In 2019, Artipelag will be putting the spotlight on the numerous works of the Italian artist and designer Piero Fornasetti (1913–1988) by displaying paintings, drawings, graphic design, furniture and other design artefacts, as well as spatial installations. The show will be the first exhibition in Sweden to encompass Fornasetti’s entire output, and it also includes contemporary works made by his son Barnaba Fornasetti. The exhibition FORNASETTI Inside Out Outside In opens on June 14^th, 2019.

Piero Fornasetti is perhaps best known as one of the most prominent names in the international world of design, but he has a versatility that encompasses a variety of all aesthetic disciplines such as painting, drawing, graphic design and furniture design. Fornasetti’s creative ideas seem to emerge from a never-ending source and he is considered to be one of the most productive individuals in the history of design, with more than 13,000 artefacts bearing his signature. This versatility is the starting point for his design concept, which is in many respects a philosophical reflection of what it is like to be a human being during the 20th century.

Piero Fornasetti was born in 1913 in Milan, and he remained faithful to the city for most of his life. The duality of Milan, with its historical monuments combined with a modern commercial centre, was an important source of inspiration in Fornasetti’s creative work.

Fornasetti started his career with art studies at the Accademia di Brera in Milan in 1930, which he discontinued prematurely in 1932 since he was unhappy with the tuition. He started to study handicrafts instead but continued to paint for his entire life. His début was in the borderland between painting and handicraft, with printed silk scarves at the Triennale design exhibition in Milan in 1933, which attracted the attention of the architect Giò Ponti. Ponti was one of the most prominent cultural figures of the time, and he was also editor of the magazines Domus and Stile, where Fornasetti was published.

In 1940 Italy was at war, and Fornasetti went into exile in Switzerland from 1943 to 1946. He settled in Switzerland, where he was to focus his interest on drawing, which resulted in pieces including a wonderful series of black and white self-portraits.

After the end of the war, in 1946, Fornasetti returned to Milan, where he resumed his collaboration with Ponti. Together they created an unforgettable number of furniture items, which were designed by Ponti and decorated by Fornasetti. In the period 1949–1952 this collaboration was extended to include full-scale interior design assignments for, among others, Casino San Remo and the cruise ship Andrea Doria.

After his collaboration with Ponti, in the years 1950–1952 Fornasetti further developed his own iconography, not only on furniture and interior furnishings, but also on plates, cups and a variety of other everyday items. The first plate of the series Tema e Variazioni (Themes and Variations), with the famous opera singer Lina Cavalieri’s face in various appearances, was added to the collection in 1951 and became one of Fornasetti’s most successful motifs.

He opened his own shop in Milan in the 1950s, with the aim of reaching a bigger, international audience to make design more democratic in line with the spirit of the age. This formed the basis of Fornasetti’s international breakthrough during the 1960s.

After a number of successful decades, the company suffered a crisis in the 1970s, although it was only to be a short one. The Post Modernist movement’s interest in decoration and storytelling highlighted Fornasetti as an important role model. The entry of his son, Barnaba Fornasetti, into the company in 1982 was also an important event. Barnaba continued to develop his father’s iconographies, and started working as a curator in the production of exhibitions. This has resulted in a diversity of Fornasetti exhibitions all over the world, including a major retrospective exhibition at the Victoria & Albert in London in 1991–1992. After Piero’s death in 1988, Barnaba took over creative responsibility, and this remains the case to this day.

The title of the exhibition, FORNASETTI Inside Out Outside In, refers to the flowing creativity and rich imagination within the artist, but also to the way he applies technical proficiency to process his visions and depict the modern reality. This dual movement is a central feature of Fornasetti’s entire artistic work.

The exhibition opens at Artipelag on June 14^th, 2019 and will continue until January 26^th, 2020. The exhibition is a collaboration between Artipelag and Fornasetti.

Press images can be found here >>

Gustav Idhammar, 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 are presented alongside the beautiful Stockholm Archipelago. Artipelag is located at Hålludden, on Värmdö – about 20 minutes by car from Stockholm city centre. The building is 10,220m² and is carefully placed among pine trees and cliffs with magnificent views over Baggensfjärden. Artipelag was designed by the late architect Johan Nyrén.

The Margiela, the Hermès years exhibition, which was originally set to close on Sunday March 10^th 2019, is now being extended until April 28^th, 2019. Artipelag’s opening hours will increase to accomodate this extension, with additional shuttle bus services during museum opening days.

