Close Encounters with the large-scale
In the program for 2021, artists work on a large scale—drawings become sculptural, painting becomes a comprehensive installation, and an artwork draws us in through the stone wall and out into the sculpture park. A central theme in these new projects is that the artists increase their scale and challenge accepted definitions such as “drawing” and “painting,” drawing becomes three-dimensional, and we enter into paintings and come up onto the art itself. Both Begum and Jacobson exhibit artworks that can be described as monumental, but Jacobson’s paintings are simultaneously characterized by the handmade, and Begum’s art, with its repeated forms, encompass the meditative.
Spring
Katarina Löfström from Mar 6
The spring season starts on March 6 with Katarina Löfström's glittering work Open Source (Cinemascope) from 2018 being re-installed in the sculpture park. Inside the spacious art gallery, new video works by Löfström are shown.
Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan, In Habit, Apr 1–Aug 29
In Habit is a educational project with Isabel (b. 1965, The Philippines) & Alfredo Aquilizan (b.1962, The Philippines) that is conducted with the artists remotely. The artist duo says: our artistic practice is anchored in the idea of collaboration and cooperation, with projects that involve and engage as well as create relationships by sharing experiences. The Aquilizans are influenced by the experience of leaving their homeland of the Philippines for Australia, and they return to themes such as home, belonging, and migration. They visited Wanås Konst in anticipation of a planned collaboration and exhibition in 2020, but their project has been reworked and is being carried out in the fall of 2020 and spring of 2021 with the artists working remotely. Working with schools and different groups and associations, the project is about building dream homes that come together to create large cities. On wheels, on boats, large and small, buildings of cardboard will emerge and gather in a display in the Art Gallery in the spring of 2021. With In Habit, the artists are exhibiting for the first time in Sweden.
Summer and Fall
Rana Begum, May 8–Nov 7
Rana Begum (b. 1977, Bangladesh) works abstractly and sculpturally with colors and shapes as a starting point and is interested in how artworks are transformed by how the light falls or how the observer moves before them. She describes it: I want the artwork to contain some sort of movement, either in the material or in people physically moving around the work. Begum examines the abstract, gathering inspiration from experiences of nature from childhood, the geometric forms of everyday materials, and traditional Islamic ornamentation. On the walls of buildings or on graph paper, in metal or with watercolors, repeated geometric forms become minimalist presentations.
Martin Jacobson, May 8–Nov 7
Martin Jacobson (b. 1978, Stockholm) works in dialogue with models from art history as a way of examining painting. When his work moves into one of the old buildings at Wanås Konst, it is his incredible hand-painted backdrops from playwright Jonas Gardell’s show Queen of F*cking Everything, the largest of them measuring 16 x 9 meters, that are highlighted as paintings, transforming a whole building. Gardell has described the performance as his last major work, a finale about a miracle. When he chose to work with hand-painted backdrops, Gardell combined performing arts history with his own great interest in visual art. Jacobson spent more than a year working in the enormous format, using motifs such as a pink sunrise and glittering water with references to, and inspiration from, popular history, religious images, and Baroque theater.
Marit Roland, date will be announced shortly
In the Fall, Wanås Konsts presents an exhibition with norwegian artist Marit Roland (b. 1981, Kristiansand, Norway), who is exhibiting in Sweden for the first time. Her primary interest is drawing, but linked to paper as a material that she works into large, delicate, three-dimensional sculptural installations that she calls paper drawings. She describes them:
A Paper Drawing is fleeting and cannot be moved in its entirety. It can be constructed anew, but will never be able to be exhibited identically in two places. After each exhibition, the work is recycled and the paper gains a new life after its time as art.
Summer – Live Art
Frédéric Gies and Rachel Tess & Danish Dance Theatre
In June, Frédéric Gies (b. 1973, France, works in Malmö) presents a new solo for Wanås Konst with a starting point in the body’s relationship to the outdoor environment, its states and sounds, the sculpture park and the art. Gies uses form to provide opportunities instead of limitations. Having studied ballet and modern dance, Gies has worked with French choreographers, been active in Berlin, and in the 2000s, began to gain attention for their own choreographies, often inspired by the club- and techno-scene. Gies creates their works both alone and in collaboration with others.
In July, Wanås Konst welcomes the Swedish premiere of Last Dances, a new performance by and with choreographer Rachel Tess (b. 1980, USA), produced by Danish Dance Theatre with costumes by renowned Danish artist Peter Linde Busk, who blends patterns, materials, and moods into exciting colorful expressions. Last Dances is developed for the museum and continues Tess’ work outside the traditional performance space and her interest in different encounters with the audience.