FREDRIK SÖDERBERG & CARL LARSSON

April 10 – June 8, 2008

Curator: Elisabeth Millqvist

Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall presents an exhibition where the artist Fredrik Söderberg (b. 1972) meets the giant of the Swedish artistic canon, Carl Larsson (1853 – 1919). Encompassing the magical, fantastical and enchanting, Fredrik Söderberg’s paintings are a blend of contemporary cultural codes and historical references – of whom Carl Larsson is one.

Fredrik Söderberg describes his works as ’collages’, referring not to the technique used to produce them but to how the content is collated from many different sources. In his watercolors, oil paintings and miniature models we find C.S. Lewis’ world of Narnia, fragments of Nordic mythology, photos of spiritual gatherings, and well-known festivals such as Midsummer. Söderberg creates dreamlike scenes that dwell on the mystical in the everyday and explore its history.

This exhibition includes a selection of illustrations and sketches by Carl Larsson. His whorl of ornamentation and the detailed draw- ings of knights and dark forests place him in a context of renewed interest for contemporary artists. Several of the exhibited works are studies for his monumental paintings where figure drawings and nature studies form the basis of his fantastical compositions. Also included in the exhibition are Larsson’s illustrations of Swedish writer Viktor Rydberg’s romantic tale Singoalla.

Elisabeth Millqvist, the curator of the exhibition, describes the process as follows:
The exhibition started with an urge to investigate why, in the year 2008, art is crawling with witches, shamans and sacrificial rites. This led me to delve into Fredrik Söderberg’s oeuvre since he has worked with related themes in the last ten years. In his work there are several paraphrases of Carl Larsson’s motifs. I wanted to bring out these references and show a Carl Larsson that seems relevant today. This is how contemporary fantasy ended up next to the dark forests of National Romanticism’s mythical worlds.

In descriptions of contemporary art, terms such as narrative and fictional worlds recur. But what kind of narratives do we see? Through the work of Fredrik Söderberg, this exhibition explores the contemporary preoccupation with a search for something beyond a rational worldview. By bringing together the work of these two artists Söderberg’s referential working method is highlighted and Carl Larsson’s work serves as testimony to an historical interest in the same charged symbols and searching in a different age. In this exhibition including over 40 works the visitor is invited to take part in a world of mystical heroes and supernatural phenomena in art dated from the 1890s to the present.

About the artists:

Fredrik Söderberg graduated from Konstfack in 2000. Parallel to his exhibition at Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall he will be opening a solo exhibition at Milliken Gallery, Stockholm. This spring he participates in the Armory Show, as well as exhibiting at the Rental Gallery in New York. This exhibition was preceded by a show at Galleri Brandstrup in Oslo in 2007. In Sweden Söderberg has been included in group exhibitions at Skulpturens hus, Stockholm (2004), Marabouparken, Sundbyberg (2004) and Dunkers kulturhus, Helsingborg (2003), amongst others. In addition the artist has designed several album covers for IDEAL records.

Carl Larsson is perhaps Sweden’s best-known and most beloved artist. After attending the Royal Academy of Fine Art in Stockholm he worked as an illustrator of books, magazines and newspapers. He also spent several years in France. On his return to Sweden he and his wife Karin Larsson, also an artist, combined traditional rural Swedish design with modern concepts of color and pattern in the family’s newly acquired house in the village of Sundborn in Dalecarlia. The Larssons created a style that has had extraordinary impact on interior design both nationally and internationally. In 1997 the Victoria & Albert Museum in London presented an exhibition entitled Carl and Karin Larsson: Creators of the Swedish Style which underlines the importance of their design work. In 1894 Carl Larsson began to paint a series of watercolors of his home and family, which were published in book form in 1899 under the title Ett hem (A home). These works have been strongly influential in the creation of the image of Sweden, and have spread the knowledge of their design. As an artist he created several prominent monumental works, such as large frescoes in schools, museums and other public buildings. Carl Larsson is represented in all major Swedish museum collections.