Effective immediately, Artipelag will also open on Tuesday. Consquently, Artipelag’s only day of closure is now Monday. The shuttle buses from Vasagatan (which previously only ran on Saturdays and Sundays) will now depart every day from Tuesday to Sunday.

“It’s always a pleasure to be able to extend an exhibition as popular as Margiela, the Hermès years to give more people the opportunity to experience the creations Martin Margiela designed for Hermès,” says Artipelag’s Art Director Bo Nilsson.

The exhibition is a retrospective of the groundbreaking collaboration between avant-garde designer Martin Margiela and Parisian house Hermès from 1997 to 2003. A collaboration that ultimately proved to be as successful as it was astonishing when first announced.

Press images can be found here >>

About Artipelag
Artipelag is a world-class meeting place where art shows, cultural activities, architecture, music, events, Swedish design, and good food are presented alongside the beautiful Stockholm Archipelago. Artipelag is located at Hålludden, on Värmdö – about 20 minutes by car from Stockholm city centre. The building is 10,220m² and is carefully placed among pine trees and cliffs with magnificent views over Baggensfjärden. Artipelag was designed by the late architect Johan Nyrén.

Together with the nearby Värmdö Brewery, Artipelag has developed a brand new beer flavour. Let us introduce Artipelag Organic Lager, with a taste of sloe.

The beer, which is a lager, contains handpicked sloes from Artipelag’s surroundings, and the juice from the berries has been added to the beer. Artipelag’s sommelier Tim Good describes the beer as light, flowery, sweet and fresh. Tim has been involved in the process, and has also handpicked the sloe berries.
– The beer should be enjoyed at 8–10°C, in peace and quiet, Tim says.

Brewing beer may take anything from four weeks up to half a year or even several years. It all depends on what kind of beer and which ingredients the beer will contain. The sloes for Artipelag’s beer are picked in late autumn. The sloe bushes grow in Artipelag’s surrounding coastal landscape and belong to the Rose family, which can be recognized by their sharp thorns and dense thickets. They bloom with beautiful little white flowers from May to June. In September, the berries are ready to be picked, but unfortunately they do not taste very good when eating them raw. The taste comes best forth when the berries are boiled.

The sloe flavoured Artipelag Organic Lager is sold exclusively at Artipelag Restaurant and at Bådan Café & Pâtisserie. You are welcome to try it!

Värmdö Brewery was founded by a group of childhood friends in 2012. Located at Säbyviken on Ingarö in the Stockholm archipelago, it is a genuine archipelago brewery. The facility also houses an apple cider mill.
–

Back to Artipelag Home >>

Back to Artipelag Meetings & Events Home >>

Photo left: Anders Erdström, Maison Martin Margiela A/W 1996-1997.
Photo right: Studio des Fleurs, Hermès A/W 1998-1999.

Artipelag is devoting its autumn and winter season to a retrospective of one of the most remarkable collaborations in fashion: when cutting-edge Belgian designer Martin Margiela teamed up with Hermès, a Parisian house with a time-honoured heritage.

Between 1997 and 2003, Martin Margiela was appointed by Jean-Louis Dumas, the CEO of Hermès at the time, as artistic director of the Parisian house women’s ready-to-wear collections. This collaboration turned out to be one of the most exciting in fashion history, and it is now presented in the exhibition Margiela, The Hermès Years.

Martin Margiela launched his own fashion house, Maison Martin Margiela, in 1988, and the enigmatic and inscrutable designer soon revealed himself to be the antithesis of superstar designers. Margiela’s deconstruction of traditional fashion concepts in favour of a more artistic approach has established a reputation as one of the most avant-garde faces of the fashion industry. Hermès, on the other hand, was founded in 1837. Comfort, timelessness, sensuality and authenticity are the key words which define his vision of the Hermès woman.

On the surface, one could imagine that a collaboration between Margiela and Hermès would be surprising, but Margiela proved to be a masterful interpreter of the Hermès DNA. In stark contrast to the fashion world’s fixation on eternal youth, his point of departure was the natural, self-confident woman. Margiela dressed women in genuine materials and employed the classic art of tailoring to articulate the architecture of the individual styles. The result was a remarkable fusion of the Margiela’s iconoclasm and Hermès’ timeless quality.

Margiela, The Hermès Years was originally curated by Kaat Debo and Martin Margiela, for the MoMu (Fashion Museum Antwerp) in 2017. Creations from Martin Margiela’s own label and his designs for Hermès are juxtaposed as two different translations of the same vision. The display features a succession of themed sequences with over 100 outfits, photographs and short films in a circuit in which Hermès orange interacts with the white of the Maison Martin Margiela. This helps visitors to understand the creative process that navigates seamlessly between the two houses and their identities.

