DEAR MOUNTAIN MALL is my first art exhibition. This work has been exhibited in Clermont-Ferrand (France) as part of the city's annual art festival "Les Arts en balades".
This black and white old-fashioned photostory result of one month working and living in forty years old buses used to run a one-of-a-kind commerce in the heart of the Icelandic Highlands.
Driven to the mountains across numerous rivers every summer and back to their farm just before the winter, the mountain mall vintage buses are the ephemeral and unexpected heart of the Landmannalaugar basecamp. As the starting point of the world famous Laugavergur trek- one of the most beautiful in the world according to Lonely Planet - my work aimed at documenting the humans behind this project and transmitting to the visitor the unforgettable atmosphere this place can infuse into you, only if you stay long enough.
More than pictures on white walls, this exhibition was all about interacting with the visitors and taking them through a twenty minutes commented journey about the "Mountain Mall". Forty-five frames were exposed in four different spaces focusing on different aspects of the place: the journey of the out-of-age buses, the everyday life at the one-of-a-kind mall, the landscapes around the breathtaking basecamp and the afterwork personal life of the Gíslholt family - not only owners of the mall but also fishermen and farmers. A specially written essay (in French) was also then given to the audience that might have wanted to dive deeper into the "Mountain Mall's" world during a silent and personal reading.