As if Silence(s)

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1ST FLOOR Greg Grant Martha Persson Karin Sandberg

3RD FLOOR Jason E. Bowman Kjell Caminha Linn Lindstrรถm Kirstine Lund Ida Britta Petrelius


2ND FLOOR Johanna Arvidsson Christian Dumky Martin Holm Marja Knape Ida Britta Petrelius Daniel Wendler Introduction ................................................................... 5-6 På plats – konstnedslag i kulturarvet ..................... 7-9 Let’s Bother about Getting Together and Worrying Each Other ....................................... 11-13 Greg Grant .................................................................14-15 Karin Sandberg .......................................................... 16-17 Martha Persson ..........................................................18-19 Marja Knape ..............................................................20-21 Daniel Wendler ........................................................ 22-23 Martin Holm .............................................................. 24-25 Christian Dumky ...................................................... 26-27 Johanna Arvidsson ................................................. 28-29 Work locations ................................................... 30-37 Ida Britta Petrelius ................................................. 38-39 Jason E. Bowman .................................................... 40-41 Kirstine Lund ............................................................42-43 Kjell Caminha .......................................................... 44-45 Linn Lindström .........................................................46-47 Esther Shalev-Gerz .................................................48-49 Dorna Aslanzadeh ....................................................50-51 Thomas Eliasson ...................................................... 52-53 Anthony Marcellini .................................................54-55 Rickard Ljungdahl Eklund ..................................... 56-57 Mimmi Mattila .......................................................... 58-59 List of works........................................................ 60-61

OUTSIDE

Dorna Aslanzadeh Christian Dumky Rickard Ljungdahl Eklund Thomas Eliasson Anthony Marcellini Mimmi Mattila Esther Shalev-Gerz



INTRODUCTION Standing in the entrance to the exhibition De l’Allemagne, 1800-1939, at the Louvre, I was looking at recent art works by Anselm Kieffer. They depict falling stars and the word ‘melancholia’ is hand-written in them. Lars von Trier in the film Melancholia destroys the world with a falling star. Von Trier had been confronted by a change in his biography, learning that he is the son of a German and not a Jewish-German father. The state of melancholia, he says, leaves you calm in a moment of crisis. He chose the castle of Tjolöholm to be the stage where the drama unfolds and where to film this end of the world. The castle was built in 1904 by Blanche and James Fredrik Dickson, both of British origin, but then living in Gothenburg. They demonstrated a need to sustain familiarity via architecture by building within the Great British style of Arts and Crafts. Today this castle is a part of Swedish heritage and preserves superb examples of detailed decoration and craftsmanship, which stopped at the time of its construction, frozen in time in spite of the force of nature and its agents. I was curious to visit the location of Melancholia. When the opportunity arose to take students there to create a contemporary exhibition, I proposed to them not to visit first, but rather to research and relate to it through other means, and to create their idea for an artwork at a distance. The fact that the architect of the castle actually never visited Great Britain before building this castle inspired

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this process. It was to then place the artworks in this site that we came to visit the fjord, the gardens, the stones and the furniture. The question that will always stay open is: who—and for what reasons—decides when history and heritage continues into the future, and what does one take with you on that voyage? Esther Shalev-Gerz Professor, MFA: Fine Art Programme Valand Academy


PÅ PLATS – KONSTNEDSLAG I KULTURARVET The history of what we call cultural heritage is under constant change. New knowledge and changing perspectives allow us time after time to reinterpret the past, from individual life stories to global cataclysmic conflicts. Contemporary art is an area that can serve as a catalyst for new thinking. With its inherent ability to question, challenge and engage in dialogue with history art can often highlight new aspects of the past as well as our present. This is the starting point for the art project På plats – konstnedslag i kulturarvet (On Site – Art Interventions in Heritage Sites) carried out during the summer months of 2013 in Halland. The project extends from south to north, along with the E6 and winding through country roads, and relates to the history of the region, the landscape and in particular what occured during the last century. Artists have been invited to produce new works in dialogue with the World Heritage Grimeton Radio Station, Tjolöholm Castle and Halland’s cultural landscape at large. The aim has been to create exciting encounters between contemporary art and cultural heritage, past and present, with the hope to bring new perspectives and alternative stories of the selected sites. På plats – konstnedslag i kulturarvet has been undertaken by Halland Art Museum as part of the EU project In Site, a collaboration between nine different art and cultural institutions from Bornholm in Denmark to Moss in Norway, which runs from 2012-2014. In Site aims to highlight the coastal region’s history and heritage

