The atlantic wall - Vasli Souza

Intro

VERNISSAGE: 24th july at 6pm - 8pm
Venue: Vasli Souza, Båstad
Address: Hjorths gata 12, 269 36, Båstad, Sweden

In his ongoing project about the Atlantic Wall, Tor Simen Ulstein explores the abandoned bunkers along the coast of Europe, where the architecture of war remains as monuments to both human control and nature’s endurance. Ulstein seeks the ambiguous, allowing the motifs to speak in a language where the poetic and the political coexist.

As a child on vacation in Denmark, he saw these concrete structures for the first time, without any knowledge of their background or function. They have fascinated him ever since. Now he retraces his own steps, attempting to recreate the sense of wonder he felt as a child—something out of place and mysterious. Time and nature have begun to wear away their surface, but they will continue to bear witness long after our time.

Tor Simen Ulstein (b. 1988) is a Norwegian photographer educated at The Sir John Cass School of Art in London. He combines aesthetic reflection with a documentary approach and has exhibited at several galleries and festivals both in Norway and abroad. He made his debut at the National Autumn Exhibition (Statens Høstutstilling) in 2024. Ulstein is also a co-founder of the photo art publication Uncertain States Scandinavia, and has co-curated the Nordic Light Festival of Photography in Kristiansund and the NRW Forum in Düsseldorf.

Installation shots