23.8. — 15.9.2024

The aim of THE CHARACTERS is to encapsulate an entire artistic practice. Since 2008 Tonje Bøe Birkeland has, through THE CHARACTERS, given women a position within the landscape while exploring the objectivity of history.  In Birkland’s expeditions, female explorers are staged in Unknown Territory. Materials have been gathered from their journeys, yielding stories and installations with photography in large formats, text panels, and a suitcase for every traveller, together portraying Characters # I – V. The heroine moves in pristine territory: in front of her loom grand explorations; beneath her, history is formed. However, for all their expansive vistas and sublime experiences, expeditions come at a price, both in the past and today. 

THE CHARACTERS demand physical presence as well as sensitivity for storytelling. Each project augments the gallery of personas of female heroines from the past, who, through narrative, fantasy, and photography, can fill a void in our history and reveal contemporary society’s challenges: globalized colonization on the one hand and the loss of the great adventure on the other. Each of The Characters shapes a meta-journey: that of the artist. The imagined female heroines have taken Tonje to the East Coast of Greenland, the Gobi Desert in Mongolia, and through the Inner Himalayas of Bhutan. 

Tonje Bøe Birkeland (b. 1985, Bergen) received an MFA from Bergen Academy of Art & Design. In 2008 she started working with The Characters, aiming to encapsulate an entire artistic practice. For the past 15 years she has, through The Characters, given women a position within landscape while exploring the authenticity of history. While the romantic motives of the male wanderer have been well-documented, in Birkeland’s project, female explorers are staged in Unknown Territory. In front of the heroine looms grand exploration; beneath her, history is formed.  In 2021 Birkeland published her second artist book The Characters: Character #V Bertha Bolette Boyd (1900-1985), The Bhutan Trilogy, Bergen Kjøtt Publishing. In 2023 the book has been on display at AbC Art Book Fair/Shanghai and Unfold/Shanghai. Recent solo shows include: The Characters, Character # V, Sølvberget galleri/Stavanger, The Characters, Nuuk Art Museum/Nuuk and The Characters, Fotografihuset/Oslo. Through The Characters Birkeland has been awarded The Victor Fellowship by the Hasselblad Foundation (2012) and silver in the Norwegian book design contest Årets Vakreste Bøker (2017).