Maria Maarbjerg

maria.maarbjerg@gmail.com Website

ode to changes

multimedia, 14 mins.

Maria Maarbjerg is a Dublin-based art photographer working primarily with analogue photography. In her work she deliberately exhibits photos with scratches, blur and grain in order to create a nostalgic and archival style pointing towards photography pre digitalisation. Her projects concern societal issues, such as the housing crisis, in which she investigates the emotions experienced by people living through the crisis.

The project ode to changes, is a 14 minutes long slide projection consisting of 4 small photo essays produced before, in the beginning, during, and end of the Covid lockdowns. With the piece she wishes to document the surreal strangeness the world experienced in 2020 and 2021. It is an iteration of her graduation piece belonging without belonging from 2020, which focused on the housing crisis and optimism occuring during the first lockdown. However, ode to the changes elaborates on the opportunity for changes post lockdown, while it is the artist’s hope that the last year’s experience will result in reforms in the current housing situation.

In Maarbjerg’s process of working she chooses a specific spot to photograph which relates to her project. In terms of working with homes, housing and the housing crisis, she visited IKEA, Botanic Gardens and the Natural History Museum which all depict constructed environments, pretending to be homes, yet imitating reality. A parallel to the feeling some tenants experience, when living in rented accommodation; the place where one lives is not really a home.