Why is it especially series of vessels, that Edmund de Waals makes? What does that form mean to him and what might it have meant to Giorgio Morandi? Meet de Waal in the heart of his production, the pottery wheel, in our last film from his studio. A part of the exhibition Morandi/Edmund de Waal at Artipelag April 7 – October 1, 2017.
Edmund de Waal on vessels
Edmund is not only an amazing artist and writer, he is also a wonderful speaker as you might have noticed in our previous films with the ceramicist. During the opening of his exhibition together with Giorgio Morandi he held a lecture about his latest book ”The White Road” – a journey through the history of of porcelain and his relation to Morandi. Take a moment to get en insight into to dramatic history of ceramics through Ming Dynasty and today´s China, Augustu´s Dresden, 18th century England, Sioux territory colonial North America and the nazi concentration camp in Dachau. A story about obsession
Read more about the exhibition here: https://artipelag.se/en/exhibition/edmund-de-waal-giorgio-morandi/
From July 8th to August 20th, 2017, Bård Breivik – Score for a Longer Conversation will be displayed in the Artipelag Artbox. The exhibition is comprised of 132 organically-shaped sculptures from a project the Norwegian artist worked on throughout his entire professional life. The sculptures, which are made using varying techniques and materials from all over the world, engage many of our senses and reflect an interest in people’s relationship to nature and handicrafts. Bård Breivik – Score for a Longer Conversation complements the current Morandi / Edmund de Waal exhibition, which is being shown throughout Summer 2017 in the Artipelag Art Gallery.
Bård Breivik (b.1948, d.2016) began his work on Score for a Longer Conversation in the early 1980’s and continued it throughout his entire professional life. The process was developed in collaboration between Breivik and craftsmen from dozens of countries and cultures. Together, they explored the creation of the project as a process and each tool’s many different possibilities.
Each individual work is evidence of a true curiosity of the unknown and has been created using traditional handicraft techniques and local materials. The canoe or cocoon-like form that recurs repeatedly throughout the exhibition emphasises the materials used, but the work as a whole underlines a rich cultural diversity and is, in a way, a kind of anthropological study of how people around the world created their own distinctive aesthetics based on local traditions, tools, and techniques.
”Many have called it a boat shape. It’s a natural association, but what I wanted to convey was, in fact, the aura that surrounds a person – their energy field.
– Bård Breivik
In the exhibition, the sculptures are displayed vertically but are not organised by year, technique, or region. Instead, they are presented as an eclectic mix, a kind of symphony of expression. The shape and size of the sculptures combine with the cultural diversity and material richness of the project in a way that implies the possibility of universal dialogue. This idea is reinforced by the sculptures being placed in old containers previously used in international shipping. The containers symbolise a truly optimistic view of the opportunities for global cooperation.
Bård Breivik was born and raised in Bergen on Norway’s west coast. After his studies at the Bergen Art and Design College – and later at St. Martin’s School of Art in London – Breivik developed a successful artistic career and was, for a short time, a professor of sculpture at the Royal Institute of Fine Arts in Stockholm. Breivik’s works have been shown at many solo and group exhibitions both in Norway and internationally. Among other notable moments, he represented Norway at the Venice Biennial in 1986 and at the São Paolo Biennial in 1991. Breivik also created several public works of art in the Nordic region.
Bård Breivik – Score for a Longer conversation is shown in parallel with Morandi / Edmund de Waal. Despite their differences, the three artists have several things in common – in particular, their interest in handicrafts. Both exhibits show how repetition can serve as a fundamental force in creation and serve to remind us of the history and memories that remain in all objects.
Grand Opening
The exhibition will open on Saturday, July 8th, 2017. Opening times are 11am to 5pm with an introduction by Sune Nordgren at 2pm.
Entrance and Tours
Those who want to see both exhibitions while visiting Artipelag can do so through a discounted combo ticket. The combo option includes oral introductions to both exhibitions.