The exhibition will be on display at Artipelag from October 26^th 2018 to April 28^th 2019.

Press images can be found here >>

Gustav Idhammar, 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 are presented alongside the beautiful Stockholm Archipelago. Artipelag is located at Hålludden, on Värmdö – about 20 minutes by car from Stockholm city centre. The building is 10,220m² and is carefully placed among pine trees and cliffs with magnificent views over Baggensfjärden. Artipelag was designed by the late architect Johan Nyrén.

This summer, Artipelag expands its artistic offering.The main exhibition, Bloomsbury Spirit, which is currently on show inside the art gallery, is now complemented by an outdoor exhibition called Detour.Here, the forests, meadows and water provide a natural backdrop for the sculptures. Visitors have the opportunity to explore the magnificent setting and how it interacts with the artwork.

Since its inception six years ago, Artipelag has established itself as an art museum with a special relationship with nature. The museum building’s sedum roof, tarred wooden walls and large panoramic windows all speak of an openness to the outside world. Thus, we usually describe our art gallery as a ”green room”, a kind of greenhouse for art.

Nature has become a prominent part of Artipelag’s philosophy of art. Several of our exhibitions have focused on different aspects of the Nordic romantic tradition. Platsens själ (Genius Loci), Ingen människa är en ö (No Man is an Island) and Earth Matters are just a few examples. We’ve also had Bigert & Bergström’s I stormens öga (The Eye of the Storm), which focused on ecology and sustainability. By arranging an outdoor art installation, we’ve taken a new step towards exploring the symbiosis between art and nature.

Here, neither the Swedish title, Omvägar, nor the English title, Detour, revolves around roadworks or an obstacle to reaching the goal. For us, these words are associated with positive experiences, such as interesting diversions and unusual moments that we may have experienced when travelling.
– Bo Nilsson, Director of Artipelag.

Each of the artists participating in the first part of Detour has a special relationship with nature, and their work is characterised by an ability to see a living creature in it. But while they share this ability, their works are markedly different from each other in terms of approach, material choice and size (the exhibits range from 50 cm to 10 m tall).

Most of the artists are Swedish and include Charlotte Gyllenhammar, Maria Miesenberger and Kennet Williamsson. Our neighbouring Nordic countries are represented by Per Kirkeby, Tal R and Idun Baltzersen. Even though Eva Schlegel and Jaume Plensa may not have a direct link to Nordic identity, they do have a relationship with the Nordic romantic tradition and approach to nature.

The exhibition will be in a constant transformation: some works will have a long exhibition life, while others will be replaced by new ones. The purpose of this is to create a particular dynamic in our surroundings and in the art experience.

By placing Detour beyond the architectural boundaries of the building, it’s an exhibition that is continuously evolving. It explores the relationship between art and nature, and invites you to discover the area surrounding Artipelag. It implies both a physical journey and a fictional landscape, and beckons you to embark on an intricate quest to explore the human aspect of the landscape. It’s a detour off the beaten track, where you can come across everything from geology to biology, astronomy to holistic world views.

Contributing artists in 2018 are Idun Baltzersen, Joel Fisher, Charlotte Gyllenhammar, Per Kirkeby, Klara Kristalova, Maria Miesenberger, Lars Nilsson, Jaume Plensa, Tal R, Eva Schlegel, Ulrika Sparre and Kennet Williamsson.

Detour opened on June 7 and closes on November 4.

More information and tickets >>

Gustav Idhammar, 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 are presented alongside the beautiful Stockholm Archipelago. Artipelag is located at Hålludden, on Värmdö – about 20 minutes by car from Stockholm city centre. The building is 10,220m² and is carefully placed among pine trees and cliffs with magnificent views over Baggensfjärden. Artipelag was designed by the late architect Johan Nyrén.

From June 1^st, 2018, Artipelag will only take card payments.

We will accept, as before, credit and debit cards from Visa, Mastercard and American Express.

If you have questions please contact info@artipelag.se.

On March 28^th, 2018, Fredrik Roos would have been 67 years old and for that reason, on this day we remember his great contribution to contemporary art – now manifested in the foundation bearing his name. The Fredrik Roos Foundation allocates a scholarship annually and this year it will amount to SEK 600,000 – making it one of Sweden’s largest. The scholarship, now being awarded for the seventh time, has previously been presented at the Modern Museum in Malmö where the scholarship exhibitions also have been presented. This year sees the presentation ceremony and exhibition moves to Artipelag in Stockholm.

