Soil
5 June 2021 – 26 september 2021
The human relationship with the Earth is a complex and paradoxical one. We rely on it for sustenance and resources, yet simultaneously inflict damage upon it, depriving ourselves of the most fundamental requirements for survival. These exhibitions explore our approach to Earth and its capacity for life. The works showcase both cultivation and survival, as well as exploitation and resistance.
Within these exhibitions, we see the cultivation of plants, preparation for apocalyptic scenarios, the fight to protect the Earth, and the drive to plunder and destroy it for short-sighted economic gain. The garden represents a balance between nurturing and battling the Earth – against weeds, pests, and overgrowth, as we impose our human-created framework of productivity and aesthetics. The cultivated land, whether a park or garden, is a paradox. It is a man-made construction that challenges human order since it grows independently in a way we cannot fully comprehend. We have measured, categorized, and assigned it value, but it remains independent, carrying a limited essence that we cannot extract. We have created this conflict through our own perception of ourselves – a skewed perception that we exist by and in nature but are not part of it.
This liberation or perhaps alienation has severe consequences for us. In our eagerness to exploit nature and maximize its use for our benefit, we injure the systems that sustain us. We perceive the resulting consequences as nature’s revenge and attempt to counter it with new interventions and smart solutions. However, nature does not have that kind of agency. It is indifferent to our existence, and we are fighting our own reflection. Currently, our reflection has the advantage. Perhaps there is a way for humans to coexist with the Earth, not as invasive gardeners but as part of the diverse array of natural creatures.
More information about the exhibition can be found in the Folder.
About the artists
Anna Linder is born and raised in Storuman. They are working as an artist, curator and cultural producer. They mainly work with moving pictures. Their own video works and installations have been shown at the Modern Museum in Stockholm, ICA in London, Swedish Institute in Paris, Borås Konstmuseum, Göteborgs Konsthall, Södertälje konsthall and Gallery Alkatraz in Ljubljana. Linders movies have been shown at Rotterdam International Movie festival, Tribeca Film Festival, Arsenal Experimental in Berlin, Oberhauser Film Festival and Edinburgh to name a few. They have participated as a mentor in the project A Lesbian Odyssé organised by Lesbian Power, a art- and peoplemovement based in Västerbotten.
Carolina Caycedo, born in London, is a Colombian multiartist know for her performance, video works, books, sculptures and installations that highlight enviromental issues and social movements. She is a part of peoples movements for indigenous rights, fair economy and housing as a human right. She has done artistresidence at DAAD in Berlin, The Huntington Libraries, Art collections and Botanical Gardens. She´s recived contributions from Creative Capital and Prince Claus Fund among others. She´s had exhibitions at Sao Paulo-, Berlin-, Whitney- and Venicenbiennials as well as Chicago architectualbiennal. The latest soloexhibitions were Care Report at Museum Sztuki in Łódź, Wanaawna, Rio Hondo and Other Spirits at Orange County Museum of Art, Cosmoatarrayas at ICA Boston as well as From the Bottom of the River at MCA Chicago. 2020 Caycedo was in residence at Occidental College and she was one of the chosen artists for the coming 23rd Sydneybiennal. She is also a member of the tenant´s union in Los Angeles and the social movement Rios Vivos Colombia.
Ilona Huss Walin is a visual artist from Göteborg. For more than 20 years she’s been working with videos, installation and performance. She´s participated in a lot of exhibitions, mostly in Scandinavia. The last seven years she´s gotten closer to nature via enviromental issues. An important part of her work is creation in collaboration with others. She´s recevied education at Bergen Academy of the Arts and at Valand in Göteborg. For this exhibition the artist collaborated with Ambjön Göransson, moviemaker and musician from Göteborg and forest engineer Martin Jentzen.
Linda Tedsdotter, born in Laiswall is a visual artist working from Göteborg. Since 1998 her art has been displayed at museums, festivals and galleries all over the world. The works are usually specific to a location or in other ways connected to the situation and context it´s part of. Considering the current climate situation her works are not created to be thrown away after a short period of being viewed but made to be reused with new functions so that the artist is minimizes her own impact on the climate. Tedsdotter is also working as an independent curator and she is an active member of Konstepedemin Art Center in Göteborg. She used to be a boardmember of the artistdriven gallery Box, the artmagazine Paletten and Röda Sten Konsthall in Göteborg.
Ursula Biemanns work is a reserchbased practice. She creates movie essays and texts where she brings up the intertwining of politics anc climate in local, regional and planeyary practice. She´s based in Zürich, Schweiz but her artistic research takes her to remote locations like Greenland, The Amazons and Antartica where she investigates climate changes and the ecological impact of oil extraction. For her latest project she traveled to southern Colombia where she contributed to the creation of a indiginous university for biocultural knowledge development. Her video installations are shown all over the world in art galleries and international artbiennals. Her art has been shown in countless soloexhibitions, among others at Helmhaus Zürich, Neuner Berliner Kunstverein as well as her retrospective “Indigenous Knowledge Cosmological Fiction”, 2020 at the Museum of Modern Art in Nice, France. Biemann is one of the founders of the collaborative art- and mediaproject World of Matter about global extraction and management of natural resourses. She´s published several books and an onlinemonograph from 2021, Becoming Earth about her ecological videoworks. Biemann has an artisinal candidate from School of Visual arts and she´s studied at the Whitney Independant Study Program, both in New York. She has an honoral doctorate from Umeå University humanistisc facualty and she´s recived awards from Swiss Grand Award for Art-Prix Meret Oppenheim as well as Prix Thun for Art and Ethics.
Konstnärer tolkar AP-fonderna is a group consisting of the enviromental activists Anna Bokström and Johanna Norrbo, here they worked together with the international network Fossil Free and decided in 2020 to invite artists to raise these questions. The ten collaborating artists are Nina Bacos, Anna Bokström, Ann Engqvist, Sara Graner, Max Gustavsson, Ilona Huss Walin, John Huntington, Lena Ignestam, Babwale Obayanju and Ella Tilleman.
Trädfittorna is a group of artists consisting of Anna Linder, Eila Wall Boholm, Elin Rytiniemi, Sanna Wiggefors and Ylva Helena Låndahl.
