Luleå Biennial 2020:
Time on Earth
21.11.2020~14.2.2020
Last chance The Luleå Biennial 2020: Time on Earth
Wednesday February 10, 16~20 and Saturday February 13–Sunday February 14, 12~16
Galleri Syster is open. Group show with Augusta Strömberg, Susanna Jablonski and Ana Vaz.
Thursday February 11–Sunday February 14, 12~16
Havremagasinet länskonsthall in Bodenis open. Group show with Beatrice Gibson, Susanna Jablonski, Birgitta Linhart, Fathia Mohidin, Charlotte Posenenske, Tommy Tommie and Danae Valenza.
Saturday February 13–Sunday February 14, 14~18
The former prison Vita Duvan is open with an electro acoustic installation by Maria W Horn.
Saturday February 13, 15~19
The artist Markus Öhrn and the poet David Väyrynens sound installation "Bikt" is exhibited on the ice by Residensgatan in Luleå. Listen to older generations of Tornedal women and their testimonies.
Book your visit via Billetto. Drop in is possible as far as space allows.
For those of you who do not have the opportunity to physically visit the Luleå Biennale on site, a radio show including artist talks, sound works and specially written essays will be on stream on Saturday February 13–Sunday February 14. Visit our radio page here.
The exhibitions at Norrbotten's Museum, Luleå konsthall, Välkommaskolan in Malmberget and the Silver Museum are unfortunatly closed.
Neda Saeedi’s Garden of Eden Moving: A Petrified Tribe looks at events of modern history in relation to the Bachtiaris tribe, and the how its nomadic culture and way of life dramatically changed when the Iranian state elected to contain them within the boundaries of Shooshtar-e Noe. The town was constructed around the industrial production of sugar with fields of sugarcane planted directly adjacent to it. This is where other local people, as well as the nomads residing throughout the region, were to work. Saeedi works with highly symbolic materials. Control, the significance of the cattle and the double nature of the sugar are all central to the work, which touches equally on issues of pollution and ecology, and the formal aspects of architectures of confinement.
How did the project Garden of Eden Moving: A Petrified Tribe start?
The project started almost 2 years ago when during a trip to south Iran, I visited the city of Shushtar-e- Nou. The first thing that struck me was the design of the city, which to me appeared highly controlled and suffocating. Knowing the city was a very “successful” and prize-winning architectural and urban planning project, I started to do some research to find out more about the background of this development project. The work looks at events of modern history in relation to the Bachtiaris tribe, and how its nomadic culture and way of life dramatically changed when the Iranian state elected to contain them within the boundaries of Shooshtar-e Noe in the 70’s. The town was constructed around the industrial production of sugar with fields of sugarcane planted directly adjacent to it. This is where other local people, as well as the nomads residing throughout the region, were to work. In my artistic research I am interested in urban landscapes, and the relationship between the human body and architecture: the value, materiality, power/powerlessness and ownership of the body in relation to the construction of a building or the expansion of urban development projects. For that reason this specific place and its history and the different parties involved in it caught my attention.
What do we see in the exhibition, and what is the role of the materials that you have included in the installation?
As the point of departure of my installations is actual physical places and the circumstances around their crystallisation, the materiality of the sculptures is often borrowed from the aspects of the (hi)story I am about to narrate. The medium of installation allows me to unfold the multi-layered images and narratives as an experience while at the same time condensing them into a singular form where the complexity of the content is retained, but displayed in a tangible way. The specific materiality and form of each piece tells a part of the story. In this case, for instance, the sculptures are made out of sugar, whichis the material that formed the basis for the city, and even the entire development project. Control, the significance of the cattle and the double nature of sugar are all central to the work, which touches equally on issues of pollution and ecology, and the formal aspects of architectures of confinement. Also concrete has a potent appearance in my installation which of course has a strong tie to the era of modernisation and industrialisation.
What are your thoughts on art’s potential in relation to hidden or forgotten histories? What is your work “doing”, do you think?
In my opinion art has the power to put a spotlight on certain parts of history that have been hidden or oppressed throughout time, and conventional and institutional historiography. Also as it has the capacity to exit the sphere of academia and talk to people directly. Of course it doesn’t have the power to solve the problems it addresses, but rather to raise awareness, curiosity and interest. In my work I try not to romanticise the past, but rather to foreground that part of history in order to highlight its consequences. Because this is not a singular case that happened decades ago in Iran, but a formula that has been repeated in different parts of the world in different ways. Spending time in Norrbotten was important to me in order to get see how the situation I address is mirrored in this particular geographical context.
Radio 65.22 is an auditory cross section of the biennial’s theme and contents, which amplifies and makes accessible written texts, framed situations and artistic voices. Radio 65.22 also enables an encounter with chosen parts of the Luleå Biennial’s activities for those who cannot experience the biennial in situ.
With Radio 65.22, we want to inscribe ourselves into an experimental and exploratory radio tradition, where the media itself becomes a platform for our ideas on radio and its capacity to depict and mirror the world around us. The task of Radio 65.22 is to tell of reality, in further ways that may not be possible through the image or the text.
Under Fragments: Time on Earth you will find radio programmes and sound pieces in different genres and forms that reflect this year’s biennial in various ways. Spirit of Place is a touring series of literary conversations on language and place. The culture journalist Kerstin Wixe takes us along to places that have played a significant part in an author’s stories, or carries the story’s history. Woven Songs is a deepening series of radio programmes that accentuate singing, the voice and the role of storytelling in the creation of new world views and orders, produced in collaboration with Public Art Agency Sweden.
Listen, reflect, enjoy!