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- Bugs and disruptions at the Hasselblad Center
Bugs and disruptions at the Hasselblad Center
Gothenburg, 8 February 2025 - The spring exhibition opens at the Hasselblad Center in Gothenburg, where photography, technology and nature are interwoven in a way we have rarely seen before. Bugs & Metamorphosis is part of the research project Photography and the Glitch, a collaboration between HDK-Valand and the Hasselblad Foundation.
An cross-border exhibition
The exhibition is curated by Nina Mangalanayagam, Senior Lecturer at HDK-Valand and Louise Wolthers, Research Manager and Curator at the Hasselblad Foundation. Together, they have created an exhibition that not only showcases innovative art, but also explores digital technology from a number of aspects other than the purely technical - including the discursive, spatial, social and political mechanisms.
‘Through glitches, we can understand flaws and vulnerabilities - both in technological systems and in our ecological and social systems,’ says Mangalanayagam.
Bugs & Metamorphosis presents works by 15 international artists, each exploring in their own way how glitches can disrupt and question systems of knowledge, classification and control. Among the artists are Amalie Smith (DK), Clare Strand (UK), Henrik Håkansson (SE), Jake Elwes (UK), and Mónica Álcazar-Duarte (ME), and their works take us on a visual journey through networks, system failures and the insect world.
The works address themes such as hybridity, camouflage and transformation, where glitches become not only aesthetic expressions but also a way to explore how images can create and change our understanding of the world.

A collaboration between HDK-Valand and the Hasselblad Foundation
Together, Wolthers and Mangalanayagam have led the effort to gather and curate the international artists participating in the exhibition. Their close collaboration has resulted in an exhibition that challenges traditional boundaries of photography, using the potential of the glitch to illuminate deeper issues of technology, power and bodily experience.
‘This research project proposes a new direction in glitch art, where the glitch as ‘bug’ includes a diversity of perspectives that go beyond the human. Therefore, the exhibition will not only showcase new digital techniques but also artworks that use the insect as a subject’, says Wolthers.
Since 2021, Wolthers and Mangalanayagam have been exploring the role of the glitch in photography as a form, metaphor and method in the research project Photography & the Glitch, with a particular focus on digital cultures and networks. Taking an interdisciplinary approach to the subject, and through publications and symposia, Photography and the Glitch invites artists and scholars to engage in conversations about how the glitch can inspire new ways of observing and creating images.
Read more about the research project Photography and the Glitch.

Programme och events
Parallel to the exhibition at the Hasselblad Center, some works will be placed at the Gothenburg Museum of Art and the Gothenburg Museum of Natural History to ‘glitch’ and enter into dialogue with the collections. Parts of the exhibition will also be shown at Kunsthal Aarhus in Denmark in summer 2025.
The exhibition is accompanied by an extensive programme of film screenings, performances and talks. This will include performances, artist talks and film screenings in Gothenburg. During the artist talks, hosted by HDK-Valand, the artists Taysir Batniji, Jake Elwes, Kristina Lenz and Alex Simon Klug, as well as Mónica Alcázar-Duarte will participate.
Discover the full programme during the exhibition period.
