our interaction with nature and society. It is about our relationship with our immediate environment, ourselves and the world we live in. We are therefore approaching the festival from three perspectives: REGENERATE LIFE, REGENERATE OURSELVES and REGENERATE SOCIETY. The works on display at Museum Belvédère focus on the first part: REGENERATE LIFE.

Angela Blažanović, Fragments of a River

Alex Kemman, Green Veins of Europe

Suzette Bousema, Super Organism

Sayam Ghosh, How a Forest Returns

In Museum Opsterlân, Noorderlicht shows artists who investigate how we as humans relate to nature. How are we connected to it and in what ways can we work together to improve our own well-being and that of the planet? The works on display show alternative ways of looking at, experiencing and relating to the more-than-only-human world.

The Tschumi Pavilion in Groningen will reflect the unstable ground of the gas-drilled province of Groningen for the next few months. The installation A House to Inherit: Postcards From the Future, which consists of hand-stitched curtains and giant textile puppets was created by Oliva D’Cruz and Marina Sulima. The project is a collaboration between Kunstpunt and Noorderlicht and is part of Renewed Energy, a multi-year collaboration between Noorderlicht and BPD Cultuurfonds.

Fatma Çelik, Back to Nature

Sabine Grootendorst, Masterpieces

Marina Sulima and Olivia d’Cruz, A House to Inherit: Postcards From the Future

BetweenTwoHands, Ecognosis

The installation consists of 26 pieces of transparent textiles that the artists stitched by hand. They refer to the interior of a house. There are also large dolls and stories written by artist Fynn van der Ziel (b. Groningen, 1996). The dolls depict figures from the future and tell how they got here. The floor of the pavilion is open so that the wind has free play with the installation. “The underlying idea is that we owe it to future generations to take care of our environment. We use giant textile puppets to represent future generations,” D’Cruz and Sulima explain.

The duo previously worked with Noorderlicht on the Renewed Energy project In The Courtroom with Rocks in which they drew parallels to the problematic mining industry in Groningen and areas elsewhere in the world. The work in the Tschumi Pavilion is a continuation of this project.

Ngadi Smart, Freetown Dwarzack

Sabine Grootendorst, Masterpieces

João Castilho, Photo Installations

Bob Miller, Last Generation

REGENERATE shows photographs from:
Cristóbal Ascencio, Glorianna Ximendaz, Xingrong Qiao, Wawi Navarroza, Deepti Asthana, Kim Tieleman, Claire Sunho Lee, Marjolein Busstra, Matthieu Gafsou, Laura Boushnak, Eline Benjaminsen, McKenzie Calle, Nicolas Janowski, Cynthia MaiWa Sitei, Lavinia Xausa, Velibor Bozovic, Daniel Chatard, Risk Hazekamp, Domenico Mangano & Marieke van Rooy, Ngadi Smart, Eline Kersten, Sayam Ghosh, Consuelo Oppizzi, Vincent van Gaalen, Dirk-Jan Visser & Gus Drake, Ole Witt, Suzette Bousema, Alex Kemman, Angela Blazanovic, Micha Vallejo Prut, Rebecca Najdowksi, Marina Sulima & Olivia d’Cruz, David Vroom, Jacob Molenhuis, Hester Scheurwater.

Exhibition Venues:

Museum Belvédère, Heerenveen
Regenerate Life
June 24 – September 14, 2023

Museum Opsterlân
Regenerate Life
June 15 – September 30, 2023

Campis
October 14 – December 8, 2023

Pictura
Regenerate Ourselves
October 7 – December 10, 2023

Akerk
Regenerate Society
October 7 – December 10, 2023

A House to Inherit: Postcards From the Future
Marina Sulima and Olivia d’Cruz
June 22 – October 15, 2023

Noorderlicht International Photo Festival: Regenerate
June 23 – December 10, 2023
Groningen, Friesland and Drenthe, The Netherlands
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