Vikings I&II

Olaf Breuning, "Vikings I&II", 2002.

For this image, Olaf Breuning invented a revised stone age corrected for the cinema in which dolmens and leather were replaced by surf boards and neoprene clothing. With the beach as a backdrop, the hyper-aestheticized vikings seem to pose for a surf ad. The collage on the horizon line, the heterogenous nature of the lighting and the costume-like clothing all point to the mise en scène. The artist stated: “I am trying to invent a primitive tribe”. His positioning in relation to stereotype is dual: he exposes them by exaggerating them and displaces them by absorbing them within the iconography of his work.