DMJX at Copenhagen Photo Festival

I’ll eat you up. I Love you so is a very personal story about infatuation, that examines the forces that make you lose control and feelings that can be difficult to contain and cannot be tamed. The story is a tribute to the animal inside, which, in the desire of becoming one with the other, devours her completely. This is yet another story about love. All-consuming love. Self portrait by Louise Herrche Serup from the project I’ll eat you up. I Love you so.

Mads Frost, Jesper Houborg and Louise Herrche Serup preparing Louise’s exhibition for the Copenhagen Photo Festival 2022. Louise made her personal project during her final term at DMJX in the fall 2020. Louise graduated in January 2021. Photo: Mathias Fredslund Hansen.

In August 2021, when the Taliban took control over Afghanistan more than 900 Afghans were evacuated from Kabul to Denmark. Six months after, the majority still live in Danish asylum centers. In this story, we follow the everyday life of Afghan families. From their life in the Asylum Center to a new life in a Danish municipality.
Common to all the families is a life on borrowed time. Denmark is the Western nation who has given the shortest temporary residency of two years to this group of evacuated refugees. People who worked for the Danish authorities during the war in Afghanistan. Picture by Jesper Houborg from the project “The Life of the Evacuated Afghan Refugees in Denmark”.

Jesper Houborg’s installation at Copenhagen Photo Festival showing his project “The Life of the Evacuated Afghan Refugees in Denmark”. Jesper Houborg made the story in the spring 2022 as his final BA-project. Photo: Jesper Houborg.

Emilie used to refer to her girlfriend as ‘him’, Jayce was bullied in school because he was feminine, and Monir’s gender identity wasn’t taken seriously in the psychiatric system. Brynhildr (image) has been a victim of violent assaults, Morgan feels lonely when they can’t be themself, and when Noah grew up, he never knew the term ‘transgender’.
Six LGBTQ+ people share how being queer in a straight society affects their mental health. They shed light on the overrepresentation of mental health issues and diagnoses that exist among LGBTQ+ people compared to the cisgendered and heterosexual population. A trend that figures from the Danish survey ‘Project SEXUS’, the largest population survey on sexuality to this date, points to. Portrait of Brynhildr by Mads Frost.

Mads Frost’s installation showing “Queer Mental Health” is being pushed in place at the festival ground at Refshaleøen. Mads graduated in 2021 with this project. Photo: Jesper Houborg.

“To The Unpopular Grils” is driven by Iben Gad’s curiosity to get to know what drove her bullies. It’s a personal project about identity that explores social dynamics in Gad’s childhood. She has asked eight of her bullies if they wanted to meet for a conversation and for a photo session too. The exhibition is built on interviews, portraits and archive material such as screenshots, photographs and paintings and staged as a children’s room.
Photo from project.

Iben Gad hanging her project “To The Unpopular Girls” at the Copenhagen Photo Festival. Iben is one out of five, young photographers selected to exhibit as part of Futures Nordic Talents. The project was made at DMJX in 2021, where Iben also graduated from DMJX.
Photo: Iben Gad.

‘Nanna’ is a document and diary. Of a time of uncertainty, disbelief and tears, but also laughter and meaningfulness. It explores the relationship to the artist’s father at a time when his relationship to his dying mother was changing. Oscar himself becomes a trusted adult. Even though the project was made as a way of letting go and remembering the life of his beloved grandma, as it unfolded it turned out to be much more about life than death.
Photo from the project by Oscar Scott Carl.

Oscar Scott Carl placing the last image in his exhibition “Nanna” at Copenhagen Photo Festival. Oscar is one out of five, young photographers selected to exhibit as part of Futures Nordic Talents. Oscar graduated from DMJX in 2021 and made the project shortly after his graduation. Photo: Oscar Scott Carl.

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