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The New York Times list Dayanita Singh’s photo book as one of the best

Among the best photo books 2015, we find Dayanita Singh's "Museum of Chance" (Steidl) published by Bildmuseet, Umeå University in collaboration with the MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt, states the New York Times.

Dayanita Singh is one of the most prominent photographers in India. Three years ago Bildmuseet exhibited Dayanita Singh / A photographer's adventure, curated by museum director Katarina Pierre and assistant curator Polly Yassin. It was Singh's largest-ever solo exhibition and the first major presentation of her work in the Nordic countries. The collaboration continued with the publication of the photo book “Museum of Chance” which now has been listed as one of the best photo books published in 2015. The New York Times states:

“Dayanita Singh often describes the photobook as her primary medium. What she goes for in the form — and what she richly achieves in “Museum of Chance,” her latest — is a kind of narrative that is difficult to replicate elsewhere. In collaboration with the famously detail-oriented publisher Gerhard Steidl, Singh brings together a variety of her photographs and through them conveys a mysterious and uncannily coherent story. The printing in this book is exemplary: The black tones are rich and profound, the whites subtle and creamy. Singh’s story in “Museum of Chance” has something to do with breezes, white curtains, rooms full of dusty files, Bollywood actors, musicians at rehearsal, night phantoms. But like a tightly edited song cycle, the project is impossible to reduce to its synopsis. It unfolds, one page after the other, like a dream.”

About the exhibition Dayanita Singh / A photographer's adventure

New York Times article The Best Photo Books of 2015

Dayanita Singh's photo book can be viewed at Steid

Museum of Chance is available in Bildmuseet’s museum shop.

For more information, please contact

Director Katarina Pierre, Bildmuseet
+46 90-786 96 32
katarina.pierre@bildmuseet.umu.se

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Bildmuseet exhibits contemporary international art, photography, architecture, design and other forms of visual culture, along with art historical retrospectives. Existential, political and philosophical issues are key to the programme. Last year the kunsthalle received a Special Commendation from the European Museum of the Year jury last year, and was one of the top candidates for the Swedish Museum of the Year Award as well as for the Council of Europe Museum Prize.

Bildmuseet is a part of Umeå University, housed in an acclaimed building at the Umeå Arts Campus by the shores of the Umeälven river. Umeå University is one of Sweden's largest institutions of higher learning with over 32,000 students and 4,200 employees.

Contacts

Helena Vejbrink

Helena Vejbrink

Communication officer Bildmuseet +46 90 786 9073

Umeå University

Umeå University is one of Sweden's largest universities with over 37,000 students and 4,300 employees. The university is home to a wide range of education programmes and world-class research in a number of fields. Umeå University was also where the gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 was discovered – a revolution in gene-technology that was awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Founded in 1965, Umeå University is characterised by tradition and stability as well as innovation and change. Education and research on a high international level contributes to new knowledge of global importance, inspired, among other things, by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The university houses creative and innovative people that take on societal challenges. Through long-term collaboration with organisations, trade and industry, and other universities, Umeå University continues to develop northern Sweden as a knowledge region.

The international atmosphere at the university and its unified campus encourages academic meetings, an exchange of ideas and interdisciplinary co-operation. The cohesive environment enables a strong sense of community and a dynamic and open culture in which students and staff rejoice in the success of others.

Campus Umeå and Umeå Arts Campus are only a stone's throw away from Umeå town centre and are situated next to one of Sweden's largest and most well-renowned university hospitals. The university also has campuses in the neighbouring towns Skellefteå and Örnsköldsvik.

At Umeå University, you will also find the highly-ranked Umeå Institute of Design, the environmentally certified Umeå School of Business, Economics and Statistics and the only architectural school with an artistic orientation – Umeå School of Architecture. The university also hosts a contemporary art museum Bildmuseet and Umeå's science centre – Curiosum. Umeå University is one of Sweden's five national sports universities and hosts an internationally recognised Arctic Research Centre.