SÍM

Egill Sæbjörnsson: Object Species
Stockholm April 9 - June 4, 2022

The exhibition Object Species, started in a conversation between Egill Sæbjörnsson and Kummelholmen around 2019 and has developed in both content and shape since then. Later on more collaborators stepped in, on what would end up being a conglomerate exhibition. Together with the exhibition in Kummelholmen, the show stretches to Vårberg Centrum, Andys Gallery and Moderna Museet. Multiple platforms explore the shift in our sense of place in the digital and travelling age, connecting partners with different emphasis, collaborating on the presentation of one artist. All the exhibitions deal with the term Object Species, which is a term Egill Sæbjörnsson will also talk about on the 29th of April in a lecture performance at Moderna Museet’s Film Club.

With a background in painting, the Icelandic artist Egill Sæbjörnsson (b. 1973) has over the past twenty-five years developed works of art that bring together 3D environments, digital projections, technology and sound. It's revolving around small intimate exhibitions in museums or galleries to large-scale permanent public works. His ground-breaking architectural installation Steinkugel for the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin, is the first self-generating permanent video installation initiated outdoors in Germany.
Egill Sæbjörnsson’s art can be sheer beauty, other times he surprises with hideous wild trolls. What connects these contraries is the technological examination – with painting and sculpture as a basis – of the space between the physical and the virtual, which Sæbjörnsson sees as one and the same reality. His art is seemingly humorous and playful, but seeks deeper ontological and philosophical issues. He regularly gives lecture performances where he examines the theoretical basis of his practice.


Egill Sæbjörnsson has exhibited at the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin, the Frankfurter Kunstverein, the National Gallery in Prague, the 57th Art Biennale in Venice, and in 2019 he was nominated for the Ars Fennica Art Prize in Finland.

KUMMELHOLMEN
The Sculptures, 2022
Opening 9. April at 12:00. The exhibition will take place 9. April 9 – 15. May 2022
Egill Sæbjörnsson presents a complete new artwork at Kummelholmen in Vårberg, Stockholm. It consists of a group of objects in varying sizes posing questions about sculptures as object species, coexisting with the human species. Self-generating computer app videos and handmade animations are projected onto the objects, that can be described as sculptures with digital skin. The artwork also draws attention to the relationship between the digital and the physical presence in our time. Older works are shown in Kummelholmen’s extended rooms.
Curator: Torbjörn Johansson
www.kummelholmen.se #kummelholmen

VÅRBERG CENTRUM
The Dogs, 2022
Opening 9. April at 15:00. The installation will take place 9. April 9 – 15 May 2022.
In Vårberg Centrum, four dogs sit on the roof of a lift shaft. A video animation projects visuals at them from one direction and bringing them alive. The dogs present the same questions as the objects in Kummelholmen and can be seen as a satellite project aiming at connecting with the neighbouring community as well. The work is commissioned by Stockholm Konst and is a part of Wall Street 2022.

Commissioned by Stockholm Konst.
Project manager: Torbjörn Johansson
www.stockholmkonst.se

ANDYS GALLERY
The Lipsticks, 2022
Opening 28. April at 17:00 – 20:00. The exhibition runs until 4. June 2022
Andys Gallery hosts a part of the exhibition that also represents sculptures as object species. It consists of three large lipsticks made of clay, a few smaller sculptures and two images of large lips – a reference to Pino Pascalo, Primo piano labbra (1964). Two mouths that speak to each other, between the two exhibition rooms, belong to Egill Sæbjörnsson’s imaginary friends, the 36 meter high trolls Ugh & Boogar. The trolls appear for the first time at the Venice Biennale in 2017 when Iceland invited Egill Sæbjörnsson to exhibit in the Icelandic pavilion. The trolls, that are imaginary characters stem from Egill’s background of storytelling and emphasize the importance of play in our time.
Website to be released in April
#andysgallerystockholm

MODERNA MUSEET
Filmklubben: Egill Sæbjörnsson, 29. April at 18:00 – 20:00. Skinn & Lak, Mr. Piano & Mrs. Pile, and Object Species, conversation and party 18:00 – 01:00.
The installation of Skinn & Lak, and Mr. Piano & Mrs. Pile in – and outside the Auditorium is running until 1. May 2022.
Moderna Museet's film club presents three works by Egill Sæbjörnsson. In the bar outside the Auditorium, the documentation of the performance work Skinn & Lak (2001) is looped. Inside the Auditorium, the performative video installation Mr. Piano and Mrs. Pile (2004), a piano and an indefinable pile of bird droppings, have a philosophical discussion of space, objects and pure emotions. In addition, Sæbjörnsson makes a new lecture performance: Object Species (2021). By combining the older works of the twenty-year younger Egill, with a new lecture performance, and experiencing these works in relation to the exhibition’s presentations in Vårberg Centrum, Kummelholmen and at Andys Gallery, a holistic approach emerges on how people, nature and objects belong together. The collaboration between the places also sheds light on another of Egill Sæbjörnsson's philosophical ideas: art is a species in itself that interacts with people and in turn makes people interact with each other.
Curator: Catrin Lundqvist
www.modernamuseet.se #modernamuseet

BRILLO VOX
30. April at Taverna Brillo
Torbjörn Johansson, Sara Andy Ludvigsson and Catrin Lundqvist, the initiators of the various projects within Object Species and the artist, Egill Sæbjörnsson himself, participate in a breakfast talk in the art podcast Brillo Vox.
www.brillobox.se #brillovox

MARKET ART FAIR, Liljevalchs konsthall
30. April 30 at 14:30 – 15:15
On Saturday, 30. April, Egill Sæbjörnsson and Shoplifter will meet in a conversation led by Jonatan Habib Engqvist since Market Art Fair this year focuses on the Icelandic art scene.
www.marketartfair.com #marketartfair