In close collaboration with the country’s five art schools, two graduates from each respective school are nominated. The foundation then designates one or more fellows who receive a scholarship for artistic education in the form of further education or travel opportunities. The scholarship has a high prestige factor, not least because the fellow’s work is exhibited at an established art institution.

The Fredrik Roos Foundation scholarship has previously been awarded to artists such as Paul Fägerskiöld (2013) and Idun Baltzersen (2015).

This year, the scholarship will be presented at Artipelag in Stockholm’s archipelago on Thursday, September 27^th and the accompanying exhibition will take place here.

”We are thrilled that the foundation has chosen Artipelag as a place for Fredrik Roos’ scholarship. For us, this will be an opportunity to show the very best of the younger generation of artists” – Bo Nilsson (Art Director)

Recipients of these scholarships should be ”artists who – in the spirit of Fredrik Roos himself – are prepared to take risks in their artistry. One who believes in himself and who has his own unique expression. The artist should be no more than 35 years old, come from a Nordic country, and preferably work with painting and/or sculpture”.

”As an entrepreneur, Fredrik had a penchant for change. This property is a place that we as a foundation are constantly inspired by and we are looking forward to working with Artipelag. Our hope is that this new location will further strengthen the focus on the fellows and their artistry,” said Axel Roos (Chairman of the Foundation and grandson of Fredrik Roos).

In connection with the grant award, a catalog with works by this year’s recipients will be published. This year’s recipients will be announced after the summer.

Fredrik Roos press photo >>
Fredrik Roos Foundation website >>

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 are presented alongside the beautiful Stockholm Archipelago. Artipelag is located at Hålludden, on Värmdö – about 20 minutes by car from Stockholm city centre. The building is 10,220m² and is carefully placed among pine trees and cliffs with magnificent views over Baggensfjärden. Artipelag was designed by the late architect Johan Nyrén.

In connection with the exhibition Bigert & Bergström – Eye of the Storm, Artipelag announce a competition on Instagram. Take a photo of the artwork Solar Egg by Bigert & Bergström for Riksbyggen at Artipelag. Publish your photo on your Instagram account and tag it with #solareggartipelag. Keep in mind that creativity and quality will play a part in the assessment an make sure that your Instagram account is open to public, otherwise we can’t see your photo.

The first prize is an Art.Pass, the second prize is a Siri Vase and the third prize is Artipelag’s Picnic Set. Artipelag will pick one winner for each prize.

The competition will take place between January 25^th to February 15^th 2018. Artipelag will choose three winners that will be announced on Artipelag’s Instagram account on February 16^th. Artipelag will contact and send the prizes to the winners. Please note that you have to live in Sweden to participate in the competition.

• The competition is organized by Artipelag AB.
• To participate in the competition you have to live in Sweden and reached an age of 18 years.
• By publish your photo on your Instagram account and tag it with #solareggartipelag, you agree to your participation in the competition, Artipelag’s terms of conditions and Instagram’s terms of use.
• Photos that are published by a private Instagram account can not participate in this competition.
• By participate in the competition you certify that you have taken the photo yourself.
• Artipelag will report photos that are ethically and/or morally inappropriate.

Artipelag will choose three winners among the photos that have been published on Instagram and tagged with the hashtag #solareggartipelag. Creativity and quality will play a part in the assessment. The prizes can not be exchanged for money or other products.

The winners will be contacted by @artipelag through a direct message on Instagram. In order to receive the prize, you must reply to the direct message with your name and an address where we can send the prize. The winners must reply within three days or the prize will expire. Employees at Artipelag may not participate in the competition.

Artipelag will publish the winning photos and tag the winner’s Instagram accounts at Artipelag’s own Instagram account.

Artipelag’s preferential season pass, an 18 month unlimited-access card to art.
Read more about what’s included in an Art.Pass >>

A vase in matt, white glazing that highlights a small selection of flowers and branches. Size 10,5×7,5×5 cm. Design: Siri Seger. See picture >>

A picnic set for two that contains two cups, cutlery and plates in black. Product idea: Björn Jakobson.
See picture >>

Artipelag is to be the first in Sweden to present an extensive exhibition of the mythical British Bloomsbury group. Bloomsbury Spirit is based on the group’s boldness, optimism and anti-authoritarian approach and inspires new ways of thinking. To showcase their inclusive modernism, the creative range of painting, photography, interior design, textiles, patterns, literature, furniture design, books, graphics, dance, garden art and fashion will be represented. Bloomsbury Spirit runs between March 23^rd and September 30^th, 2018.

