Scale, infrastructure, and extractivism: An interview with Lesia Vasylchenko and Istvan Virag on their works in New Visions. The Henie Onstad Triennial for Photography and New Media

Abstract

In this interview, the Senior Curator of Photography and New Media at Henie Onstad Kunstsenter speaks with photographers and media artists Lesia Vasylchenko and Istvan Virag about their works commissioned for the New Visions triennial, presented at Henie Onstad in 2023. Vasylchenko and Virag explain how they work with contemporary image production and display technologies, such as synthetic aperture radar images and LED-screens and the perceptual politics associated with these technologies, as well as how they engage with organic materials as resources subject to extraction as well as material witnesses. The interview also addresses how the artists conceptually and practically tackle questions of image resolution and scale, and the artists’ extensive collaboration with scientific knowledge clusters and researchers.