Mårten Lange: Ghost Witness

Former artist-in-residence Mårten Lange just opened his solo show 'Ghost Witness'. Ghost Witness is Mårten Lange's story about China, a country rushing towards the future with the past in tow. Photographed in the six largest cities in the country, it depicts urban places that have expanded rapidly in recent years.

The exhibition is based on the photo book Ghost Witness , which was published in 2020 by the publisher Loose Joints and was nominated for the Swedish Photo Book Award 2021. Following Lange's long-term fascination with ideas of utopia and dystopia, this is his most comprehensive work to date.

The work began during a three-month stay in Shanghai at the Swatch Art Peace Hotel where, during long walks, he discovered diffuse silhouettes of high-rise buildings and industries hidden behind fog and smog. At the same time, constant construction was going on everywhere, clearing away the old to make room for the new. 

"I was captivated by the ghostly atmosphere that arose both visually and in the clear eagerness to eliminate the past. At the same time, the rapid pace of the pursuit of the Chinese dream and a capitalist ideal gave a feeling that the old still remained to haunt the inhabitants. That is the atmosphere I tried to capture in my photographs", says Mårten Lange.

Exhibition: October 1 to November 20, 2022

Venue: Center for Photography, Bjurholmsplan 26, 116 63 Stockholm (Sweden)

Opening hours:
Thursday – Friday 12–18
Saturday – Sunday 12–16