For press inquiries please contact:

Tove Schalin, exhibition coordinator: schalin@magasin3.com, +46 8 545 680 44

TINO SEHGAL

6 mars – 4 maj 2008

Curator: Richard Julin

It is with great pleasure that we present Tino Sehgal’s first solo exhibition in Scandinavia. His thinking, creative process and the resultant artworks of constructed situations offer an extraordinary experience and positive challenge to our visitors as well as to us as an institution.

Richard Julin, the curator of the exhibition.

Sehgal’s point of departure as an artist is the fact that we are using up more of the planet’s resources than what is necessary for survival. In his work he challenges the notion of production, both artistically and economically, by creating immaterial ways of generating meaning. His artwork exists only in the moment in which it is experienced, and as a verbal narrative when recounted to others. It is not documented by any audiovisual means. His practice revolves around people who are instructed by Sehgal to use their bodies, voices and personalities to interpret a specific set of rules. The reaction or even participation of the spectator gives the possibility for the work to actually happen. He makes a point of the fact that his art is not a performance, a medium which historically has been a reaction to the art market. Sehgal’s pieces exist as exhibitable, sellable and collectable, yet immaterial work.

Three works will be shown at Magasin 3, involving around 30 individuals as interpreters: staff members, academics from various fields and professional dancers. The works are This is new (2003), Instead of allowing some things to rise up to your face, dancing bruce and dan and other things (2000) and This objective of that object (2004).

Artist’s talk:

A conversation between Tino Sehgal and chief curator Richard Julin on Thursday, March 6, 7pm.

About the artist:

Tino Sehgal was born in London in 1976; he lives and works in Berlin. Sehgal has had solo exhibitions at the Walker Art Center (2008); Marian Goodman Gallery (2007); Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt (2007); Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (2007, 2006, 2005); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2006); Kunsthaus Bregenz (2006); Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (2006); Hamburger Kunstverein, Germany (2006); Fundação de Serralves, Porto, Portugal (2004); Musée des Beaux-arts de Nantes, France (2004); and Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands (2004). He has also participated in the Lyon Bienniale, France (2007); the Tate Triennial, Tate Britain, London (2006); the Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art (2005); the Venice Bienniale / Utopia Station (2003); as well as Manifesta, Frankfurt, Germany (2002). He represented Germany at the 2005 Venice Bienniale. In 2007 he was nominated for the Preis der Nationalgalerie für junge Kunst, Berlin and in 2006 for the Hugo Boss Prize at the Guggenheim Museum, New York. He received the Baloise Art Prize at Art Basel, Schweiz in 2004 as well as the 2003 Kunstpreis der Böttcherstrasse in Bremen, Germany.

For press inquiries please contact:

Tove Schalin, exhibition coordinator: schalin@magasin3.com, +46 8 545 680 44

Please note that due to the special nature of the exhibition no press preview will be held. Individual press meets with the artist are only bookable in advance.

ICH BIN DIE ECKE ALLER RAUME

Annika von Hausswolff

February 9 – June 8, 2008

Curators: Tessa Praun, David Neuman

This spring Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall has the great pleasure of showing a wide selection of work by Annika von Hausswolff, an artist whom Magasin 3 has supported for many years. Contradictory feelings of unease and curiosity evoked by her macabre stories and glimpses of the unexpected in the everyday have been characteristic of von Hausswolff’s work since the 1990’s. In her carefully composed photographs the human body is often physically present or tangible in the traces left behind: naked, abandoned bodies in picturesque landscapes, covered, lifeless bodies, children with chainsaws, or the reminders of human presence in the form of dust bunnies, empty chairs and discarded shirts. Using well-known motifs and art historical references Annika von Hausswolff’s work exists on the border between the documentary and the staged. In the last few years her world of images has increasingly taken physical shape in the exhibition space through the use of objects and props.

This exhibition includes over 50 of von Hausswolff’s works, all from Magasin 3’s collection, as well as a large-scale installation specially created for the space.

Artist’s book:

In April a comprehensive publication on Annika von Hausswolff will be published for which the artist has personally documented the exhibition process at Magasin 3. The book will also include a catalogue raisonné section comprehensively listing and illustrating all of von Hausswolff’s work to date.