Links
Press photos can be found in Artipelag’s press room >>
The exhibition on Artipelag’s website >>
Press Contact
Gustav Idhammar, Artipelag, gustav.idhammar@artipelag.se, tel +46 (0)70-710 53 55
About Artipelag
Artipelag is a world-class meeting place where art shows, cultural activities, architecture, music, events, Swedish design, and good food live side by side with the beautiful archipelago environment. Artipelag is located at Hålludden, which itself is situated on Värmdö, about 20 minutes by car from Stockholm city centre. The building comprises 10,220sqm and is carefully placed among pines and cliffs with magnificent views over Baggensfjärden. Artipelag was designed by the late architect Johan Nyrén.
From July 8th to August 20th, 2017, Bård Breivik – Score for a Longer Conversation will be displayed in the Artipelag Artbox. The exhibition is comprised of 132 organically-shaped sculptures from a project the Norwegian artist worked on throughout his entire professional life. The sculptures, which are made using varying techniques and materials from all over the world, engage many of our senses and reflect an interest in people’s relationship to nature and handicrafts.
Curator Iselin Page takes you through the exhibition and interviews Sune Nordgren, head of Bård Breivik AS. The film also features archive material of the artist himself.
Edmund de Waal talks about ”the reader”, en elegy to his great grandfather.
Read more about the exhibition here: https://artipelag.se/utstallning/edmund-de-waal-giorgio-morandi/
An interview with Edmund de Waal conducted during the preparations for the exhibition Morandi / Edmund de Waal that opened on April 7th. Recorded during January 2017 in London.
The 7th of April is the opening of Artipelag’s major summer exhibition 2017. Contemporary artist and writer Edmund de Waal meets renowned Italian painter Giorgio Morandi, whose oeuvre largely consists of still life paintings of pottery. However, it is not ceramics that unites the two artists, but rather the encouragement of mindful viewing and contemplation.
Giorgio Morandi (1890–1964) is one of the great protagonists of modern Italian art. Morandi has assumed cult status, especially within circles of art connoisseurs, and has been described as the artists’ artist. Transgressing generations, Morandi has inspired artists, authors, poets, designers and photographers and continues to do so to this day. Filmmakers and presidents can also be added to the list, where Federico Fellini’s classic La Dolce Vita is one of the more illustrious examples, as is Barack Obama’s inclusion of two Morandi paintings in the White House collection.
To name a few examples, Giorgio Morandi was showcased at Tate Modern in London, 2001. This exhibition then toured to Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris the following year. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York also dedicated a solo show to Morandi in 2008. Morandi has never been substantially showcased in Sweden, nor in the Scandinavian region.
The exhibition at Artipelag highlights fifty works from Morandi’s career, produced between 1921 to 1963. A significant portion of the Morandi paintings featured in the exhibition are still life paintings of ceramic household items. However a handful of landscape paintings are also included. The paintings are complemented by drawings, etchings and watercolors, which illustrate Morandi’s artistic range.
Morandi led a domestic and routine bound life. He rarely left his hometown Bologna, where he lived most of his life with his mother and three sisters. Morandi also served as a Professor at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna for 26 years. His motifs are likewise recurring – where similar still lifes and landscapes constitute the vast majority of his oeuvre, well over a thousand oil paintings in total.
Over half of the Morandi works shown in the exhibition at Artipelag, are generously lent to us by Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna.
Edmund de Waal (b. 1964) is a British artist and writer. To a Swedish audience, de Waal is known for his best-selling novel The Hare with Amber Eyes, which has been translated into over 28 languages. In The Hare with Amber Eyes, de Waal explores the rise of his aristocratic Jewish family in the late 1800s, as well as their subsequent fall inflicted by the ravages of the Nazis. On the international art scene, de Waal is known for his large-scale installations of porcelain vessels, which are informed by his passion for architecture, space and sound.
