Name: Photography exhibition – capturing the ghosts and spirits of Japan. By Sara Bensaltana
Start: 2026-01-07T15:00:00+01:00
End: 2026-01-07T18:00:00+01:00
Location: Dark Gallery CPH, Ryesgade 103B, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark

$Photography exhibition \u2013 capturing the ghosts and spirits of Japan. By Sara Bensaltana$

What lingers after we depart? In this exhibition, Sara Bensaltana traces the specters of the Japanese landscape through distressed photography, abandoned shrines, skeletal ruins, and homes suspended between utility and decay. Rooted in the concept of "kamikakushi"— the phenomenon of being "spirited away"— the work emerged from the artist’s 2024 residency at Koganecho Area Management Center in Yokohama.
These often-overlooked sites resonate with invisible presences and layered histories. They function as portals between the visible and the unseen, appearing as though their occupants vanished in an instant, leaving behind silent witnesses to interrupted lives. As nature reclaims these spaces with moss and dust, a sense of suspended time takes hold.
Alongside landscape imagery, Bensaltana presents archival portraits sourced from Japanese flea markets. Many bear the marks of "silver mirroring," a chemical degradation where silver resurfaces from the emulsion. Here, silver becomes both material and metaphor—the ghost itself. Inspired by "omokage" (the trace, or the flickering image of someone no longer present), the work reflects on what endures after disappearance: not a survival of the original form, but a haunting transformation.
Exhibition period:
4-18 January
Mon-Fri: 15:00-18:00
Sat-Sun: 14:00-18:00
Free admission
Meet the artist on the following days:
Wednesdays-Sundays
Events:
Vernissage: 4 January 15:00-19:00
Reading by the artist: 10 January 16:00
Finissage: 18 January 15:00-19:00
Read more about the artist: https://sarabensaltana.com/