In Antarctic Archives, Janis Polar examines how Antarctica is constructed as the "last unspoilt natural frontier" - and then breaks with this image.

Photoforum is delighted to open 2025 with two special exhibitions. Arctic Archives by Janis Polar and turn around, turn around, turn around by Cécile Monnier invite us to reconsider our relationship with the natural world. While Polar critically questions colonial and geopolitical narratives around Antarctica, Monnier highlights the ambivalence of human practices such as fly-fishing, and reflects in a new work on her personal roots and their influence on her relationship with nature.

The two artists' projects are part of a thematic dialogue, complemented by a research library and a thematic text by author Ann Mbuti. Together, they open up new perspectives on the question: how do we as human beings position ourselves in relation to the natural world?

This question is a fitting prelude to our annual theme 2025, which, under the title "Reclaim the Narrative!", explores the transformative power of photography and its ability to spark social debate, challenge personal narratives and open up new perspectives on the key challenges of our time.

"Arctic Archives" by Janis Polar

In Antarctic Archives, Janis Polar examines the way in which Antarctica is constructed as the "last untouched natural frontier" - only to break with this image. Her work interrogates the violence of discovery as well as the geopolitical, ecological and colonial narratives that shape this continent. In so doing, he highlights the role of technological and cultural constructs, as well as the power of images in the perception of natural spaces. Antarctic Archives artistically experiments with the tangled interstices, gaps and ambivalences of writing history, the present and the future, and asks the question: why do we still measure the world?


Note: This text was translated by machine translation software and not by a human translator. It may contain translation errors.