About the artist:

Annika von Hausswolff was born in 1967 and lives and works in Gothenburg. Since the 1990’s she has had many solo exhibitions and been included in group shows at institutions such as the Musée d’Art Moderne de Ville de Paris, the Hasselblad Center in Gothenburg, ARKEN Museum for Moderne Kunst in Copenhagen, Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin and Fotomuseum in Winterthur. For the 1999 Venice Biennale Annika von Hausswolff represented Sweden at the Nordic Pavilion. Her work has previously been shown at Magasin 3 as part of the group exhibitions Weegee, Jane & Louise Wilson & Annika von Hausswolff (2000), Extension (2002) and most recently in Works from the Collection of Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthalls samling (2005).

For press inquiries please contact:

Tove Schalin, exhibition coordinator: schalin@magasin3.com, +46 8 545 680 44

MIROSLAV TICHY & JULIA MARGARET CAMERON

January 26 – March 23, 2008

Curator: Tessa Praun

Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall starts this year’s exhibition program with an encounter between a recently “discovered” contemporary artist, Miroslav Tichý, and an early star in the writing of photographic history, Julia Margaret Cameron.

Working independently from his contemporaries from the 1960s-90s, Miroslav Tichý (b. 1926, Czech Republic) created an idiosyncratic style, fascinating in its imperfection and reminiscent of photography’s early experimental years. Using homemade cameras Tichý took blurry, mottled photographs in his Mora- vian home town Kyjov. His anonymous portraits depict mothers, waitresses, students, sitting on park benches, waiting for the bus or in conversation with a friend – moments from everyday life and often framed by elaborate mounts.

By contrast, photographer Julia Margaret Cameron (1815–1879), part of Victorian England’s privileged cultural elite, was able to devote herself to exploring the new medium of her time, assiduously taking portraits of her circle of friends. Authors, scientists, artists and their families were captured in dream-like, allegorical images or intimate portraits. Cameron gained early acclaim as a photographic innovator for her experiments with composition and lighting, and today her works still surprise with their timeless expression.

The exhibition presents for the first time in Scandinavia a wide selection of Miroslav Tichý’s extensive production and a small group of excellent works by Julia Margaret Cameron. Curator Tessa Praun is thrilled about the opportunity:

It is fantastic to be able to show Tichý’s works that have been tucked away from a public until only a few years ago, and see them together with some of Cameron’s most distinguished and intriguing portraits.

A documentary about Miroslav Tichý, Tarzan retired, 2004, directed by Roman Buxbaum, founder of Foundation Tichý Ocean, will also be on view.

Lecture:

On Saturday, 26 January at 3pm Roman Buxbaum will give a lecture at Magasin 3.

Publication:

In conjunction to the exhibition Magasin 3 will publish a richly illustrated book.

About the artists:

Works by Miroslav Tichý were for the first time shown in a group exhibition at Die Blaue Kunsthalle in Cologne (DE) in 1990 and in 2004 at the Seville Biennale. In 2005 Kunsthalle Zürich (CH) presented Tichý’s first solo exhibition and since then his work has been shown i Canada, USA, Germany, and most recently in China. The Centre Pompidou in Paris (FR) will also host a solo exhibition in May 2008.

Julia Margaret Cameron became a member of the Photographic Societies of London and Scotland in 1864, one year after she started to photograph. She exhibited and published her works extensively and sometimes charged for her portraits. Today Cameron’s photographs are widely known but rarely exhibited.

