Torbjørn Rødland: Songs for the Sun
Yuz Museum, Panlong Tiandi, Shanghai
July 12th, 2025 – October 12th, 2025
Yuz Museum is pleased to present “Songs for the Sun,” the first solo exhibition in China of Torbjørn Rødland, a pioneer of contemporary photography, featuring more than 20 works spanning from 2005 to 2023. Through his unique visual language full of calmness and tension, Rødland transforms ordinary scenes of everyday life into poetic expressions that contain existentialist thinking, reflecting the emotional atmosphere of the current era and the living conditions and spiritual aspects of modern people.
In the digital age of information and image overload, Rødland insists on the traditional photographic process of analog photography and darkroom development. This choice itself is a gesture of resistance. The image is transferred to the film through the lens and the shutter capturing the moment; it appears in the liquid through chemical processing after being projected onto the photographic paper. This process not only emphasizes the physical existence of the images, but also constitutes a profound reflection on the virtuality of digital images, and the image production and consumption of today. Although at first glance, Rødland’s photographs blend the language of art photography in the 20th century with the image styles that are prevalent in advertising, entertainment, popular culture, and social media in the 21st century, he questions all the influences he has internalized from an almost detached perspective. Through his lens, delicious food is placed in unfamiliar contexts or juxtapositions, which is different from traditional food photography, creating a grotesque sensory experience due to psychological suggestion. Models are often in abnormal postures with a vacant look to show a sense of alienation from specific narratives. Ordinary portraits are given a solemnity that is almost like a religious ritual, which may seem like a parody of popular aesthetics, but also attempts to “distill their mystery or contradiction, to purify their poetic juices.” The body is often regarded as a disassembled object, and the partial close-up of the limbs presents subtle images, blurring the boundaries between humans and objects, and evoking people’s fetishistic tendencies and fear of dehumanization. Rødland is adept at constructing abnormalcy out of ordinary daily scenes, but a sense of “normalcy” could be clearly seen in his landscape photography; rather than capturing spectacles, he pursues a balance between the normal and the abnormal, and therefore, he is extremely restrained in dealing with some magnificent landscapes.
Rødland’s photographs often present fascinating but elusive scenes. His works encompass a variety of themes that are difficult to categorize or cannot be simply defined, like a carefully designed visual puzzle that invites the audience to solve, but refuses to provide any clues or clear answers. This concept of rejecting a single perspective and embracing multiple interpretations is deeply rooted in his work, showing the artist’s deliberate strategy to challenge certainty. His images often wander between contradictory poles – familiar and strange, reasonable and absurd, innocent and violent, sacred and secular, pleasant and disturbing at the same time. Rødland once quoted Roland Barthes’s statement in The Pleasure of the Text as a defense for his own “photographic pleasure,” for images “that destroy, to the point of contradiction, their own discursive category, their genres.” Contradiction creates a kind of rupture, which enriches the images with tension and impels meaning to grow and flow out of it. Rødland does not seek to fully convince the audience. He constantly challenges their existing visual experience and cognitive boundaries. Such openness evokes a wide range of their curious and sophisticated sentiments and intellectual experiences.
Rødland’s photography is neither a record nor a representation of reality. The exhibition, titled “Songs for the Sun,” highlights the close connection of his works with nature and light. However, most of his works are obviously lit with light sources other than sunlight, suggesting that the images are “indirect and symbolic statements rather than depictions of a readily available reality.” His photographic practice ultimately points to a rebellion that refuses mediocrity, a game without Bingo, and a song that goes on ceaselessly.
Special thanks to OCA – Office for Contemporary Art Norway
Sincere thanks to Royal Norwegian Consulate General in Shanghai, P.R.C
About the Artist
Portrait of Torbjørn Rødland
Photo Credit: Emma Jenkinson
Courtesy of the Artist, David Kordansky Gallery, and Galerie Eva Presenhuber
Torbjørn Rødland (b. 1970, Stavanger, Norway) makes photographic images that pointedly address their viewers, evoking a wide range of emotional and intellectual states. Curiosity, humor, criticality, artifice, reverence for the natural world, and romanticism appear throughout his work and often in the same image. Rødland also emphasizes the formal attributes of his photographs, pushing the medium toward modes of visual expression more commonly associated with painting, and forging links between twentieth-century art photography and twenty-first-century approaches to image-making common to advertising and social media. Often prompted by non-photographic imagery that he transforms into real-world photographic subjects, Rødland portrays scenes designed to generate psychological reaction through his depiction of highly sensory qualities. The physicality present in the work is driven by his use of film-based cameras and chemical darkroom processes. Rødland lives and works in Los Angeles.
Torbjørn Rødland has been the subject of solo exhibitions including Oh My God You Guys, Le Consortium, Dijon (2023); Bible Eye, The Contemporary Austin, Texas (2021); Fifth Honeymoon, a traveling exhibition produced as a collaboration between Bergen Kunsthall, Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki (2018-2019); THE TOUCH THAT MADE YOU, Fondazione Prada, Milan (2018) and the Serpentine, London (2017); Back in Touch, C/O Berlin (2017); and Blue Portrait (Nokia N82), Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2016). Recent group exhibitions include Before Tomorrow – Astrup Fearnley Museet 30 Years, Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo (2023); Crossing Views: A Selection of Works from The Collection, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris (2020); What People Do for Money, Manifesta 11, Zürich (2016); LIT, 9th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art (2016); and 48th Venice Biennale (1999). His work is in the permanent collections of institutions including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo; Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki; Malmö Art Museum; and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.
