Pool Gallery & Arkitip present:
Peter Beste
True Norwegian Black Metal
20 March - 28 April 2009
Pool Gallery
Tucholskystrasse 38
10117 Berlin, Germany
Phone +49 30 24342462
In the early 1980s, Black Metal emerged as a controversial music-based subculture that developed particular characteristics in Norway. Under the influence of heavy metal, horror movies, Satanism and Pagan belief, a scene developed that was more obscure, violent and mystic than any other movement. At the heart of the black metal ideology lies the radical renunciation of Christian beliefs and of the values of conventional society. Instead of the stability and the orderly structure of a social-democratic state, Black Metal fans favor a chaotic, individualist view of the world, with an almost religious bond to nature in its wild and untamed form. Today, a Black Metal scene can be found almost everywhere, but Norway remains its spiritual birthplace, where the movement is most popular and has evolved most.
At the beginning of the nineties, Black Metal also made the front pages due to the burning of churches, murders and grave desecration that some of the scene's members had committed. What started as a musical subculture is now viewed by many as a scary community of profaners.
Over a period of seven years, young American photographer and self-confessed Black Metal fan Peter Beste extensively explored the Norwegian Black Metal movement. During numerous trips, he portrayed and interviewed the scene's protagonists and has even made friends among them. The resulting documentation with is impressive photographs allows his audience to take a look behind the scary props and find out about what lies beneath the frightening masks.
Beste is the first "non-insider" to have been able to get this close to members of the Black Metal scene, who normally are extremely reluctant to reveal anything about them. Many of those portrayed stare directly into the camera, with a callous and intransigent look. Made-up loners in Norwegian forests, houses amidst deserted landscapes and concert shoots showing heads of animals dripping with blood depict an image full of contrasts of this deeply controversial movement. The photographs show the constant reciprocation of closeness and distance, show and nature, human beings and their facade. True Norwegian Black Metal and the corresponding book are a masterpiece of documentary photography. Over the course of a long-winded process, Peter Beste succeeded in approaching his subjects with respect and entirely free from prejudice, with the resulting photographs offering non-judgmental insights to the audience.
After exhibitions in Stockholm, Los Angeles and Copenhagen, Pool Gallery is proud to be able to present the German edition of True Norwegian Black Metal.
Arkitip No. 0038, Peter Beste issue edition is available now.
