Trygve Skogrand

This work is available to view online only.

Changing Ideas Award
One of the greatest gifts of democracy is the right to define oneself. However, personal freedom is not just something a democracy protects—it is what makes a democracy work. A healthy society thrives on pluralistic complexity; it needs a wide range of different voices and identities to fuel a meaningful public discussion.
This is exactly why autocracies often attack individual identity. They fear the "in-between" because a complex society is much harder to control than a uniform one.
In the video artwork "Girl in transition," a young individual slowly merges between portraits of manhood and womanhood. This transition is serene and unhurried. By dissolving the hard lines between genders, the work highlights that identity is rarely a fixed point. Whether the subject eventually lands on one side or remains in the transitional space, their journey represents the very complexity that democracy requires to stay alive.