LARS NILSSON
16 MARCH –9 JUNE 2002

Lars Nilsson. Born 1956 in Stockholm. Lives and works in Malmoe and London.

The exhibition is a retrospective with works from 1987-2002 by Lars Nilsson. This is the first full-scale, comprehensive presentation devoted to the work of Lars Nilsson. It comprises nine large installations, two sets of paintings and a new video installation displayed in both of the upper exhibition spaces and in the newly opened space on the lower level.

Lars Nilsson's career includes painting, sculpture and video, as well as installations. Since 1995, Lars Nilsson is professor of Visual Arts at Malmö Art Academy, Lund University. Lars Nilsson's work has been exhibited at PS1 Museum, New York, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, among others, and most recently, Palazzo delle Papesse, Siena. After Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall the exhibition will travel to the newly opened Site de Création Contemporaine, Palais de Tokyo, Paris.

"I am totally convinced that we all have an imagination. Something going on "upstairs" that has little to do with the reality of everyday life. I am also convinced that the act of recognizing, clarifying, remembering, and finally developing those inner workings, are available, but not attainable by us all. Therefore, those who do, those who dare make their mark allowing themselves into the forefront, are exceptional people, as in this instance, when describing, the artist Lars Nilsson. To know Lars the individual, and to be familiar with his artistic oeuvre, I see an inseparable correlation between the intellectual, the psychological, and the artistry. The totality of his artworks, or productions, embodies the elements of the unification of mind and soul. He reaches into the depths of many a male "fantasy" and draws it out, to a conclusion, to three dimensionality that I too can see, and feel elements of identification and memory within. His willingness to display, or "expose" himself in such a shameless manner, gives certain credence to one's own not yet established or even recognizable images." (David Neuman, Director Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall)

"In the past ten years I haven't done anything that didn't feel necessary, which may seem like a luxury (..). But as is often the case when it's a question of making art, it's not something you choose. You do what you have to do in the only way it can be done. I have chosen to focus on something specific. I don't know how it could have taken any other form or proceeded at a different pace. (Lars Nilsson)

"Nobody could accuse Lars Nilsson of political correctness. Why should we? He has a courage, an acuteness and an artistic ruthlessness that are highly unusual. To carry out a project that to this extent exposes and stages the artist's private self, to dare to resort to and test out to the full the most far-reaching feminist analyses of male violence and sexuality, to look into his own abysses and his own darkness, to dare to acknowledge, even if indirectly, the shortcomings t affect the most vulnerable aspects of the self, and what is more to be able to use it for something that communicates so persuasively and so frighteningly, is admirable and extraordinary, especially as the investigation is carried out with a formal brilliance that brings the private out into the public. Already heralded in his works of the 1980s, Nilsson's major autobiographical project of the 1990s is unique." (Gertrud Sandqvist, Principal of Malmö Art Academy)

Curator: David Neuman, director Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall

CONTENTS:

Phantasy by David Neuman, director Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall.
A vein of grief... by Gertrud Sandqvist, critic and director Malmö Art Academy.
A conversation between Lars Nilsson and Jérôme Sans, director Palais de Tokyo, Paris.

Catalogue no 25. ISBN 91-972986-9-7
81 pages, illustrated, insert, color, hard cover. Texts in Swedish/English.
Published 2002 by Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall.
Price: 300 SEK (approx. 31 EUR)

A conversation between Lars Nilsson and Jérôme Sans

Jerôme Sans: How are the relationship between intimate/private and public, and the physical body and social body dealt with in your installations?

Lars Nilsson: I think it all began in Hässelby Gård, a suburb of Stockholm, where I grew up. As a little boy I was a dreamer and was always "somewhere else". The ability to fantasize has probably been one of my greatest assets. At the same time it hasn't allowed me any peace - created by myself, knitted together from literary and cinematic role models. An unforgivable vanity made me move on again and again. Around 1994, I literally began to use my biography in my work, finally acquiring a tool for seeing myself as I was. As a pre-requisite, the blend between fact and fiction seemed somewhat spooky.

JS: Your pieces often use your body as their point of reference. Why your own particular dimensions?

LN: About ten years ago it occurred to me how much stronger my experiences of film have been compared to the visual arts. My conclusion wasn't, however, to switch mediums. Rather, it felt more like a challenge to try to attain that level of intensity using other means. The wax figures moment of illusion became a cornerstone, but most of all, my experience of seeing myself haunt the exhibition Fördomar in Helsinki -93, where I hung my clothes, which had taken on my shape after I had worn them. This indexical impression had the paradoxical authenticity I was looking for.

JS: The first pieces in this series had you in them (disfigured or in a replica of a jail). Was this a metaphor for the artist?

LN: Damien Hirst had a multitude of glass cases with sliced or whole animals on tour at the time, so even though I really appreciated Mother and Child Divided visually - the title brilliantly witty -- but experienced the metaphor in combination with the superficial exercise in power as uninviting. As a sort of response, I wanted to subject my physical self, without focusing on who I am, therefore the prison metaphor. With reference to Foucalts Discipline and Punishment, combined with the Swedish cell replicas comfortable manifestation, made the work mainly about the prison as a far-reaching structure for organizing and controlling our bodies at every level in society. Then I thought I deserved to do a little time...

JS: Is all your work about yourself, a kind of diary?

LN: Here I must quote the Swedish poet Gunnar Ekelöf: "That which is the ground in you is also the ground in others." (...)

(Excerpt from the catalogue text by Jérôme Sans, 2002.)

WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION

"Untitled, (Hustler)", 1987.
Installation of 45 paintings, oil and tempera on canvas mounted on masonite, each painting 50 cm x 50 cm.

"About power, fiction and reality", 1992.
Board and eched glass, 240 cm x 460 cm, collection of Moderna Museet, Stockholm.

"Untitled, (Dandy)", 1988.
Installation of 12 paintings, oil and tempera on canvas mounted on masonite. Each painting 49 x 49 cm

"Why young boys go Nazi-In the sign of Cancer", 1994.
video installation

"Go to prison", 1996.
Installation, 220 cm x 300 cm x 200 cm

"Only words-Representation in short-circuit", 1996.
Installation, sculpture in wax, cotton, 240 cm x 400 cm x 300 cm,

"The Triumph of Style", 1998.
Installation, sculptures in glass fibre, wool, chandelier of 530 light bulbs, dimensions variable

"He was an Assman, I guess", 1997.
Sculptures in glass fibre, silk, 300 cm x 200 cm x 100 cm

"When I died", 1999.
Installation, sculptures in glass fibre, cotton/polyester, 300 cm x 270 cm x 350 cm

"The House Angel", 2000.
Installation, sculptures in glass fibre, silk, 300 cm x 200 cm x 100 cm

"Game is over", 2000.
Installation, sculptures in glass fibre and wool, dimensions variable

"Midway on our life's journey I found myself in dark woods...", 2002.
Video installation, 30 min loop