For press inquiries please contact:

Tove Schalin, exhibition coordinator: schalin@magasin3.com, +46 8 545 680 44

TO BE CONTINUED…

Janine Antoni, Barry X Ball, John Bock, Cosima von Bonin, Chris Burden, Pedro Cabrita Reis, Leonard Forslund, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Katharina Grosse, Fabrice Gygi, Mona Hatoum, Alfredo Jaar, Matti Kallioinen, Matts Leiderstam, Charles Long, Ernesto Neto, Lars Nilsson, Georg Oddner, Tony Oursler, Fred Sandback, Lara Schnitger, Stereolab, Nahum Tevet, James Turrell, Uglycute, Rémy Zaugg

September 7 – December 9, 2007

Curators: David Neuman, Richard Julin, Elisabeth Millqvist, Tessa Praun, Sara Källström, Sara Despres

We are proud to have presented new oeuvres and outstanding exhibitions over the past 20 years. Magasin 3 has always worked closely with artists, generating new works – this is the core of our operation. As the title of this exhibition, To be continued… indicates, we are now focusing on the future.

David Neuman, director, Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall

Magasin 3 has been open to the public, producing exhibitions for 20 years now. Over the past two decades, many artists have created works specifically for the space, which is unique on the Scandinavian art scene. These works, which have been added to the Magasin 3 collection, are now being exhibited together for the first time. The exhibition features new, exciting encounters such as Mona Hatoum’s pulsating, electric weave Undercurrent (2004) with Tony Oursler’s blinking, talking cubes, Frequency Spectrum (2002), or Cosima von Bonin’s boat Item (2001), which will be undressed and dressed in its hand-sewn costume, with Chris Burden’s The Mexican Bridge (1998- 1999), constructed out of thousands of Meccano parts. To be continued… starts outdoors, with a new work by Matti Kallioinen whose architectural and video works are inspired by science fiction and fairytales.

Programme:

This fall, we will also have a programme packed with events featuring speakers, films and performances. The first event is entitled “Previously at Magasin 3…” It features Daniel Birnbaum (head of the Städelschule Academy of Art in Frankfurt and associate curator at Magasin 3) in discussion with participating artists and curators. Topics will include reflections on processes, productions, collecting, etc. The talk takes place Thursday, September 6, 3pm at Magasin 2 (next to the Tallinn terminal, ground floor).

Publication:

A catalogue highlighting the Magasin 3 collection will be published in conjunction with the exhibition. The book will be launched in September 2008

About the artists:

Janine Antoni was born 1964 in Freeport, Bahamas. She lives and works in New York City, USA.

Barry X Ball was born 1955 in California. His work has been exhibited at the Museum of Arts and Design, Bass Museum of Art, Ca’ Rezzonico in conjunction with la Biennale di Venezia, PS 1 Contemporary Art Center, SITE Santa Fe, Ballroom Marfa, Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall, Le Printemps de Septembre, Domaine de Kerguéhennec, Kunsthalle Krems, Museo Cantonale d’Arte, Lugano, me Collectors Room Berlin, Modemuseum Hasselt, Beijing Today Art Museum, Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Le Quartier, Centre d’art contemporain de Quimper, Musée d’art contemporain de Lyon, and many international contemporary galleries and art fairs. His work is in the collections of the Hammer Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Norton Museum of Art, The Maramotti Collection, Le Fonds régional d’art contemporain Bretagne, Museo Cantonale d’Arte, Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, The Berlingieri Collection, The Olbricht Collection, and The Panza Collection. Ball lives and works in New York City, USA.

John Bock, born 1965 in Gribbohm, Germany. He lives and works i Berlin, Germany.

Cosima von Bonin was born 1962 in Mombasa, Kenya, raised in Austria, and is now based in Cologne, Germany. She studied at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg, Germany.

Chris Burden was born in 1946 in Boston, Massachussetts and currently lives and works in Topanga, California. He has had solo exhibitions at museums worldwide including: New Museum, NY; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Tate Gallery, London and The Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead. He was also featured in the 48th Venice Biennale. His work is included in prestigious collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Broad Art Foundation, Los Angeles, CA; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Wexner Center for the Arts and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. In 1999, Burden had a solo exhibition at Magasin 3 that included the production of four bridges.

Pedro Cabrita Reis, born 1956 in Lissabon, Portugal where he lives and works.

