Belenius

Opening  16:00-19:00 at Belenius, Ulrikagatan 13

During the exhibition opening, author Aris Fioretos will present a brief reflection on the prosthesis.

Opening party at At Six, Brunkebergs torg 6
19:00-22.00, with a selection of previous projects by Bigert and Bergström

English below

I början av 1970-talet när vi gick i grundskolan fick vi lära oss att den då talrika nordafrikanska vita noshörningen var hotad då den börjat tjuvjagas i allt större utsträckning. Noshörningens horn troddes ha magiska krafter för den manliga potensen och såldes på den svarta marknaden till framförallt Asien. Trots upptäckten av sildenafil, den aktiva substansen i Viagra, vilket godkändes som behandling för erektil dysfunktion 1998, fortsatte man att slakta noshörningar för deras åtråvärda horn. Och 20 år senare, våren 2018, avled den sista vita manliga nordafrikanska noshörningen i vilt tillstånd. Sudan som han hette, hade då skyddats dygnet runt i tre år av beväpnade vakter för att inte falla offer för tjuvjägare. När han till slut somnade in sörjdes han av främst av sin dotter Najin och barnbarnet Fatu, de två sista honorna av denna art.

Idag har den nordafrikanska noshörningen fått sällskap av en mängd andra djur och organismer som drabbats av de ”antro-obscena” krafter vi själva genererat. Vi talar nu om det sjätte massutdöendet vilket hotar att lämna oss ensamma med våra älskade hundar och katter i en framtid bestående av urbana värmeöar i en översvämmad värld. Enligt IPBES senaste rapport, FN:s vetenskapliga expertpanel för biologisk mångfald, hotas nu upp till 1 miljon arter av jordens 8 miljoner arter av utrotning.

Vår skulptur Protes är en avgjutning av ett horn från en vit nordafrikansk noshörning från Naturhistoriska riksmuseet. Det gjordes ursprungligen till vårt projekt Klimatkamrarna 1994 där Ångkammaren huserar en noshörning. Muterad till en maskin pumpar den ånga ur olika kroppsöppningar vilket skapar ett tropiskt klimat. Men då noshörningens kropp är tillverkad i järn så förtärs den sakta av rost.

I gallerirummets mitt finns nu bara det polerade hornet kvar. Den glänsande metallen får representera både framsteg och förlust – både teknisk landvinning och bortkapat liv. När läkaren Pär-Ingvar Brånemark i början av 1950-talet av en slump upptäckte att levande benvävnad inte stötte bort metallen titan, så var det under ett experiment där han byggt ett titanfönster för att kunna titta in i benet på en levande kanin. En makaber bild av hur människans nyfikenhet leder till nya och oväntade upptäckter som gagnar livet självt.

Djuren har länge tjänat som ”stand-ins” för människor när det gäller medicinska försök, likt proteser för vår egen fantomsmärta. Och ironiskt nog är det just sådana experiment som lett fram till att det nu finns lite hopp för den nordafrikanska vita noshörningens återuppståndelse. I dagarna läser vi att sju ägg från de två överlevande honorna Najin och Fatu nu befruktats i ett laboratorium i Italien där man bevarat nedfryst sperma från andra bortgångna vita noshörningshannar. Frågan kvarstår dock vilka sydafrikanska vita noshörningshonor som vill ställa upp som surrogatmammor för de biologiska mödrar som inte kan bli dräktiga eller bära foster på egen hand.

Vi har tidigare föreslagit att monument borde uppföras för att uppmärksamma utrotningshotade naturelement som glaciärer. Verket Protes kan ses som en utveckling av detta resonemang där utsatta delar av vårt gemensamma biologiska arv placeras i fokus – eller som en kritisk aktion mot den process av tilltagande biologisk enfald som just nu sprider sig mitt ibland oss.

