6.3.–29.3.2026, Photographic Gallery Hippolyte

Susan Sontag writes in On Photography (1977) that the camera places us at a distance from its subject. Through the photographic image, another person can be observed without reciprocity. Looking becomes safe, and at times detached. Cinema often reproduces a similar distance: on screen, a person appears as an image rather than as an encounter.

In this exhibition, the encounter emerges in the space between two images and separate timelines. Two performers appear on overlapping screens, and a relationship unfolds between them, shaped by camera movement, choreography, and spatial composition. The roles of performer and camera operator continuously alternate, forming a feedback loop in which each choreography shapes the next. In this process, the boundaries between performance and creation, as well as distance and reciprocity, begin to blur.

The exhibition operates along the threshold between the documentary and the constructed, between presence and representation. It lingers on questions of what an encounter can mean within an image, and how an image might produce an experience of relation.

This exploration draws on the portrait and its traditional promise of a particular kind of connection. Roland Barthes writes in Camera Lucida (1980) that a photograph is always a sign of someone’s presence, a trace of a situation in which someone once stood in front of the camera. In this work, presence is distributed across multiple levels and temporalities, and the relationship takes shape in the space between images.

Perhaps the encounter does not occur between the people depicted, but between the viewer and the image, at the moment when the illusion of closeness begins to feel real.

Kalle Nio (b. 1982) is a visual artist, magician, and stage director from Espoo, Finland. He holds a Master’s degree in Fine Arts from the Academy of Fine Arts, University of Arts Helsinki in 2014. Nio works across visual arts, contemporary circus, dance, magic, visual theatre, and experimental film. His company, WHS, is one of the most internationally active Finnish performance art ensembles. Their multidisciplinary, genre-crossing works have been presented on dance, theatre, circus, puppetry, and visual art stages in over 40 countries. In addition to leading his own company, Nio has worked as a set designer, video designer, and magic designer for other performing arts groups.
@kallenio | kallenio.com

Emilie Largier (b. 1988) is a multidisciplinary artist, physical theatre performer, and stage director from France. She creates interdisciplinary performances inspired by painting and cinema, approaching darkness as a terrain of emergence where perception bends, wavers, and reinvents itself. Formally trained in fine arts, costume design/making and stage performances, she has collaborated on theatre productions across Europe, including France, Belgium, London, and Denmark. She has most recently presented her work at CPH Stage 2025 in collaboration with Hangar People / Kristjan Ingimarsson Company and Feral Festival 2026 (DK).
@emilielargier | @horschamp | emilielargier.com

The exhibition has been supported by: WHS, Kordelin foundation, City of Espoo, Genesis, ShowTex