Leonard Forslund, born in Landskrona, Sweden 1959. He lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Felix Gonzalez-Torres was born in Cuba in 1957 and died in New York in 1996. He received a BFA from the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY in 1983 and an MFA from the International Center of Photography, New York University in 1987. He participated in the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program in 1981 and 1983. During his lifetime, he had solo exhibitions at the Guggenheim Museum, New York (1995); The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (1994); The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. (1994); the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum (1994); Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (1993); The Museum of Modern Art, New York (1992); the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York (1990); and The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (1988), among others. His work has continued to be shown extensively, including solo exhibitions at PLATEAU and Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea (2012); MMK Museum fur Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt (2011); the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2011); Fondation Beyeler, Basel, Switzerland (2010); Artpace Foundation, San Antonio, Texas (2010); The United States Pavilion, the 52nd Venice Biennale (2007); Hamburger Bahnhof, Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin (2007); The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin (1999-2000); and Museo Tamayo, Mexico City (1996), among others. He had a solo exhibition at Magasin 3 in 1992.

Katharina Grosse was born in Freiburg/Breisgrau in Germany in 1961, and studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. She became Professor at the Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weissensee in 2000, and then at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in 2010. Grosse has exhibited widely, including Kunsthalle Bern, Bern, (1988), the Sydney Biennial, Sydney (1998), Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2000), the São Paulo Biennial, São Paulo (2002), Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2005), De Appel, Amsterdam (2006), Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2006), Arken Museum for Moderne Kunst, Copenhagen (2009), MassMOCA, North Adams, MA (2010), De Pont Museum voor Hedendaagse Kunst, Tilburg (2013) and Kunsthaus Graz, Graz (2014). Recent outdoor projects include Just Two of Us, a commission for Public Art Fund, New York (Nov 2013 – Feb 2014) andPsycholustro, a series of seven installations commissioned by the City of Philadelphia Public Art Program that run along Philadelphia’s rail gateway (from May 16, 2014). Katharina Grosse had a solo exhibition, Infinite Logic Conference, at Magasin 3 in 2004. Katharina Grosse lives and works in Berlin.

Fabrice Gygi was born 1965 in Geneva, Switzerland.

Mona Hatoum, born 1952 in Libanon. After studying at the Byam Shaw School of Art and the Slade School of Art, she rapidly made a name for herself in the 1980s with a series of acclaimed performance and video works. In 2004, Magasin 3 produced, in collaboration with Hamburger Kunsthalle and Kunstmuseum Bonn, a comprehensive presentation of Hatoum’s work. The show included around 60 artworks, as well as a large-scale new installation made specifically for Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall. The artist lives and works in London and Berlin.

Alfredo Jaar was born 1956 in Santiago, Chile. He lives and works in New York City, USA.

Matti Kallioinen was born 1974 in Uppsala. He lives and works in Stockholm.

Matts Leiderstam, born 1956 in Gothenburg, Sweden. He lives and works in Stockholm.

Charles Long, born 1958 in New Jersey, USA. He lives and works in Los Angeles, USA.

Ernesto Neto, born 1964 in Rio de Janeiro where he lives and works.

Lars Nilsson, born 1956, lives and works in Stockholm.

Georg Oddner, born 1923 in Stockholm. He lives and works in Malmö, Sweden.

Tony Oursler, born in 1957, lives and works in New York. He received his BFA from the California Institute of the Arts in 1979. Oursler’s work has been exhibited in prestigious institutions including the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Documenta VIII, IX, Kassel; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Skulptur Projekte Münster; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington; and the Tate Liverpool. Tony Oursler had a solo exhibition at Magasin 3, Station, in 2002.

Fred Sandback, born in Bronxville, New York 1943 where he lived and worked until his death in 2003.

Lara Schnitger, born 1969 in Haarlem, The Netherlands. Schnitger studied at The Hague: Royal Academy of Art from 1987-1991 before spending a year at the Kitakyushu Centre for Contemporary Art in Southern Japan. Her works have been exhibited at museums and galleries around the world, including the Art Center in Xiamen, Santa Monica Museum of Art, UCLA Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, PS 1 Contemporary Art Center in New York, Royal Academy, Kunstwerke in Berlin and The Power Plant in Toronto. Schnitger has also participated in the Liverpool Biennal in 1999 and the Shanghai Biennal in 2002. She lives and works in Los Angeles, USA.