———

In primary school in the early 1970s, we learned that the northern white rhino – then quite numerous – was threatened by increasing poaching. Rhino horns were thought to have magical powers for male virility, and they were sold on the black market, mainly to Asia. Despite the discovery of sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra, which was approved for treatment of erectile dysfunction in 1998, rhinos continued to be slaughtered for their coveted horns. Twenty years later, in spring 2018, the last male northern white rhino in the wild died. Sudan, as he was called, had been surrounded by armed guards round-the-clock for three years to protect him from poachers. When at last he was put down after months of failing health, he left behind his daughter Najin and granddaughter Fatu, the last two females of the species.

Today the northern white rhino has been joined by a number of other animals and organisms suffering from the “anthro-obscene” forces we humans have set in motion. We are now talking about the sixth mass extinction, which threatens to leave us alone with our beloved dogs and cats in a future consisting of small islands of urbanity in a largely submerged world. According to the latest report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), up to 1 million of the Earth’s 8 million species are threatened with extinction.

Our sculpture Prosthesis is a cast of a horn from a northern white rhino, preserved at the Swedish Museum of Natural History. It was originally made for our Climate Chambers project in 1994, where the Steam Chamber housed a rhino. Mutated into a machine, it pumps out steam through various orifices in its body, creating a tropical climate. But, as the rhino’s body is made of iron, it is gradually consumed by rust.

In the centre of the gallery space, nothing but the polished horn remains. The shining metal represents both progress and loss – technological gains and extinguished lives. During an experiment in 1952, Doctor Pär-Ingvar Brånemark discovered by chance that living bone tissue didn’t reject titanium. He had built a titanium window in the bone of a live rabbit to observe what happened inside it. A macabre image of how human curiosity leads to new, unexpected discoveries that benefit life itself.

Animals have long served as stand-ins for humans in medical trials, like prostheses for our own phantom pain. And ironically, such experiments have now led to a glimmer of hope for the northern white rhino’s resurrection. Just recently, we read that seven eggs from the two surviving females, Najin and Fatu, have been fertilised in a laboratory in Italy, which had frozen samples of sperm from other, now deceased, male white rhinos. The question remains which southern white rhino females will serve as surrogates for the biological mothers who cannot carry the foetuses themselves.

We have previously proposed that monuments should be erected to commemorate endangered natural phenomena like glaciers. Prosthesis can be viewed as a further development of this reasoning, shining a spotlight on vulnerable parts of our common biological heritage – or as a critical action against the approaching Bio-Singularity.

Bigert & Bergström, September 2019

Image caption Jean-Baptiste Béranger

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In this exhibition Pyszczek strives to further his investigation of abstract landscapes. He bought an old school in a small village in Poland called Drzeniów, a few kilometres away from the German border, and moved there in 2018. He started to observe and document the surroundings, especially manmade objects such as a metal fences and other architectural elements. The location is laden with heavy forested areas, and as such the forest industry is vital for the villages in this area. A majority of the inhabitants get their livelihood from the industry, but human involvement also comes with a backside – smoke and pollution.

On the edge of the nearest city, there is a factory that manufactures OSB, laminate flooring, and other processed wood products using the wood that comes from the surrounding forests. The large reliefs in the show are made out of laminate material from the local forests, which have been cut down and then processed in the factory. The wood gain new life, yet consisting of processed parts. The smaller sculptures are made out of raw wood, stumps and such and they also gain new life via the sculptural process of the artist – and yet present a more natural feeling. Why is it that objects consisting of the same materials, but coming from different steps in the industrial process present different moods with the viewer?

I come to think of Christian Boltanski in his investigation of the reconstruction of the past. Old photographs of smiling teens just before the second world war is presented much later when with certainty their smiles are long gone. With fragments of something that once was, a new object can be produced utilizing the old. This duality is classical, and yet ever blooming. A tree or forests are symbols that we find in all religions and ideologies that stand for something eternal and old. What have these trees seen over the decades? Bonsai is the technique of creating a miniature tree that looks old and yet is planted in a small pot. Here man have intervened with nature, and up-rooted the tree from its natural habitat and planted it somewhere else. Pyszczeks’s works strives to overbridge this duality. In the words of Pyszczek himself – this is what the investigation of the abstract landscape really is.

