Dörren i muren
Konstfrämjandet Skåne 8 September–7 October 2017 (cocurated together with Kalle Brolin).
Participating artists: Vanja Sandell Billström, Monika Marklinger, Trinh T. Minh-ha, Goldin + Senneby.
Dörren i muren (The door in the wall) was an essay exhibition concerned with artistic method, based on close readings of the complete works of writer Sven Lindqvist
(b. 1932). The exhibition revolved around the artistic, philosophical and rhetorical methods of Lindqvist, which were compared to modes of working in the context of contemporary art.
Dörren i muren picked up on four aspects of Lindqvist’s writing: doubts regarding artistic expression in relation to political commitment, Lindqvist’s particular essayistic style, the recurring descriptions of physical experiences and thinking through/in motion. In relation to these four themes the exhibition presented works by four contemporary artists: Documents du Tahiti and Either Savage or a Chil by Monika Marklinger that revolves around the utopian search and romantic beliefs in original authenticity at stake in the work of Paul Gauguin; After Microsoft by artist duo Goldin+Senneby presenting the background story of one of the world’s most widespread digital images; Utsikterna (The Views) by Vanja Sandell Billström that reflects upon how a contemplative state and an active life might be lived in simultaneity; and also on view was Trinh T. Minh-ha’s video Shoot for the Content which evolves into a reflection on culture, politics, power and change based on events at the Tiananmen Square. A systematizing of the investigative essayism of Lindqvist has previously been attempted in the anthology Av nyfikenhet öppnade jag dörren i muren (Out of Curiosity I Opened the Door in the Wall), edited by Stig Hansén and Clas Thor. This collection of journalistic pieces by Lindqvist also describes his various roles as a writer: traveller, poet, investigator, statistician, interviewer, portrayer, conversationalist, inheritor, and theoretician. The exhibition was named after this anthology.