Nahum Tevet, born 1946 at Kibbutz Mesilot in Israel. He lives and works in Tel Aviv, Israel.

 

James Turrell was born in Los Angeles in 1943, and lives and works in Arizona. He has had solo exhibitions at the Gugenheim Museum, New York (2013); the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2013); and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (2013); the Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (2002); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (1984); the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1980); and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1976), among others. Permanent commissions include the Chichu Art Museum, Naoshima Island, Japan; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas; MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt; Turrell Museum, Colomé, Argentina; and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, York, United Kingdom. Turrell has been the recipient of numerous awards, including a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (1968) and The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (1984), and was named a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government (1991). He had a solo exhibition at Magasin 3 in 1994-95.

Uglycute is Markus Degerman, Andreas Nobel, Jonas Nobel and Fredrik Stenberg, all live and work in Stockholm.

Rémy Zaugg, 1943-2005, Courgenay, Schweiz.

 

 

For press inquiries please contact:

Tove Schalin, exhibition coordinator: schalin@magasin3.com, +46 8 545 680 44

FLEEING AWAY FROM WHAT BOTHERS YOU MOST

Jumana Emil Abboud, David Perlov, Raeda Saadeh, Gil Marco Shani, Jan Tichy, Jean-Luc Vilmouth

March 17 – June 7, 2007

Curators: Elisabeth Millqvist, Sarit Shapira

The group exhibition Fleeing away from what bothers you most presents photography, film, sculpture and painting. Curator Sarit Shapira has invited Palestinian, Israeli and French artists to participate in the exhibition. The majority of work is dominated by a non-political presence – an avoidance linking the artists together that could also be read as a political standpoint in itself. This exhibition is Sarit Shapira’s first solo project for Magasin 3 as associate curator.

The exhibition presents six artists active in the Middle East, from which we receive a daily flow of reports about a violence and unrest. These artists are known for their ability to transform the situation into something abstract with artistic and contemporary approaches.Sarit Shapira is a leading authority in the contemporary art scene in the Middle East. She teaches art theory at the master’s course at Bezalel Art Academy in Tel Aviv and is a freelance curator at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, among others. She is currently working on a retrospective exhibition of Nahum Tevet. Sarit Shapira has written books about artists who Raffie Lavie and Avner Ben-Gal, as well as articles for Artforum and October.

About the artists:

Jumana Emil Abboud (b. 1971, Shefa-Amer, lives and works in Jerusalem)

David Perlov (b. 1930, Rio de Janeiro – 2003 Tel Aviv)

Raeda Saadeh (b. 1977, Um El-Fahem, lives and works in Jerusalem)

Gil Marco Shani (b. 1968, Tel Aviv, where he lives and works

Jan Tichy (b. 1974, Prag, lives and works in Tel Aviv)

Jean-Luc Vilmouth (b. 1952, Creutzwald, lives and works in Paris)

For press inquiries please contact:

Tove Schalin, exhibition coordinator: schalin@magasin3.com, +46 8 545 680 44

GRAVITY, BE MY FRIEND

Pipilotti Rist

February 10 – June 17, 2007

Curator: Richard Julin

This spring Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall proudly presents the Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist with her first solo exhibition in Scandinavia. Pipilotti Rist is one of the most prominent artists working today, best known for her dream-like video installations and color-drenched imagery. Probing both physical and psychological dimensions her exploration of the body, our senses, rituals and taboos are at once poetical, intimate and playfully entertaining.

The exhibition comprises central pieces in Rist’s production as well as two newly produced works. The title-piece Tyngdkraft, var min vän (Gravity, Be My Friend) is a new large-scale audiovisual installation being specially produced for Magasin 3. Richard Julin, the exhibition curator, relates:

The new work Tyngdkraft, var min vän offers an overall experience where the viewer laying down is taken to a place at the beginning of time or possibly in the future.