Valter Sydén, June 2019

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Inez Jönsson’s new work can be concluded as being pictograms symbolizing Nordic minimalism in its true essence. The colours stems from what can be found in the Swedish forest and the symbolic language testifies to a unity where the fragments in themselves doesn’t need to be an entity, but together they create minimalism. The parts thus make up something bigger. There is a line connecting her to the Arte povera movement. In that spirit the materials are cheap or for free, without minimizing the value of the art.

Jönsson studies limits. Painting, handicraft and technique are tied together to form a window towards the elevated. The purism in her work required an inner journey. The windows are opened and we can see what is outside – but also inside. There is a nod in the weaves towards Emma Kunz, especially since they invites the existential self -scrutiny. In this exhibition Jönsson has worked with lines, as limits and its opposite.  Two black fields are separated by a line, in the middle. The perfectionist in her wants to make the line completely straight, but the challenge is in leaving it un-straight. The eye can stills ee what it does to the whole picture. There is something deeply human in not using tape to form the lines, but letting the artist’s hand create a line that is perceived straighter when being organic (in the middle of the colours and materials from nature).

Through this, painting has opened new possibilities for Jönsson. The new black works contain everything that a painting traditionally has, but she doesn’t call them paintings. The treads made by flax don’t create a weave together, but rather a linen canvas, being a painting without being painted. The frames are made in pine and breaths heavily of the connection to Swedish craft tradition and history. As fancy as ebony is, the local tradition has an allure, in this age of climate change. Simplicity gives new life to what can be found everywhere in sheds, on the fields, country houses and the countryside. The materials are re-shaped and reborn with a Nordic minimalism, a richness of species in all its simplicity, inspired by Linné.

Valter Sydén April 2019

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Dick Hedlund (SE)
Oskar Korsár (SE)
Jone Kvie (NO)
Maria Lassnig (AT)
Jeanette Mundt (US)
Tobias Pils (AT)
Bunny Rogers (US)
Magnus Thierfelder (SE)
Charlotte Walentin (SE)
Ulla Wiggen (SE)
Michael Williams (US)

Presented by Belenius, Johan Berggren Gallery, Elastic Gallery

In collaboration with Société, Berlin, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich, Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne and Capitain Petzel, Berlin

11.4 / 17:00-20:00
12.4 / 13:00-19:00
13.4 / 12:00-17:00
14.4 / 12:00-17:00

@Spritmuseum, Djurgårdsvägen 38 – 40

For the second consecutive year, three galleries arrange the group show Monopol at Spritmuseum during Stockholm Art Week.

Monopol was initiated 2013 as an alternative to the fair as an exhibition form, and is based on a collaboration between the galleries, who curate the group show together, exhibiting both the artists they represent alongside invited international artists. Monopol takes generosity as a point of departure and the exhibition grows from a close dialogue. The exhibition has a free entrance all days and all are welcome to visit Spritmuseum and view works from many generations and countries.

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At Six, Brunkebergstorg 6

With a touchdown in art history Bjurström initiates a dialogue with the early modernists. The circle is a recurring theme through her work. It’s a universal symbol for rebirth and the eternal. Bjurström uses them as an attempt to make an ending, to complete the works as they are carefully painted last in the process. The essence of the circle has fascinated humans from Aristotle until today; a perfect circle or a sphere is almost impossible to create. She initiates a Socratic dialectic, and in the same way as in her previous exhibition, the viewer is faced with a contorted mimesis, as if bent out of shape. But; it’s not up to the viewer to judge with what kind of force Bjurström’s brushstrokes are to play. It is rather her figuration of the painterly ambition, that in a democratic way reflect the circular order that in a convincing way decide the theme for this sequence.