One of the exhibition’s rooms is transformed into a gallery of paintings by Roger Fry, Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant in a layout and environment characterized by exactly the ideals they revolted against. Another room is dedicated to Omega Workshops, a studio that was started by the same trio where they, together with other artists, designed furniture, clothing and furnishings.

An important venue that will be recreated is Charleston, Vanessa Bell’s summer house in Sussex, which became the hub of the entire Bloomsbury group. At Artipelag’s entrance courtyard, before even entering the art gallery, visitors walk through a Charleston-inspired garden that continues in the gallery, complete with ivy, roses and boxwood.

The exhibition discusses the Bloomsbury group’s utopias, such as the overall conversation, Gesamtkunstwerk and nudity. The Cadena Café, which Omega Workshops renovated in London in 1917, is recreated and will function as a reading room and gathering place.

The Bloomsbury group’s ideas, characterized by immigration, fundamentalism, salvation and violence, challenge us as much in our own time as in they did in the early 1900s.

By the time of the First World War, Sweden was isolated, and it wasn’t until the thirties that modernism broke through. It was a technical, ”hard modernism” that became prominent, and with the Stockholm exhibition in 1930, rational functionalism was the political sway of the new Swedish welfare society. The Bloomsbury group, on the other hand, stood for an alternative, a third way: ”soft modernism”. The group’s attitude was soft, open and flexible. Its style was bold and pluralistic rather than uniform, hard and shiny.

The group consisted of a loose collection of authors, artists, politicians, economists, historians, critics, mathematicians. At first, they were just friends and students, but later on  they broke through as their time’s new thinkers – Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, Lytton Strachey, Roger Fry, Clive Bell, E.M. Forster and Leonard Woolf. Other more peripheral members were, for example, Bertrand Russell, Ottoline Morrell and Vita Sackville-West.

The members loathed heroism and authority. For them, modernism meant that old and new could be put together in any conceivable patterns and combinations. They celebrated imagination, feeling and creation without rejecting reason. Their crossing of boundaries was a matter of course because, according to them, the meaning of life was discussion, friendship, truth-seeking and aesthetics. It was this that was specifically human.

The group got its name from the London district of Bloomsbury where they were originally based. During World War I, many of them moved to the countryside and practised a counterurbanization lifestyle. Many of the houses are derelict today, but Charleston farm in Sussex remains as a Bloomsbury jewel, characterized by the aesthetics typical of the group: a rough-around-the-edges environment for creative work, play and discussion crossing all boundaries. A slightly chaotic, inclusive atmosphere, where inside and out come together, where everything (worn out or modern, newly built or classical) could be recycled and transformed with a lick of paint. Acrobats and painted sculptures hang on doorposts interspersed with abstract ornaments. And then a burst of flowers – brushed or printed, in wreaths or still life. Or real. In Charleston’s garden, the same gentle and courageous aesthetics as indoors are found. The whole environment was an affront to established norms.

In addition to books, exhibitions and buzzing conversations, the Bloomsbury group ran important networks – the Hogarth Press, the first to introduce Modernist Literature in England, and Omega Workshops, a collective artist workshop and showroom for all of the art of the time, such as painting, textile, design, dance, fashion and decorations.

The radicalism of the Bloomsbury group was based on the fact that everything (except their existential goals) could and should be tried and tested. They ignored conventions. Ideas and creations were central. For the arts were the essence of life and never tools for other purposes. This included Keynes, who in Sweden is mainly known as a world-leading economist. But he was also a passionate hedonist, culture politician and art connoisseur.

The playful attitude and lifestyle of the Bloomsburg group challenges Swedish social morality, where the arts have always been inferior to specialists, social engineers, function and utility.

The greatest artist was Virginia Woolf. She was an author, critic and entomologist. She was also a feminist and heavily involved in the international, modernist paintings, presented by Roger Fry to a shocked London audience at two major post-impressionist exhibitions in 1910 and 1912. Virginia Woolf described them as a catalyst for ”a whole new era”.

Bloomsberries have become idols who advocate feminism, sexual freedom, pacifism and intellectual gluttony in everything from science and society to art. But over the years they have also received much criticism – they haven’t fitted into any mold. In retrospect, you can see that they introduced a much more liberal modernism than that preached in the German Bauhaus of the same period, and that they lived according to the ideals of the French Revolution. They were the best of European enlightenment traditions, while at the same time, and in contrast to us today, believing in the future.

