Black Iris - Explosive Vision

“Explosive Vision” takes place at Gasverket, designed by Ferdinand Boberg in 1903, a venue of both social and historical significance, inviting visitors to an exhibition where past and present intertwine.

The exhibition is a playful encounter between Black Iris’s wide-open pupil and the weathered Gas House, in an intoxicating, gas-powered blend of forward-looking visions resonating with the deteriorating surroundings. The industrial site is transformed into a laboratory for artistic experimentation and with gas as a catalyst the artworks reflect on altered states of mind and the impermanence of existence.

Previously, Gasverket served as a gathering place where Stockholm residents collected their gas tokens. Today, the Black Iris collective combines the site’s history with the contemporary art scene, resulting in a bold collision of old and new. From neon lights to the rhythmic hum of machinery, gas is an often-overlooked element of our environment. Like a ubiquitous and ephemeral gas, the artworks ignite fleeting moments and preserve them for eternity.

Featured artists are Maria Nordin, Gunilla Klingberg, Johan Thurfjell, Matthias van Arkel, Stefan Otto, Anneè Olofsson, Juan Pedro Fabra Guemberena, Anna Camner, Ulrika Sparre, Marcus Mårtenson, Julia Peirone, and Éva Mag.

Special Thanks to Stockholm Art Week, Samsung, Castellum, ArtMove, ISH, Erik Åström, and Peter Sellberg.

More info: stockholmartweek.se

The exhibition “Explosive Vision” at the Gas Works (May – June 2023) attracted over 2,000 visitors and received positive reviews and coverage in leading Swedish newspapers and art magazines.

SPOTLIGHT

Ulrika Sparre

The 12-meter-long text-based artwork ON A CLEAR DAY I CAN SEE FOREVER (2015-2024) by Ulrika Sparre is installed on the balcony of the SSE main building by Art Initiative as part of the exhibition Ulrika Sparre at Handels.

In her art, Ulrika Sparre draws our attention to the mystery of existence. The phrase on the banner balances the border between poetry and existential uncertainty. What does such a sentence mean? Is it a maxime (words of wisdom)? Or is it a mantra that Ulrika Sparre provides us with? Are the words a slogan for a long-term perspective?  

The exhibition also involves the lightbox As I reach up I will eventually reach the horizon, 2012 (on the stage in the atrium of the school); the film Ear to the Ground (Golden Monolith & Black Monolith), 2024 (on the small screen in the north corridor); the sculptures In the future when all mysteries are solved, 2018, The entire universe is created by me, 2018, and five Antennstenar (“Antenna Stones”), 2017 (in the north corridor, ground floor windows).

In the film Ear to the Ground (Golden Monolith & Black Monolith), 2024, Ulrika seeks contact with a stone in the Bregaglia Valley, the landscape where the Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) grew up. Sparre enters a dialogue with the stone through the poem Conversations with a stone by Wislawa Szymborska from 1962. This is the first time the film is shown in Sweden. In the window niches right across the screen, five antenna stones are seeking contact. Resting in another window are two more stones: one engraved black diabase stone, In the future when all mysteries are solved, and one red granite stone with the text The entire universe is created by me. True, or what?

More info: ulrikasparre.com