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and explore new ways to see and experience the area. Halland Art Museum also has a mission to serve as a hub for the arts in the region, to continuously broaden its horizons with new partners, and in conjunction with In Site it seemed natural to locate the project in locations other than the museum in Halmstad. Through Halland Art Museum’s regional mission, and through participation in In Site, it also made it possible to implement a collaboration with MFA: Fine Art students and teachers in fine arts Valand Academy at Tjolöholm Castle. Tjolöholm Castle, the surrounding parkland, and nature reserve is a popular tourist destination and walking area. The building is one of Sweden’s foremost Arts and Craft’s style castles, and a result of the builder’s desire to combine Swedish and British culture. Would it be possible to implement an exhibition inside the castle that could push the boundaries between periods, question and provide new perspectives on history? It turned out it would, thanks to a fantastic effort from teachers and artists Esther Shalev-Gerz, Jason E. Bowman and Anthony Marcellini who took the project to a new level together with all students. It has also been made possible thanks to Magdalena Kasper of Tjolöholm Castle. I am extremely grateful for a very inspiring collaboration that has not only explored Tjolöholm Castle as a venue for contemporary art, but has supported each participating artist to contribute thoughts and ideas about our relationship to his-


tory and heritage, which constitutes a useful basis for further work with In Site. It is with great pleasure that I welcome the exhibition As if Silence(s) as part of this summer’s project På plats – konstnedslag i kulturarvet. Anna Johansson Curator and Project Leader Halland Art Museum

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LET’S BOTHER ABOUT GETTING TOGETHER AND WORRYING EACH OTHER As if Silence(s) is an exhibition that allows the heritage of Tjolöholm and contemporary art to co-exist and co-challenge. With almost 20 works of art by staff and students of the MFA: Fine Art at Valand Academy, the exhibition continues the Academy’s dedication to make public ways to think through contemporary art. One of the complexities of site specificity in art is that differing people, disciplines and industries will contra-interpret what characteristics and values they prioritise most to how the site’s uniqueness is constituted. Artists are often interested in deconstructing and challenging master narratives and re-hierarchising by shifting focus from expectation to ambiguity. Sites are often pre-determined in terms of what is seen to be inimitable about them before an artist turns up and decides to re-make the site as something that has not yet been distinguished, or to emphasise what has already been thrown out of focus. Therefore, it is necessary for the arenas of cultural heritage and contemporary art to find ways to co-exist through debate on how co-exposure to each other’s priorities demands dialogue on ‘togetherness’. Cultural heritage may too easily be perceived as a mediation by which the past – the mores, facts, myths and rituals of how the world once was – is suspended in time. Heritage sites are more than physical entities that provide a framework of access in which publics assemble themselves in the contemporary to encounter the arte-

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facts and constellations of the past. A primary role for contemporary art is to challenge the past and the present, but to also conceive of futures that are alternative to master narratives. To the arena of cultural heritage - with its apparent priorities of conservation and preservation, contemporary art and the approaches of contemporary practitioners can be conceptually, ideologically, materially and pragmatically challenging. Our group has risen to that challenge by making art that redefines Tjolöholm by demonstrating multiple approaches that enliven the site through re-articulating its specificities, shifting focus and bringing otherness in the guise of contemporary art into the site. Therefore, this exhibition is an interruption and intervention, but one that also bonds past and present and provides new experiences for publics who may then co-encounter contemporary art within a re-hierarchised framework of heritage. Curator Anna Johansson made the initial invitation to the MFA: Fine Art Programme to become involved in this initiative. Without her foresight to involve an art school in the mission of In Site our introduction to Magdalena Kasper at Tjolöholm would not have happened. Both people have greatly informed what has been made possible. I am grateful also to other staff of In Site, Halland Region’s Cultural Department and Tjolöholm for providing us with a rich and complex opportunity and by resourcing this association. This


project appreciatively received a Critical Heritage Research Grant from Gothenburg University and I wish to thank Johan Öberg, Research Secretary in the Faculty of Arts, for his support throughout the project. On behalf of Valand Academy, Professor Esther Shalev-Gerz has led on this project by bringing her years of experience, as an artist with a significant history of working with complex sites, and as an educator. Visiting Lecturer Anthony Marcellini supported the delivery of the project. Professor Bryndís Snæbjörnsdóttir and Guest Professor Mark Dion enthusiastically provided a course at the Academy to inform the process. Jason E. Bowman MFA: Fine Art Programme Leader Valand Academy

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A special clock conceived of specifically for Cultural Heritage monuments around the world; the minute hand moving around the dial reflecting time’s continual passage, the hour hand permanently still, symbolizing the building’s artificial preservation as a historical monument. In this work I am interested in the idea of the cultural heritage site and what it’s function is. Tjolöholm is presented as an authentic historical artifact, unchanging, static and permanently unaltered. It can be seen and experienced as an image of the past yet only in the present. It represents an idea of authentic culture yet to do this required restoration, and remains artificially preserved and protected against signs of age and deterioration, with its atmosphere monitored and access to it controlled.