De Waal’s works have been exhibited internationally at institutions such as the Royal Academy of Arts in London, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna and Gagosian Gallery in London and Los Angeles. Last year he collaborated with contemporary Chinese artist Ai Weiwei in a project at Kunsthaus Graz in Graz, Austria. Characteristic for de Waal’s installations is a shifting focus that moves from each object to the series of objects, the space that is left between, and how the viewer’s gaze flows through the artwork.
This exhibition is de Waal’s first in Sweden and will feature close to thirty works, made between 2013 and 2017. The exhibition will also include several new works made in response to Morandi, whom de Waal has often cited as a key artistic inspiration. Furthermore, de Waal will produce a text piece about Morandi, written directly onto the gallery walls of Artipelag.
”Perhaps it is assumed that the unifying link between Morandi and de Waal is the ceramic objects. However, that is not the case. Neither of the artists is particularly fascinated by the objects themselves, but rather by the contexts and presentation of them. What is of interest is how the objects are brought together, where they are placed, from where they can be viewed and how they are illuminated or darkened.”
– Bo Nilsson, Artistic Director of Artipelag.
”The Wunderkammer, which is de Waal’s point of departure and the still life works of Morandi, are related to a historical tradition of contemplating the still lives of objects, and how they have been perceived then and now. The artists share an artistic approach revolving around contemplation as the main principle, in contrast to our present time where refection and repetition rarely are valued and appreciated.”
– Bo Nilsson.
The exhibition will be on view at Artipelag from April 7th until the 1st of October, 2017 and is curated by Bo Nilsson in collaboration with Edmund de Waal.
In addition to the exhibition, Artipelag will produce a catalogue with texts by Bo Nilsson, Edmund de Waal, Norwegian Art Professor Jorunn Veiteberg and Swedish author Fredrik Sjöberg.
To coincide with the exhibition Edmund de Waals latest book The White Road (Den vita vägen) will be published in Swedish by Bromberg’s Publishing House on March 29th. In the book, de Waal writes about the thousand-year history of porcelain and its journey from China to the rest of the world. Reviews of The White Road have been written in, amongst others, The Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker and The Wall Street Journal.
Press Preview
A press preview is held on Wednesday the 5th of April, Edmund de Waal and Bo Nilsson will present. To apply for press accreditation, please contact gustav.idhammar@artipelag.se.
Links
Exhibition presentation, website >>
Press photos, press room >>
Edmund de Waal website >>
The exhibition’s video teaser >>
Press Contact
Gustav Idhammar, Artipelag, gustav.idhammar@artipelag.se, tel +46 (0)70-710 53 55
About Artipelag
Artipelag is a unique meeting place where art exhibitions, cultural activities, architecture, music, event facilities, Swedish design and excellent food live side-by-side with the beautiful archipelago environment. Artipelag is located at Hålludden which is on Värmdö – approximately 20 minutes by car from downtown Stockholm. The building covers 10 220 square meters and is gently placed amongst pine trees and cliffs with grand views of Baggensfjärden. Artipelag was designed by the late architect Johan Nyrén.
The Scandinavian Service and Quality Awards (SSQ Awards), took place on Tuesday, January 11th, 2017 at Stockholm Waterfront Congress Centre. Artipelag was nominated in the category ”Best Day Conference” and took second place out of ten nominees, who were in turn selected from 30 eligible facilities.
Evaluations were completed mainly through mystery shopping and website visits. Other categories at the SSQ Awards included ”Best Business Hotel and ”Best Conference Hotel”. Nominations were compiled by Affärsresenären (Business Traveller) magazine and Kick Off.
Shrove Tuesday is upon us! In Bådan Buffet & Café, we will celebrate by serving semla buns from Friday, January 20th..
Come in from the cold outside and see our shop at Artipelag where you will find Christmas gifts for the entire family. We offer products with a sustainable, simple and unique design.
The gift tip of the week is our boxes and storage jars in velvet, concrete and soapstone. Why not give yourself a treat and prepare the Christmas delicacies on our cutting boards in ash, oak and walnut?
Merry Christmas from all of us at the design shop!
Read more at artipelag.se/butik