November 27 • 7 PM
Nikola Radošević Gallery • Delijska 3, Uskočka 5
For the residents of Bergen, Norway’s second-largest city, weather is not just a topic of conversation—it’s a mentality and a daily ritual. Known for nearly 200 rainy days a year, damp summers, and unpredictable gusts of wind, Bergen has developed its own philosophy of survival, finding comfort in the one thing that feels brief and precious: the month of May, the only thirty days of the year when rain might finally pause.
It is from this familial and deeply local sentiment that the long-term project We Can’t Complain – Bergen in May by Norwegian photographer Helge Skodvin emerges. Inspired by a sentence his mother repeats every year after yet another cold and wet summer—“We can’t complain, we had those nice days in May”—Skodvin has, since 2018, persistently documented those few decisive days when the city bursts into an almost unbelievable intensity of life.
Skodvin photographs both joy and absurdity, tenderness and irony: bizarre public details, spontaneous parades and symbolic gestures, but also the fragility of a moment that will, almost certainly, disappear beneath clouds the very next day. The brief euphoria becomes a collective carnival: parades, pastries, marzipan, outdoor beer, ice creams melting down children’s hands, national costumes, blossoms, balloons, and a sense of unrestrained energy shared by adults and children alike. Skodvin’s visual language remains faithful to his signature documentary sensibility—precisely composed, humorous, intuitive, and always attuned to the paradoxes that shape everyday life.
We Can’t Complain – Bergen in May is both an intimate and a universal story: a portrait of a city that renews itself each year through hope, optimism, and joy, no matter what comes afterward.
About the Artist
Helge Skodvin (1968, Norway) left an early career behind to devote himself to photography and soon became one of the most recognizable figures on the Norwegian documentary scene. He works for magazines, newspapers, publishers, and commercial clients, but is best known for his long-term personal projects marked by a strong and distinctive visual identity. His photobook 240 Landscapes was named the best photobook in the world in 2015 by Martin Parr. He has been nominated for the Leica Oskar Barnack Award and the Magnum Photography Award, and is a multiple winner of Norway’s Picture of the Year competition. He is also a recipient of grants from the Norwegian Arts Council.
Known for his sharp humor and subtle documentary irony, Skodvin constructs visual narratives in which everyday life becomes an unexpected spectacle—especially when it comes to his hometown, Bergen.