Pipilotti Rist aims at including us in a specific setting, putting us ‘into the movie’ in order to open up our mind to complex themes. Tyngdkraft, var min vän is a further development of her working method and imagery. Pipilotti Rist explains:

With this work I want to encompass a flash of consciousness in the spectators minds, a kind of mildness to themselves and a relativisation of their personal problems.

In conjunction with the exhibition, Magasin 3 is producing a richly illustrated publication entitled Congratulations! It contains a conversation between the artist and Richard Julin, including anecdotes from the creation process and reflections on life, art and food.

 

About the artist:

Pipilotti Rist was born in Grabs, in the Swiss Rhine Valley, in 1962. Rist lives and works in Zurich and in the mountains of Switzerland. She studied at the Institute of Applied Arts in Vienna, Austria, from 1982-1986 
and at the School of Design in Basel, Switzerland, from 1986-1988.

She has had solo exhibitions at the Kunsthalle Bremen (2011); Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (2010); KIASMA Museum for Contemporary Art, Helsinki (2009); Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands (2009); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2008); Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (2007); Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas (2006); the contribution of the Swiss Federal Office of Culture BAK, Church of San Stae, 51st Venice Biennale (2005); the San Francisco Museum of Contemporary Art, San Francisco, (2004); the Public Art Fund, Times Square, New York (2000); Site Santa Fe, Santa Fe, New Mexico (1998); and the 22nd Biennial of São Paulo, Brazil (1994), among others.

For press inquiries please contact:

Tove Schalin, exhibition coordinator: schalin@magasin3.com, +46 8 545 680 44

JAKE AND DINOS CHAPMAN & JOHN CURRIN

January 18 – April 1, 2007

Curator: David Neuman

The first exhibition of the year combines works by contemporary artists who have worked in traditional techniques – printmaking. John Currin’s etchings are based on his own paintings over a ten-year period, paintings that are often described as both historical and bizarre. The Chapman brothers starting point is one of the most prestigious works in art history, Goya’s Los Desastres de la Guerra (1810-1820). They have added added to Goya’s subject matter as well as combined imagery from contemporary world conflicts and surrealism.

John Currin’s style is often compared to that of painters such as Courbet, Manet and Picabia, but frequent references are also made to the anonymous practitioners of kitsch art. His paintings are figurative and technically skilful. Although he takes his subject matter from art history, borrowing poses or appearances, his compositions just as often echo images from advertising. His imagery is puzzling and irritating. One series of paintings are portraits of lightly-dressed young women, another ageing women he has also painted stereotypical pictures of homosexual men. His images are clichés. Currin describes the cliché as a recurring truth:

I’d rather that my work be truly a cliché than a critique of clichés. Ultimately, I think that what I do is find a cliché and try to believe in it, try to get to where I won’t laugh at it.

Jake and Dinos Chapman’s Disasters of War (1999) refers to Goya’s work with the same title, Los Desastres de la Guerra. The latter is a series of etchings illustrating the invasion of Spain and the atrocities that Napoleon’s army committed against the people, and the farmers’ assaults on the soldiers. These pictures are often mentioned as the first depictions of war without a romanticising note. They are violent and frightening images. In their 83 pages portfolio, the Chapmans have added to the original’s subject matter as well as mixed images of watchtowers, barbed wire and chimneys with elements of childish humour. The Chapman brothers claim to have a fascination for representation of that which cannot be portrayed. Commenting on their works, they say that they have succeeded when:

they achieve the position of reducing the viewer to a state of absolute moral panic… they’re completely troublesome objects.

About the artists:

Jake Chapman was born in 1966. He lives and works in the UK, as does his brother, Dinos Chapman, born 1962. They participated in the legendary Sensation exhibition in 1997, which toured from London to Berlin and New York. In 2003, they won the Turner Prize.

John Currin, born 1962, lives and works in the USA. In 2003, his retrospective toured the MOCA, Chicago, the Serpentine Gallery, London, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, the same year.