External curator for the exhibition is the art critic and author Ingela Lind in collaboration with Artipelag’s art department, consisting of director Bo Nilsson, curator Frida Andersson, digital producer and designer Samuel Lind, chief engineer Johan von Geijer, and Kristina Lindemann, pedagogy and program manager. The design of the gardens is by Ia Schildt and the exhibition’s fashion has been created together with Cay Bond.

Next spring, Ingela Lind releases her new book, Ta sig frihet – Bloomsburygruppen, Indien och konsten att leva, “To Take the Liberty – The Bloomsbury Group, India and the Art of Living” (Albert Bonniers Förlag, will be released on March 23^rd, 2018) in which she analyzes the group’s alternative and free modernism. Previously, Ingela has written Leka med modernismen – Virginia Woolf och Bloomsburygruppen, “Playing with Modernism – Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group” (Albert Bonniers Förlag, 2008).

For Bloomsbury Spirit, Artipelag has loaned unique works by, among others, Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant and Roger Fry from English institutions such as the TATE, Victoria & Albert Museum, Courtauld Gallery, The Charleston Trust and the National Portrait Gallery.

Exhibition presentation, website >>
Press photos, press room >>
The Bloomsbury Group on wikipedia >>

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 10,220 m² and is carefully placed among pines and cliffs with magnificent views over Baggensfjärden. Artipelag was designed by the late architect Johan Nyrén.

Recently, the Swedish duo Bigert & Bergström went viral as images of their egg-shaped sauna, Solar Egg, made international headlines. Now their first large-scale solo exhibition, Eye of the Storm, is opening on October 27th at the art gallery Artipelag in Stockholm.

The exhibition consists of interactive installations, mechanical sculptures and films created by the Swedish artist-duo Mats Bigert and Lars Bergström. Eye of the Storm features works looking at the theme of weather and climate and how it threatens and affects the human race – an ongoing theme in their 30 year long careers.

Through the works, visitors can follow the different phases of Bigert & Bergström and their contribution to the Swedish and international art scenes. Eye of the Storm is an exhibition that moves the senses and invites viewers to participate actively. Bigert & Bergström take their starting point from scientific theories and historical events. They create a willful access point to complex issues where creativity and science merge visually.

The exhibition builds on our awareness that natural disasters are something physical and intrusive. How the comfortable can suddenly be turned into something threatening. Extreme natural events are experienced and contemplated during the exhibition at Artipelag. What thoughts go through your head when it disappears in a cloud of steam? And how does it really feel to stand in the eye of the storm?

Bigert & Bergström’s works are like a centrifuge, a rolling point of intersection between man, nature and technology. Their art reflects on deep time as well as the volatile prognosis for tomorrow. In their new installation, The Weather – a Synoptic Battlefield, historical turning points are materialized as sculptural weather maps. They show, amongst other examples, how Napoleon’s attacking forces were severely depleted by the Russian winter in 1812; and how the typhoon Kamikaze saved Japan from a Mongolian invasion in 1281.

In 1986, Bigert & Bergström met at the Stockholm Royal Academy of Art. Since then, they have created a variety of projects, large-scale installations, sculptures and films. In Sweden, they are best known for their large-scale installations such as The Climate Chambers and Tomorrow’s Weather at the Stockholm Central Station, which consists of hanging clusters of atmospheric molecules that change colour depending on the weather forecast for the following day. Also, their much talked about art piece that covered the southern tip of Sweden’s highest mountain, Kebnekaise, with a rescue blanket preventing it from melting. Recently, their egg-shaped sauna Solar Egg received international attention in art, design and architecture press.

Artipelag believes that the work of Bigert & Bergström highlights a current and important topic. They don’t just make us reflect on how humans attack their own climate, but also show the human obsession over controlling it at the same time. The duo exposes the red thread that runs between the increasingly frequent climate disasters and our air-conditioned malls where the temperature is controlled to within tenths of a degree.

As well as guided tours and introductions to the exhibition, young people and children will be able to attend workshops. Participants can engage in creative activities about future scenarios and social solutions to the challenges posed by climate change. In keeping with the spirit of the exhibition, Artipelag will offer free direct buses from Vasagatan in Stockholm on weekends.

Links

High-resolution press images from Artipelag’s press room >>
The exhibition on Artipelag’s website >>
Bigert & Bergström webpage >>
Teaser video >>

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.