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Greg Grant

Cultural Heritage Clock


Dance along the hallways and wow are they long try to look outside the windows dance along the stairs and see the ornaments and say to them “what are you�? the castle is open now or we would never have been invited the castle is open now we would never have been invited dance along the balcony in the dining room what an amazing ceiling and what a great achievement Blanche stopped time in arts&crafts stopped time in arts&crafts go Blanche go go whoooa go Blanche go go dance along the walls pass the faces and the nudes this is Blanche’s achievement the careful details a hundred years ago a hundred years ago go Blanche go go whoooaahh go blancge go go go blanche go go the castle is open now or we would never have been invited the castle is open now we would never have been invited the castle is open now or we would never have been invited stopped time in arts&crafts stopped time in arts&crafts go Blanche go go go


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Karin Sandberg

Go Blanche Go


I heard a rumour that Mr. Dickson branded a woman's palm as payment.


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Martha Persson

För Sverige — i tiden / For Sweden — With the Times



The iceberg passed at 14:10 23

Marja Knape

At the white rocks


Recorded amplified silences from the castle’s 36 rooms. The recordings are then played back simultaneously through a loudspeaker.


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Daniel Wendler

Wealth


“The house is in and of itself a testimony to this, a simulacrum of distant places and pasts, completely original and completely fabricated at the same time‌ // destined to sink into that mire of neglect, but one day rise from the swampy quicksands of time, washed clean and restored to former glory.â€?


Martin Holm

The Rise of the House of Blanche

The Rise of the House of Blanche

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Christian Dumky

Digging up Dirt


Blanche died during a return trip from Ceylon and was buried in the Indian Ocean.


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Johanna Arvidsson

Our bodies are the monuments


1ST FLOOR Greg Grant Martha Persson Karin Sandberg




2ND FLOOR Johanna Arvidsson Christian Dumky Martin Holm Marja Knape Ida Britta Petrelius Daniel Wendler


3RD FLOOR Jason E. Bowman Kjell Caminha Linn Lindstrรถm Kirstine Lund Ida Britta Petrelius




GIFT SHOP

WAGON MUSEUM

OUTSIDE Dorna Aslanzadeh Christian Dumky Rickard Ljungdahl Eklund Thomas Eliasson Anthony Marcellini Mimmi Mattila Esther Shalev-Gerz


lespaK

suilerteP attirB adI

93


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Ida Britta Petrelius

Kapsel


Emotional Response

Active

Anger Denial

Stability

Passive

Death


Acceptance

Bargaining

Time

Depression

Jason E. Bowman

Untitled (Dance of Death)

Untitled (Dance of Death) is a set of curtains hanging in the Guest White Room at Tjolöholm. The pattern refers to psychoanalyst Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’ 1969 hypothesis of five stages of grief that follow visitation by trauma, extreme change or death. A not too dissimilar diagram charting the trajectory of the planet Melancholia and its impending collision with Earth appeared in Lars von Trier’s film, shot in the grounds of Tjolöholm beyond the windows where these curtains now hang. Untitled (Dance of Death) also represents what a process of making art responsively to a specific heritage site may entail.

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When Tjolรถholm was built by Blanche, it was undoubtedly an unusual and ambitious project for a woman to lead at the time. Today the castle is kept the way she decorated it. As a motionless scene, it is as if time has been frozen; but somehow this was always the case. A giant mausoleum in the shape of a castle, erected by Blanche to preserve a time, which had already passed. Pieces of clothing have been embalmed in melted sugar, like an empty shell fixed in the shape of an existence that once was.


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Kirstine Lund

Contained Matter



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Kjell Caminha

May I Be Happy Here


Some seeds can survive for decades, even for centuries. Dormant, they wait for their surroundings to accept change, or wait for transport. Clinging to a wind, aiming for new soil. Wind is produced by energy from the sun, but also by that which moves. Movement relocates air, and even unaware gestures create spaces where slow performances occur.


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Linn Lindstrรถm

Slow Invasion


Tjolöholm Castle is designed in the Arts and Crafts style and demonstrates the architectural need of displaced people to perpetuate the culture of their life styles. The history of Tjolöholm also contains Lars von Trier’s choice to use the castle as a location for his film Melancholia, at a moment in his life when he discovered that his father is German and not Jewish-German. This expression of identity inspired me to work with the Masters in Fine Art students from the Valand Academy to reflect on the site and create an exhibition in the castle and its grounds. Tjolöholm will continue to add to its heritage through this event just as the lichen will continue to decorate its stones.


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Esther Shalev-Gerz

FemmeMaison—Architectures as self


I imagine that the impulse in trying to probe another mind springs from a desire to exist within different anatomies, to surpass skin and experience the

self

through

another,

to find a sense of home.