Bjurström’s paintings testifies to how the old masters gaze can be re-interpreted, re-evalued and brought to new life. Details of themes from Manet, Zorn and Singer Sargent are picked up and thrown into a tumble dryer and fall out re-interpreted. Without putting too much emphasis on the viewers’ spatial affairs their wisdom can still be seen in the 21stcentury. In this an art historical congeniality appears, emphasized by the circular symbolic, in itself containing what has been and what will be – a break from the old to merge modernity with abstract utopia. The divination that has not been uttered comes near the melting point in Bjurström’s painting. She is a testament that real recognize real, when she merges extremes.

Valter Sydén

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Leif Elggren was born in Linköping, anno domini 1950. As a young man he wanted, by all his heart, to study at an aesthetic gymnasium in order to improve his drawing skills. But his parents would not allow it, so he began studying the technical program. It was four years containing all that is adolescence ascribed but, come Friday, there was suddenly time for drawing. Since 1977, Elggren has conducted a close study of the relationship between two extremes in terms of colour: black and yellow. Before then, it was the white that responded to the black when they met on paper in the drawings. But these expressions did not contain any real colour, and this he wanted to get away from, taking another decision and a launch in a new direction. According to Elggren, white was eventually changed to yellow, which is the brightest colour. The human being perceives the sun’s light as yellow, despite the fact that it would be seen as white from space, because the particles of the atmosphere pollute the sun’s actual light scale.

We know black as the darkest of colours; a colour that has historically symbolized death and the night in contrast to the life-giving daylight as well as the rays of the sun. The truth, however, is that few people have seen the colour black for real. In nature, black is usually a mixture of colours with blue as a base. By time, black objects fade by sunlight or is washed and gets a grey-blue or brown tone. Nevertheless, NASA has recently developed a material for space research that absorbs 99% of all light and therefore is perceived as completely black.

Twice articulated, the black and the yellow arose as Elggren began working with them. Poisonous plants and insects often carry these colours to signal danger to predators and as to say: swallowing me is not worth it. The evolutionary phenomenon is called aposematism. The colour scheme of the wasp causes most people to flinch rather than waving them off like it was a simple fly, as would be the natural thing to do. Thus, harmless species also have developed what is termed mimicry. The hoverfly mimics the wasp’s yellow-black pattern in order to obtain the equivalent deterrent effect, hence escaping predators.

Elggren wanted to embrace the black and yellow. This desire grew and during strolls he began seeing the patterns: perfectly triangular warning signs for icicles, live rails or ongoing construction work were marked with tape displaying this colour combination. How come mankind, just like wasps or exotic plants, urged caution by using these colours? Who had decided it? Is it universally human? The dialogue between the said desire and the reality suddenly came together. He began to photograph the patterns and thought to himself, that it must be he himself who had produced them. Should he sign the tape and the warning signs? No, to grab the public space does not suit Elggren. No signature is needed for the universally human. It can belong to someone as well as to all of us. To play with the roles via their own perception, alongside that, that is not patented or acquired.

The study of the black and the yellow together with the boundary between them continued. The dark versus the bright. Like an aging medieval monk at the pulpit, it proceeded. But over time, the boundary began to blur, the eyes could no longer maintain living up to the sharp line in the painting. The macula lutea, the”yellow spot”, that does not make up more than 2,5 millimetres of the retina, renders most of the colours we discern. No exact causes to problems with the macula lutea and its function have been established. However, Elggren has got it. His study of the sharp contrasts between black and yellow has suddenly resulted in something else. The reality that previously surprised with the familiar evolutionary, universally human patterns, was studied to the gentle degree that reality spoke up. A phenomenon called drusen occurs. Everyone gets it in the end, but those who are hit extra hard by it get a considerable accumulation of these dots that affect the eye’s perception of reality. To stare at Elggren’s paintings consisting of the impeccable lines between the colours strikes the eyes noticeably, after just five minutes. What would not, at least 40 years, do?

