May 18, 2025 → Sept. 7, 2025
Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday: 12-6 PM
Thursday: 12-8 PM
Saturday & Sunday: 12-4 PM
Monday: Closed
Opening/vernissage:
May 17, 2025, 4pm - 7pm
Fotografisk Center
Staldgade 16, 1699 København V, Danmark
https://www.fotografiskcenter.dk/en/breaking
Admission:
40 DKK
IMAGE
Still from Family, Michella Bredahl, 2024
TEXT
The Danish photographer and documentary filmmaker Michella Bredahl presents her video work Family (2024) in a new exhibition at Breaking. Together with an accompanying installation, the exhibition creates an intimate universe where personal narratives and fragmented memories intertwine.
Through a blend of archival footage and newly recorded material, a dreamlike story unfolds in which time flows freely between past and present — from family gatherings to the apartment blocks of Bredahl’s childhood neighborhood in Høje Gladsaxe, Denmark. Two siblings grasp a bedspread, a fleeting symbol of unity meant to bring them together rather than pull them apart.
The bed is a central element in the exhibition, functioning both as a safe haven and a vulnerable refuge. It is simultaneously part of the story itself, carrying traces of what was once hidden from the outside world, but that now finds space in an open setting. In the exhibition, we meet young women who have grown up with mothers affected by addiction and difficult life circumstances. Their stories reflect how the imprint of childhood shapes adult life and relationships.
With Family, Bredahl poses the questions: How does our upbringing affect us, and how can we break the patterns we no longer wish to carry forward? Through film and installation, she explores how pain and loss can be transformed into reflection and change.
Michella Bredahl is a documentary filmmaker educated at the National Film School of Denmark (2015–2019), with a background in photography from Fatamorgana – The Danish School of Art Photography (2010–2011).
Bredahl primarily works with auteur-driven documentary films and art photography, creating intimate and emotionally charged narratives. Her work revolves around themes such as identity, femininity, relationships, and memory, often conveyed through a poetic approach to portraiture and visual aesthetics.
She has directed several short films, including Chassé (2020), which premiered at the Rotterdam International Film Festival, and Nature Sacrée (2019), which was screened at the Rockaway Film Festival. In 2023, she published her first monograph, Love Me Again, with Loose Joints, which was launched at Paris Photo – the international art fair dedicated to photography.
Bredahl has held solo exhibitions, including Unmade Beds at Shoot the Lobster in New York (2023), and has an upcoming solo show at Brandts Museum in Odense in 2026. She has also participated in several group exhibitions, including at NADA Miami - The New Art Dealers Alliance (2023), Galerie Derouillon in Paris (2024), and as a muse in Everything No One Ever Wanted by visual artist Tobias Spichtig (CH) at Kunsthalle Basel (2024).
Alongside her artistic practice, Bredahl has worked as a still photographer on various film and television productions, including the DR drama series Ulven kommer (Cry Wolf, 2020), directed by May El-Toukhy, and Neon Heart (2017) by Laurits Flensted-Jensen.
Her photographic work has been published in international magazines such as Spike, Dazed, and Double Magazine. She has received multiple work and production grants from the Danish Arts Foundation (2021, 2023, 2024), as well as support from the New Carlsberg Foundation (2023) and the Consul George Jorck and Wife Emma Jorck Foundation (2023).