For press inquiries please contact:

Tove Schalin, exhibition coordinator: schalin@magasin3.com, +46 8 545 680 44

PAUL CHAN

October 21 – December 17, 2006

Curator: Daniel Birnbaum

Like fleeting shadows on the ground, we see objects defying gravity. Sunglasses, cars, people – everything is falling against a background in shifting colours. But what appears to be simple shadows are digital animations projected on the floor – a recurring feature in Paul Chan’s ongoing series The 7 Lights. He has completed four out of seven planned works, and Magasin 3 is now showing parts one and two (both from 2005). The curator, Daniel Birnbaum, describes Lights as “a meditation on a disintegrating world”.

Magasin 3 is also showing the video animation Happiness (Finally) After 35,000 Years of Civilization (After Henry Darger and Charles Fourier) (2000-2003). The story is a dramatisation of how we could achieve a better world, based on the ideas of the utopian socialist thinker Charles Fourier (1772-1837), which Chan has illustrated with an imagery inspired by the eccentric Henry Darger (1892-1973). Two years ago, Magasin 3 showed parts of Darger’s life work, a violent epic consisting of thousands of pages of illustrations and writings. Paul Chan says that he has animated this in the way he believes Darger would have worked if he had been alive today and had access to the internet and knowledge about contemporary art and photography. The ideas of theses two eccentrics on an alternative existence blend into a work that comprises both unlimited revelry and devastating war, against a lush green backdrop.

This exhibition is Daniel Birnbaum’s first solo exhibition for Magasin 3 as associate curator. The exhibition at Magasin 3 opens on Saturday, October 21st. The following week, Portikus in Frankfurt – where Daniel Birnbaum is the director – will also open an exhibition with Paul Chan. A catalogue will be produced by both institutions jointly, with essays by the curators.

About the artist:

Paul Chan creates films, animations and drawings in works with references to Goya as well as to Japanese pornography, the Bible and Beckett. He was born in 1973 in Hong Kong, and currently lives and works in New York. He graduated from Bard College in 2002, and has achieved notoriety since then for his art and for his political activism. This will be his first solo exhibition in Europe. Previously this year he has participated in the Whitney Biennial in New York and had a solo exhibition at Blanton Museum of Art, Texas. Other recent exhibitions in which he has participated include Uncertain States of America, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson; Reykjavik Art Museum (2006); the Lyon Biennial (2005); Greater New York, PS1, NY (2005) and Carnegie International, Pittsburgh (2004).

For press inquiries please contact:

Tove Schalin, exhibition coordinator: schalin@magasin3.com, +46 8 545 680 44

GUNNEL WÅHLSTRAND

September 28 – December 17, 2006

Curator: David Neuman

Gunnel Wåhlstrand bases her work on her family’s photo album. Time-consuming, large-scale, and with great precision, she paints from photographs of her father’s early childhood. The photographs show the west coast of Sweden, interiors from the 1950s, a garden outside a house, often with posing family members. With ink and water she paints on paper measuring more than 200 x 150 cm. She herself has compared her method with the photographic development process, saying that her work is “a way of further enhancing memory…”

In her final exhibition at the Royal University College of Fine Arts in Stockholm in 2003, Gunnel Wåhlstrand presented six paintings that she had been working on daily for two years. David Neuman, director of Magasin 3, describes the encounter as “… one of those incredible experiences that you don’t have that many times in life. A student thesis exhibition that outshone most of what I’ve seen over the past 20 years…” Three of these paintings are in the Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall collection, and are featured in the exhibition alongside a work from 2004, Långedrag.

Audio guide:

Hear Gunnel Wåhlstrand talk about her process – her paintings and their relationship to photography – in an audio guide produced for the exhibition. The audio guide is also available for download on magasin3.com.

About the artist:

Gunnel Wåhlstrand has been widely acknowledged for her paintings. She has been awarded grants by the Maria Bonnier Dahlin Foundation and the Anna Lisa Thomsson Foundation (2003 and 2004). She was represented at The Armory Show in New York (2004), and the Spring Exhibition at Liljevalchs Konsthall, Stockholm (2001 and 2002). She is currently working on a series of paintings extending her work based on photographic images.

For press inquiries please contact:

Sannah Söderman, coordinator: soderman@magasin3.com, 08-545 680 40