Accordingly, the next study deals with how the boundary has been dissolved and the possibilities that originate when the colours are mixed. Elggren does not paint with NASA’s deep- black colour so consequently the black tint based on most of the dark colours, is mixed up in exciting ways with the yellow. For a while he painted wearing polarized sunglasses to bridge the distance betwixt the colours and thereby outwit the drus. The study has continued since 1977 with a master’s patience and has only in recent years changed fundamentally. But it’s not over yet.

Valter Sydén, March 2019

———–

Leif Elggren (born 1950, Linköping, Sweden), is a Swedish artist who lives and works in Stockholm. Active since the late 1970s, Leif Elggren has become one of the most constantly surprising conceptual artists to work in the combined worlds of audio and visual. Together with artist Carl Michael von Hausswolff, he is a founder of the Kingdoms of Elgaland-Vargaland (KREV) where he enjoys the title of King. Elggren spent five years at the Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm, specializing in drawing, design and bookprinting. In the late ‘70s he began to associate with performance groups, meeting people like Hausswolff and Thomas Liljenberg. With the latter he formed Firework in 1978, a duo that put up exhibitions and performances. Around the same time he purchased a press and started to publish art books. In 1988 he formed the duo Guds Söner (The Sons of God) with Kent Tankred, whom he had met four years earlier. The duo excels in creating long, puzzling stage performances that give equal roles to physical action (or inaction) and soundtrack (live or taped) with themes such as violence, love, the quotidian, food and royalty. Together with Hausswolff, Elggren represented Sweden in the Nordic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2001 (with Tommi Grönlund and Petteri Nisunen from Finland and Anders Tomren from Norway).

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GAN, Gösta Adrian-Nilsson
Julia Bondesson
Michael Rupini
Przemek Pyszczek
Hilde Retzlaff
Julius Göthlin
Malin Gabriella Nordin

English below

GAN, Gösta Adrian-Nilsson, 1884-1965 är en av de mest betydande svenska modernisterna. Inspirerade av tyska Der Sturm-konstnärer under sin tid i Berlin och senare av de franska kubisterna, främst vännen Fernand Léger under sin Parisperiod, utvecklade han ständigt sitt arbete och skapade en egen stil, där allt mer abstrakta uttryck mötte teknik och maskulinitet. Han porträtterade ofta machomän, sjöman, militärer och atleter, motiv ur en egen erotisk längtan och som en slags protestkonst i en tid då homosexualitet var förbjudet.
I utställningen visar vi två av GANs tidiga verk, akvarellerna Tahiti, från 1917 och Marin Français från 1922. Båda akvarellerna avbildar sjömän, badande i geometriska former och figurer.

Med GANs akvareller som utgångspunkt har vi skapat en grupputställning med samtida konstnärer som i sitt utforskande arbete snuddar vid GANs uttryck. Verken berör upp GANs arbete formalistiskt eller metodiskt.

Julia Bondesson (född 1983) arbetar med skulpturer i trä och med performance. Bondesson är utbildad på Kungliga konsthögskolan och i Thailand, Japan och Taiwan i träskulptur och dockteater. Hennes skulpturer som ofta visar kroppar och kroppsdelar av människor och djur är laddade med skönhet, känslighet och inte sällan en viss brutalitet.

Michael Rupini (född 1975) är utbildad på Konstfack och arbetar både med performance, skulpturer och måleri med en grund i såväl automatisk skrift som rave-kultur. Hans verk är laddade med energi och expressivitet. I målningarna i utställningen har han utgått från GANs färgställningar och uttryck.

Przemek Pyszczek (född 1985 i Polen) arbetar med skulpturer och reliefer som tar sin grund i en östeuropeisk arkitektur och estetik. Med starka färger och geometriska former påminner skulpturerna ofta om dekonstruerade lekplatser i klara toner. Till utställningen har han skapat en ny väggrelief i pastelltoner med referenser till Bauhaus och kubism.