Exhibitions at Yuz Museum are organized in partnership with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Qatar Museums
Made Possible by Yuz Foundation
About Yuz Museum
Yuz Museum, officially opened in May 2014 in Shanghai, is a contemporary art museum founded by Mr. Budi Tek, a Chinese-Indonesian entrepreneur, philanthropist, and collector. As one of the first non-profit institutions along the West Bund Culture Corridor, the museum has been following its founder, Budi Tek’s philosophy of “collecting to share,” with the mission of “drawing the world’s attention to Shanghai” and “bringing art into people’s daily lives.” Committed to advancing the development of contemporary Chinese art, actively engaging in the field of art education, and promoting cultural dialogues between East and West as its own responsibility, and exploring to answer the question “It takes ten years to grow trees, a hundred years to grow people, then how many years to grow a life of art?” By doing so, it has successfully established a bi-directional parallel between “history” and “future” throughout all its exhibitions and developed a variety of public outreach programs. It introduces the Chinese public to contemporary art and the world to Shanghai and China through its exhibitions that span across China and the West.
Since its opening, Yuz Museum has been the home of many internationally acclaimed exhibitions such as the world’s largest Giacometti Retrospective, the “Rain Room,” the Asia premieres of Andy Warhol’s “Shadows,” KAWS’s “Where the End Starts,” “Charlie Chaplin: A Vision,” “Yoshitomo Nara,” “Watering the Desert: Contemporary Art from Qatar,” etc., which have had a great impact on domestic and international culture, art, education, and other fields.
Yuz Museum has been active in the world of art and has launched in-depth collaborations with many internationally renowned art museums. On October 31, 2019, Yuz Museum Shanghai entered into a landmark collaboration with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Qatar Museums to jointly develop and share exhibitions and programs across their institutions.
With its continual development, the museum has been looking into possibilities of further expansion and made its home in the core area of Shanghai Greater Hongqiao International Business District. On May 17, 2023, as the new venue of Yuz Museum at Panlong Tiandi was completed and opened to the public, the museum launched the 2nd phase of its strategic plan: YUZ FLOW. In the coming ten years, the museum will carry on with Mr. Budi Tek’s philosophy, further explore how to use “art to grow generations to come,” take “flow with Yuz, breathe with art” as its vision for the 2nd stage, and make a gradual layout shift from a “white box” to a “satellite network,” marking the start of the museum’s 2nd chapter with a brand-new model: “one main space + various encounters.”
In 2024, the Yuz Museum launched a children’s art education project – YUZ DOLAN, which has been planned and developed by our expert and innovation team for many years. “DOLAN” is derived from the Indonesian Javanese language, meaning “play,” and its opening will reshape the museum space into an “art playground” for the participants. Specifically tailored for children, this project is launching diverse content ecosystems including creative art courses, art museum education charity events, and artist’s workshops, which are deeply rooted within the Yuz Museum’s professional experience in art exhibitions, research collections, and public education. We are committed to creating an artistic paradise for children to grow happily, express themselves, and unleash their creativity.
For more information visit www.yuzmshanghai.org
About LACMA
Located on the Pacific Rim, LACMA is the largest art museum in the western United States, with a collection of more than 150,000 objects that illuminate 6,000 years of artistic expression across the globe. Committed to showcasing a multitude of art histories, LACMA exhibits and interprets works of art from new and unexpected points of view that are informed by the region’s rich cultural heritage and diverse population. LACMA’s spirit of experimentation is reflected in its work with artists, technologists, and thought leaders as well as in its regional, national, and global partnerships to share collections and programs, create pioneering initiatives, and engage new audiences.
For more information visit www.lacma.org
About Qatar Museums
Qatar Museums (QM), the nation’s preeminent institution for art and culture, provides authentic and inspiring cultural experiences through a growing network of museums, heritage sites, festivals, public art installations, and programmes. QM preserves and expands the nation’s cultural offerings, sharing art and culture from Qatar, the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia (MENASA) region with the world and enriching the lives of citizens, residents, and visitors.
Under the patronage of His Highness the Amir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and led by its Chairperson, Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, QM has made Qatar a vibrant centre for the arts, culture, and education in the Middle East and beyond. QM is integral to the goal of developing an innovative, diverse, and progressive nation, bringing people together to ignite new thinking, spark critical cultural conversations, and amplify the voices of Qatar’s people. Since its founding in 2005, QM has overseen the development of museums and festivals including the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) and MIA Park, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, the National Museum of Qatar (NMOQ), 3-2-1 Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum, QM Gallery Al Riwaq, QM Gallery Katara, the Tasweer Qatar Photo Festival, and Design Doha. Future projects include Dadu: Children’s Museum of Qatar, Art Mill Museum, Qatar Auto Museum and the Lusail Museum.
Through its newly created Creative Hub, QM also initiates and supports projects – such as the Fire Station Artist in Residence, the Tasweer Qatar Photo Festival, M7, the creative hub for innovation, fashion and design, and Liwan Design Studios and Labs – that nurture artistic talent and create opportunities to build a strong and sustainable cultural infrastructure.
Animating everything that Qatar Museums does is an authentic connection to Qatar and its heritage, a steadfast commitment to inclusivity and accessibility, and a belief in creating value through invention. For more information visit https://qm.org.qa
