Sofia Bertilsson 25/04/2023 Sofia Bertilsson 25/04/2023

What does it mean to be human? Ingela Ihrman upcoming show at Malmö Konsthall

In a playful way, Ingela Ihrman’s work explores what it means to be human. With humour and sincerity, she lifts questions concerning identity and belonging by looking at different life forms and how we relate to one another. She focuses on strong emotions connected to everyday life, such as lust, longing and loneliness. Where: Malmö Konsthall. Dates: September 30 2023 - January 14 2024.

(Photo: Ingela Ihrman, One Fig, 2020. Video still)

Sofia Bertilsson 23/04/2023 Sofia Bertilsson 23/04/2023

A Roman Journey at Antica Libreria Cascianelli

An artist obsessed with maps, flags, the footprints of space and time. An antique bookshop in the heart of Rome that looks as popping out from Balzac’s novel The Magic Skin. An art curator and travelling reporter who thinks that all the places you can imagine are real. The exhibition Journey Analogue comes from this combination of people and places. Luca Di Luzio artworks transforms Antica Libreria Cascianelli - just behind Navona square and beside the entrance of the archaelogical site of Domitian Stadium – in a contemporary wunderkammer, with the help of stage designer Valentina La Rocca (Libreria Cascianelli co-owner) and art writer Fabio Sindici. The title pays homage to Renè Daumal’s unfinished novel Mount Analogue, a surrealist chronicle of an impossible journey. The result is an art installation conceived both as hide and seek game and exploration in a parallel universe.

Sofia Bertilsson 07/02/2023 Sofia Bertilsson 07/02/2023

Annalee Davis Plants a Healing Garden for Sharjah Biennale

Barbados based Annalee Davis was one of the first artists invited to Focus Foundation’s newly established residency in the summer of 2022. Located in a historic farm building in the vicinity of Girona, Spain, Davis used her time at the residency to develop a project for Sharjah Biennale 2023 that links the use of medicinal plants in Barbados, the Mediterranean and Sharjah in UAE. In her work she explores how colonialism and slavery changed landscapes, and how disalienation can be achieved through craft and planting. Her garden becomes both a repose for the soul and for communities as well as a living apothecary of healing plants. Find out more about the work Pray to Flowers – A Plot of Disalienation, which is being developed for Sharjah Biennale 2023 which opens in February 2023, in the Q & A. Her project, a garden for Bait Al Hurma (A Woman’s House), is in line with the ethos of Focus Foundation, its multidisciplinary residency encourages artists to explore local craft, the landscape and community in their practices.

Sofia Bertilsson 03/01/2023 Sofia Bertilsson 03/01/2023

Merging Contemporary Design and Pre-Columbian Inspiration

Artists Miguel Andrade Valdéz did a solo exhibition in his hometown Lima, had his home featured in T Magazine and developed the design studio Taller Tarapacá. Look out for the webshop of Taller Tarapaca´opening 2023. Read the article by Michael Snyder in T Magazine, photo by Ivan Salinero.

Sofia Bertilsson 10/02/2022 Sofia Bertilsson 10/02/2022

Ukrainian Art Today – A Conversation with Alex Fisher. The Long Read.

We talked to curator and writer Alex Fisher, who co-organized the show Dedication. Traces and Tactics at Kristianstads konsthall, a municipal kunsthall in the south of Sweden, and invited seven artists and artist groups from different regions of Ukraine to participate.

Ukraine, on the border between east and west, and for a long time part of the Soviet Union and before that the Russian Empire, celebrated 30 years of independence in 2021. Prominent contemporary artists include photographer Boris Mikhailov, abstract art pioneer Kazimir Malevich, and from the Modernist period Sonia Delaunay, who, like several artists in the exhibition Dedication. Traces and Tactics, recently at Kristianstads konsthall in Sweden, had the experience of being born in an empire that disappeared during her lifetime. However, Ukraine was there all the time, as a shadow culture with a long history, under the layers of hegemonic rule.

The exhibition featured: 12345678910 Studio, Yaroslav Futymskyi, Nikita Kadan, Dana Kavelina, Lada Nakonechna; performances by Petro Ryaska and Blyzkist

Read on to find out more about the contemporary art scene in Ukraine. As Alex says:

“Dedication. Traces and Tactics comes to a close at a moment of severe stress for Ukraine and its allies, as Russia threatens to re-assert a sphere of influence reminiscent of that which existed during the Cold War, through various disruptive/deadly means. Ukrainian independence demands steadfast dedication, as its shape and scope are being tried and tested.”