/15 Mountains

Maanantai Collective

Nine Nameless Mountains

In August 2012, we travelled altogether North to the Norwegian Lofoten islands were Nine Nameless Mountains became our story.

Challenging the notion of authorship with a body of work made by one common author and 16 eyes, it is a poetical and absurd topographical exploration of the notion of distance and scales – latitude versus altitude. Nine Nameless Mountains is built as a playful and discrete collection of photographs mixing various medium: traditional analog photography, video stills, laser prints, drawings or mobile phone shots; they are the traces of small experiences, hazardous observations and improvised happenings. Some material produced afterwards was re-interpreted collectively, passed from one hand to the other, when we returned to the studio to look at the material and discuss, inspiring and confronting each-other.

“There was a lot to learn within the group, but at first we just wanted to spend time together, exchange ideas, share stories, have fun… and go.”

The resulting body of work follows the group experimentations, with the mountain as a “leitmotif”, the escaping horizon as a metaphor for life and the impossibility to reach an absolute goal, it revisits the genre of the road-trip with an impish attitude and curiosity towards the unknown. On the way North, we explored the surroundings: stones, waves, fog and light, created a playful story – our motive for the celebration of friendship, photography and chance.

Maanantai just published Nine Nameless Mountains with Kehrer Verlag

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