Reykjavík Museum of Photography

Many people may connect the name of this multi-talented artist with acting rather than photography, as he has been very successful as a movie actor 
for which he recently received an Oscar nomination.

Mortensen finds more than one path to channel his artistic creation and often mixes them together. Thus, his acting is only a part of a larger whole as he is recognized for his photography, which he has been doing for many years, together with painting, poetry and music. Viggo Mortensen has travelled widely and has lived in various places in his life. He uses  his immediate surroundings where he is staying any time as the subject of his photographs. Whether it is rays of sunlight breaking into a thick tree foliage in Krakow, Poland, a man climbing stairs in the Ural Mountains, a sun-scorched bush in New Mexico or sedge at the edge of a forest in Zealand, Denmark, the way he perceives the world is clearly apparent in his photographs, which have a certain lyrical and dreamlike quality to them. 

The title "Skovbo", undoubtedly calls to mind issues such as nature conservation and climate. However, the photographer does not regard the exhibition as a contribution to a political  debate, but as a sort of gift from abroad: images which are mostly of trees, because he knows there are not many of them in Iceland. He also likes trees in their own right, and to photograph them is, in his opinion, a way of paying them respect and remembering them. He is aware of the controversies surrounding the effects of industrialisation on the Icelandic landscape, particularly the aluminium industry and damming of rivers, but chooses not to comment on that issue with this exhibition. The consequences of human interference with Nature speak for themselves, and so do trees. We just need to listen a little more. 

A book of the same title accompanies the exhibition. The book is presented as follows:

In this new collection of images and poems are trees and the memory of trees, ghosts, words, nights, days, lives, deaths, and safe haven for them all in the place where  "...the twigs become branches, / And the mist becomes make-believe..." (Osip Emilyevich Mandelstam). If you daren't enter the forest, or cannot find it, then perhaps you might find one tree, or a place where a tree could be, and just stop for a quiet moment to see what happens.
In 2002 Mortensen founded the publishing company Perceval Press which focuses on his interests: arts, photography, poetry and literature. As many Icelanders are aware, not long ago the company published a book of the works of Icelandic painter, Georg Guðni, was published by the company. Books of Viggo Mortensen´s own photography include: Recent Forgeries (Smart Art Press, 1998) SignLanguage (Smart Art Press, 2002), Coincidence of Memory (Perceval Press, 2002), Hole In The Sun (Perceval Press, 2002) and most recently SKOVBO (Perceval Press, 2008)




Viggo Mortensen│Skovbo (en)

The title of the exhibition "Skovbo" is from the photographer's second native language, Danish, and could be translated as “home in the forest” or in a wider context – life in the forest.

Viggo Morten­sen│Skovbo (en)

The title of the exhibition "Skovbo" is from the photographer's second native language, Danish, and could be translated as “home in the forest” or in a wider context – life in the forest.

Viggo Mortensen│Skovbo (en)