Hilde Retzlaff (född 1990) är utbildad på Konstfack och Kungliga konsthögskolan och arbetar skulpturalt och med väggverk i olika funna material som sammanfogas eller beabetas till nya verk med en egen mytologi. I utställningen inkluderas en skulptur i betong ur ”Logogram”, en serie skulpturer gjutna med packmaterial som form.

Julius Göthlin (född 1984) arbetar främst med måleri, med ett arbetssätt där han söker eliminera konstnärens hand från verket och låta materialet ha sin egen expressiva process. Ofta låter han materialet manipulera duken och skapa organiska uttryck, där urvalsprocessen är en del i tillblivandet. Till utställningen har han skapat en serie målningar där den blå färgen i GANs akvareller är grunden för abstrakta akrylmålningar. Göthlin är utbildad på Kungliga konsthögskolan.

Malin Gabriella Nordin (född 1988) är utbildad i Bergen, Norge. Hennes måleri utgår från färger och former och hon skapar collage och målningar, liksom verk i textil och skulpturer. Hennes arbete utgår från känslor och hur känslor och former samverkar.

Shapes and bodies 23.02.19-23.03.19

GAN, Gösta Adrian-Nilsson, 1884-1965, is one of the most important Swedish modernists. Inspired by the German Der Sturm artists during his time in Berlin and later by the French cubists, primarily Fernand Léger during his time in Paris, he constantly developed his artistic work and created a style of his own, where an increasingly abstract expression met technology and masculinity. He often portrayed macho men, sailors, military men and athletes, motives stemming from his own erotic desires and as a kind of protest art in a time when homosexuality was illegal.
In the exhibition two of GAN’s earlier works are on display, the watercolours Tahiti, from 1917 and Marin Français from 1922. Both watercolours depict sailors, bathing in geometric shapes and figures.

With GAN’s watercolours as a starting point we have created a group show with contemporary artists whose explorations touches the expressions of GAN. The works touches upon GAN’s work, formalistically or methodically.

Julia Bondesson (born 1983) works with wood sculptures and performance. Bondesson attended the Royal Insititute of Art and is also educated in wood sculpting and puppetry in Thailand, Japan and Taiwan. Her sculptures, often depicting bodies and body parts of humans and animals are charged with beauty and often a certain level of brutality.

Michael Rupini (born 1975) is educated at Konstfack, University of Arts, Craft and Design. He works with performance, sculpture and painting, with a departing point in automatic writing and rave culture. His works are charged with energy and expressions. His paintings in the exhibition are based on the colours and expressions of GAN’s watercolours.

Przemek Pyszczek (born 1985 in Poland) works with sculptures and reliefs founded on Eastern European architecture and aesthetics. With strong colours and geometric shapes, the sculptures often bring to mind deconstructed playgrounds in clear colours. For the exhibition he has created a new relief in pastel tones, with Bauhaus and cubist references.

Hilde Retzlaff (born 1990) is educated at Konstfack, University of Arts, Craft and Design and the Royal Institute of Art. She works sculpturally and with two-dimensional works in various found materials, processed into new works with their own mythology. In the exhibition a sculpture from the series “Logogram” is shown. Logogram 1 is cast in concrete, using packing material as a mould.

Julius Göthlin (born 1984) primarily works with painting, with methods where he aims to eliminate the hand of the artist from the work and allows for the material to have their own expressive process. He often lets the material manipulate the canvas and create organic expressions where selection is part of the creation. For the exhibition he has created a series of paintings where the blue colour in GAN’s watercolours is the foundation for abstract acrylic paintings. Göthlin is educated at the Royal Institute of Art.

Malin Gabriella Nordin (born 1988) is educated in Bergen, Norway. Her paintings start from the exploration of shapes and colours, and she works with collage and paintings as well as works in textile and sculptures. Her work uses emotions and how emotions and shapes consociates as a starting point.

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6.3.19-28.4.19

                       23.2.19-15.3.19

Review in Svd