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Dorna Aslanzadeh

Repeating, Remembering and Working Through



Looking back at cultural heritage it becomes apparent how important contemporary art's unique ability to see into the future is for the progress of mankind.

Wikipedia

Thomas Eliasson

Concrete can be damaged by many processes, such as the expansion of corrosion products on the steel reinforcement bars, freezing of trapped water, fire or radiant heat, aggregate expansion, sea water effects, bacterial corrosion, leaching, erosion by fast-flowing water, physical damage and chemical damage (from carbonatation, chlorides, sulfates and distillate water).

半真半假

Kenneth Sharif

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The gentlemen’s parlor at Tjolöholm Castle was decorated in an Eastern style at a time when there was a general fascination in the West for a mysterious romanticized East. In this room are two panels with Arabic script that no one seems to know/care exactly what they say. Today, as a new reversed orientalism, European culture exists in relationship to a China that is growing ever mightier. Inspired by those two facts, I installed a replica of the panels but this time outside the castle and with Chinese scripts written on them. Thomas Eliasson



The Mausoleum and the Mass Anthony Marcellini

The Mausoleum and the Mass is a call and response performance about a fallen white-marble mausoleum built by Tjolöholm Castle’s matriarch Blanche Dickson to hold the remains of her deceased husband. When the family left Tjolöholm, and subsequently relocated Mr. Dickson’s body to a Cemetery, the mausoleum eventually collapsed from disrepair. Later conservators buried the marble in the sand in the beach below the original site to preserve it. The performance will consist of a call and response burial hymn examining notions of resurrection, aesthetic beauty, utility, and the death, life and slumber of a large object. Each line of the hymn will be called out at the site to a group of participants who will direct their responses towards the entombed mausoleum with their faces buried in the sand.

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Rickard Ljungdahl Eklund

Palanquin


TJOLA TJOLA TJOLÖ


Alliteration stands out and lends structure, flow, and beauty to any piece of writing. It provides a work with rhythm and can help to make a lasting impression. Works that use alliteration tend to get attention and fill one with interest, perhaps even giggles if intentionally used in a goofy manner.

I never dreamt about living in a castle Mimmi Mattila

A H O P P, AHEJ, Ă–HOLM

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LIST OF WORKS Johanna Arvidsson Our bodies are the monuments, 2013 Engraved mirror 40.5 × 46 cm, sound, speakers Dorna Aslanzadeh Repeating, Remembering and Working Through, 2013 Reinforcing steel and mirror, dimensions variable Jason E. Bowman Untitled (Dance of Death), 2013 Dimensions variable Kjell Caminha May I Be Happy Here, 2013 Sound installation, 2:35 min Christian Dumky Digging up Dirt, 2013 Performance on weekend(s), framed silkscreen prints, 18 × 24 cm Thomas Eliasson 半真半假, 2013 Reinforced concrete Greg Grant Cultural Heritage Clock, 2013 Unlimited edition, dimensions and materials variable Martin Holm The Rise of the House of Blanche, 2013 Sound installation (recorded reading) Marja Knape At the white rocks, 2013 Print on plastic, steelrack, 140 × 100 × 50 cm Linn Lindström Slow Invasion, 2013 Airborne seeds, dimensions variable


Rickard Ljungdahl Eklund Palanquin, 2013 Iron, wood, mesh fabric and tassels, ca. 1 × 2 × 3 m Kirstine Lund Contained Matter, 2013 Fabric, sugar, 180 × 45 × 28 cm Anthony Marcellini The Mausoleum and the Mass, 2013 Participatory performance with voice, bodies, sand and broken marble mausoleum Mimmi Mattila I never dreamt about living in a castle, 2013 Edition of 500 postcards, A6 Martha Persson För Sverige — i tiden / For Sweden — With the Times, 2013 Watercolor, 150 × 113 cm and colour map with printed essay Ida Britta Petrelius Kapsel, 2013 Book on pedestal and shelf, site-specific painting on wood, oil and acrylics, 122 × 90 cm Karin Sandberg Go Blanche Go, 2013 Karaoke video with song, 3:04 min Esther Shalev-Gerz FemmeMaison - Architectures as self, 2013 Pigment on canvas, 200 × 50 cm Daniel Wendler Wealth, 2013 Sound installation

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This publication was produced and distributed in conjunction with the exhibition As if Silence(s) at Tjolöholm Castle in May 2013. Printed at Valand Academy, Göteborg in an edition of 600 Designed by Niklas Persson All images courtesy of respective artists Thank you Julia Bastard, Mark Dion, Ibrahim Ebrima Faal, Ann-Charlotte Glasberg Blomqvist, Anna Johansson, Magdalena Kasper, Klas Kock, Anita Larsson Modin, Adriana Muñoz, Niklas Persson, Bryndís Snæbjörnsdóttir and Johan Öberg For more information visit akademinvaland.gu.se



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