Fin Serck-Hanssen
Fiberverk: Nevrofibromatose
[Fiber works / Fiber Aches: Neurofibromatosis]
The Window Room and the Cabinet
11.09.—12.10.2025

In the exhibition project Fiberverk: Neuro­fibro­matosis [Fiber works / Fiber Aches: Neuro­fibro­matosis], Fin Serck-Hanssen portrays people that are diagnosed with neuro­fibro­ma­tosis (NF). For this project, he has colla­borated with actress and NF representative Ellen Terese Nilsen, author and curator Bjørn Hatterud, clothes- and exhibition designer Harald Lunde Helgesen, visual artist and curator Benjamin Slotterøy, as well as com­poser and sound designer Amund Ulvestad. The project also includes ‘NF-ers’ – as models, knowledge-bearers, and narrators.

NF is a rare genetic diagnosis in which con­nective tissue tumours grow in the body’s nervous system. In NF type 1, the tumours affect the skin, the peripheral nervous system, and the skeleton. In type 2, the central nervous system is directly affected, along with the spinal cord and the brain. NF tumours grow through­out life, and it is common to have to repeatedly undergo surgeries as new tumours develop con­stantly, causing problems and the need to be removed.

Most people with NF have a different skin. In ad­dition to the tumours and a multitude of scars, many people who suffer of NF have dis­tinc­tive chocolate milk-coloured rashes which can cover large parts of the body. The com­bi­na­tion of tumours, scars, and rashes happens to often develop on the neck, throat, scalp, and face.

The health of people with NF varies greatly. Some suffer of major orthopaedic changes. Some NF-ers die prematurely because the condition can lead to develop forms of cancer. Some people lose their sight, and many develop neuro-variations such as ADHD or dyslexia. A wide­spread feature is to have dark circles under the eyes or brown spots around the pupil – which give a rather dis­tinctive, sharp, and beautiful glance. At the same time, some people that are diagnosed with NF live with­out any visible functional impair­ments, as long as they are dressed and their skin is covered.

There is no doubt that many people with NF have a tiring life. Nevertheless, Serck-Hanssen doesn’t want to fixate ideas about physical difference as something negative, as something one would want to remove or fight against. On the contrary, this project gives space to bodies that the audience rarely sees and reminds of the social constructs for what is considered a beautiful body. The audience is reminded that narrow beauty standards prevent seeing the beauty in people who are different.

People with NF live in the same culture as everyone else, where one is expected to present and construct oneself through photo­graphs in social media. Con­tem­porary self-re­pre­sentation often consists of showing bodily per­fection. A perfect body is achieved using the right lighting, digital filters, and strict self-control, and a perfect skin is also part of the expec­tations for a youthful, vital, and success­ful lifestyle. In social media it is very popular to show training, running, strict diet regimens, product placement for skin care articles, and plastic surgery procedures.

Such contemporary culture can be expe­rienced as exclu­sionary if the skin is different and when the functions or shapes of the body are outside of the norm. Reactions to society's demands for appearance can transform into a culture of shame, in which people with different bodies will hide. It is important to remember that although bodies can have dis­abilities, it is society that creates the disabled. People with disability become disabled by socially created norms for bodies, appearance, and cognition. It is discrimination that keeps people out of working-, social-, and cultural life or out of the media landscape – not the body.

In Fiberverk: Nevrofibromatose, people with different bodies have collaborated with Serck-Hanssen and taken control of their self-re­presentation, using the photo­grapher as a tool. The exhibition challenges established notions such as that the photographer is the acting subject and the subject the passive object, and that people with disabilities are inferior to people without disabilities. Among younger dis­ability activists, it is common to refer to dis­abilities as norm-breaking variation of function. This norm-breaking perspective is explored in the exhibition. Norm-breaking bodies re­pre­sent, carry within themselves, and com­municate norm-breaking beauty. In the exhi­bition, the audience can get up close to the beautiful bodies of people with NF.

