Exhibition // Marie Hald - Exposed
Activism, taboos and vulnerability among everyday Danes at the Danish National Portrait Gallery.
Award-winning Danish Photojournalist Marie Hald boldly challenges stigmatising and impossible beauty ideals with portraits steeped in vulnerability. Pushing back against body idealism and the cult of perfection where few are deemed worthy, she raises her activist voice to break taboos about vulnerability, self-hatred and anxiety. Hald’s work chronicles difficulties and gives voice to minorities, opening our eyes to the struggles of others – and to our very own.
In “Exposed”, famous and everyday Danes become part of a wave that is changing society’s views on the body, normality and perfectionism. In a series of self-portraits, Marie Hald exposes her own vulnerability and joins the front lines in the battle for personal well-being and dignity. Fat activists, people with anorexia, women of all ages and sizes, men and children all have a place in Hald’s works on display at the Danish National Portrait Gallery – side by side with people who before them pushed society in new directions. “Exposed” is about living with an awareness of – and an insistence on – each individual’s unconditional right to be who they are in their present body.
“Photography can make a difference – open our eyes and change the way we see each other and ourselves. My greatest hope is that everyone will feel that ‘there is room for me’,” Marie Hald on the background for the portraits and exhibition.
With this first solo exhibition in her native Denmark, Maria Hald firmly establishes that she is one of the most important female photographers in Denmark, and that her photographs inspire and shape a much-needed dialogue.
Opening hours
Everyday from 10:00 - 17:00
