Tundro*: An exhibition by Per Hüttner at the Museum of Contemporary Art, National Museum, Szczecin, Poland.

Per Hüttner’s work investigates life’s natural moments of change – birth, coming of age, marriage and death – and its moments of violence.

Like death, violence is a natural, yet unacceptable, part of life, which often appears in our lives as an unwelcome surprise and can leave us feeling vulnerable. Hüttner’s work poses the viewer an essential question: in these moments of vulnerability, do we allow fear to take hold of us or do we see them as holding the potential for development? Are we victims or masters of our lives?

For Hüttner the body is the locus of pain and joy, with photography the tool to lay the body bare. Through small changes in cityscapes Hüttner uses his presence to conceptualize spaces that might at first appear to be normal. The artist often appears in the photographs, always wearing his trademark white attire, but rather than being central he often remains a background figure. This process makes of the artist a measuring stick of the reality that surrounds us and which might be too familiar to reveal its inherently surreal qualities. Hüttner’s appearance and his interventions act like a key that unlocks the ambiguities of cityscapes and the hidden strangeness of our everyday lives.

*Tundro – the word means “freedom” in Infrapayo, artist Julio Jara’s invented language – is Hüttner’s first large-scale exhibition of work produced over the last three years: 25 photographs, as well as the artist’s first major sculptural piece in many years.

Tundro has been organized with the kind support of IASPIS, as part of the MARE ARTICUM program, and within Szczecin City Patronage under Szczecin’s National Museum.