In addition to the photographs, the exhibition includes sounds and tactile expe­rien­ces. The audience can listen from pillows to NF-ers narrating their life stories, while the installations of tables and pic­tures emit sounds created by micro­phones when in contact with NF-skin’s distinctive patterns. Lastly, the audience can sense and touch a multitude of balls, lumps, and patterns – so that if one has not been given a beautiful norm-breaking body, it will be possible to feel what one is missing out.

Fin Serck-Hanssen (b. 1958) is an artist and photographer educated at Derby College of Art. Since the early 1980s, he has worked to document and portray a range of people from vulnerable, stigmatised, and under­represented communities – such as North Sea divers, torture survivors and ME-patients. Well-known projects include Skeive Ikoner [Queer Icons], Tema AIDS, Hedda, In Between Pictures, Gaywatch, and Ti Blå Menn [Ten Blue Men].

Ellen Terese Nilsen (b. 1992) is a trained child- and youth worker and has extensive theatre experience as an actress, set designer and costume designer. In addition, she has held various positions in the Norwegian Association for Neuro¬fibro¬matosis and Rygg­foreningen [The Back Association] for many years, where she has given lectures, organised activities for members, and worked with peer support.

Bjørn Hatterud (b. 1977) is an author and curator. His book Mjøsa rundt med mor [Around Lake Mjøsa with Mother] earned him the Critics’ Prize (Kritikerprisen) and the Libraries’ Literature Prize (Bibliotekenes litte­raturpris). As a curator, he has worked for KORO – Public Art Norway, KODE Bergen Art Museum, the National Library and the Vest­lands­utstillingen exhibition – among others. Together with Jan Grue and Olaug Nilsen, in 2021 he received the Fritt Ord Foundation Prize for his ‘strong contribution to highlighting the social situation and culture of expression for people with disabilities in Norway’.

Benjamin Slotterøy (b. 1966) studied at Glasskolan in Kosta (Sweden), Edinburgh College of Art (Scotland), Konstfack in Stockholm (Sweden), and Kunst­høgskolen in Bergen (Norway). He has been responsible for several projects at Sleneset, such as Periferi PINK and Havets menn, and has initiated, produced, and curated Kunst i havgapet – a large inter­national art festival. Slotterøy’s work is repre­sented in collections including KODE Bergen Art Museum (Norway), the National Museum in Stockholm, The Glass Factory in Boda, the Röhsska Museum in Gothen­burg, and the Småland Museum (Sweden).

Amund Ulvestad (b. 1982) is a composer and sound artist, educated at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). He works with theatre, perfor­mance, and installation. Ulvestad has worked at most Norwegian theatres, in inde­pendent pro­ductions, exhibited at Galleri Nord and Trøndelag Centre for Contemporary Art, as well as exhibiting and performing in China, Europe, Mexico, the US, and Canada. He is affiliated with the literature research project Temporal Communities at Freie Universität in Berlin (Germany), is a guest lecturer at the Academy of Performing Arts, Weißensee Kunst­hoch­schule Berlin, and NTNU, Trondheim.

Harald Lunde Helgesen (b. 1985) holds a MA in design from Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHiO). In 2012, Lunde Helgesen formed the collective clothing brand HAiKw/ together with Ida Falck Øien and Siv Støldal, which exhibited at venues including F15, Golsa, Bomulds­fabriken, and the National Museum. Meanwhile, he also worked with creating costume designs for contemporary dance productions with Landing and Supernova – among others. In recent years, he has worked with exhibition designs for visual arts and for The Cultural School­bag (DKS), and developed the design think tank Matter/Matters, which addresses fashion practices in contem­porary culture.

The exhibition is supported by Bergesen­stiftelsen, Norske Fag­foto­grafers Fond, Norsk Fotografisk Fond, Arts Council Norway, Fond for lyd og bilde and Notam – Norwegian Centre for Technology, Art and Music.