STOCKHOLM.- Bonniers Konsthall will display three individual exhibitions, which both amplify and refract one another. Gerard Byrne, Cecilia Edefalk, and Alina Szapocznikow relate very differently to how individual and collective memories shape our lives. The passage of time, however, becomes one point of connection between them. Gerard Byrne recreates overlooked moments of contemporary history. Cecilia Edefalk allows the ghosts of history to appear by showing a series of paintings surrounded by their own history, in the form of studies and documentation from the previous places they appeared. Alina Szapocznikow’s sculptures and drawings from the 1950s until her death in 1973 tell the story of the body’s sometimes painful memories. Simultaneously, her exhibition evokes the memory of an artistic practice by displaying material from her private archives, films of her working in the studio, photographs of pieces that no longer exist, and documentation from exhibitions.
In addition to these three exhibitions, works are displayed at neighbouring museums in Vasastan, establishments which encase the past and participate in creating our view of history. Hans Rosenström’s sound installation directs the listener from Vasaparken Park to The Jewish Museum and on to The Stockholm Public Library. Rosenström associates the role place filled in the art of memory during ancient times, while he simultaneously embarks on a discussion of how technology affects memory in our digital age. At The Observatory Museum, Ann Böttcher exhibits detailed pencil drawings, offering an analysis of how trees have symbolised both extreme nationalism and melancholy and gloom throughout the ages. In another part of the same museum, Raqs Media Collective approaches a varying take on memory in Museum of Lost Constellations. Tarek Atoui participates with a sound installation based on the Electronic Music Studio’s archives at The Music and Theatre Library, while Cecilia Edefalk’s four-year long conversation with August Strindberg plays out as text at The Strindberg Museum.
