Dorothée Nilsson Gallery is pleased to present the group exhibition Entangled.

With Lotta Antonsson, Josefin Arnell, Martina Hoogland Ivanow, Annegret Soltau, Christer Strömholm, Susa Templin, Margot Wallard and Margot Wallard + JH Engström

Wrapped up in oneself, alone, looking only in. Tightly wound with each other, two or more. The heated energy between two lovers, pressed uncomfortably close together. Constrained by thoughts, others, or seemingly everything around you. Equally important is the need to control the unpredictable parts, the snake that snaps its jaw close around unprotected flesh, the web that is pulled tighter around the resisting body. Eyes closed or blocked, control that brings the calm.  
The works included play with these opposing interpretations in different mediums, photograph, watercolor, performance documentation, and video.

Lotta Antonsson (*1963, SE) lives and works in Berlin, DE and Falkenberg, SE. She belongs to a generation of Swedish artists who emerged in the early 1990s, and whose work was inspired by postmodern art and theory. Antonsson addresses the vulnerability of young women, sparking a debate about power while questioning the objectification of women with irony. Her work reflects a fascination with the late 1960s and 1970s, a time of social and sexual revolutions. From the utilization of techniques of collage and montage emerges a very personal way of looking at the ephemeral nature of things.

Josefin Arnell (*1984, SE) lives and works in Amsterdam, NL. Arnell’s work methodically navigates the space between exuberance and self-exploitation. The series of watercolors show a reoccurring figure in Arnell’s work engaging in a relationship with a giant tick. The boundaries between them are unclear. For Arnell, the tick is a metaphor for global, ecological threats that change the balance between socio-political relationships and nature, humanity, and economics. 

Martina Hoogland Ivanow (*1973, SE) lives and works in Stockholm, SE. There is an unmistakable and highly personal inflection in Martina Hoogland Ivanow’s images emanating from their compact atmosphere and her distinctive way of dealing with shadows and light. A soft grey scale characterizes the images. These muted tones become a filter between the image and the viewer, a filter that also lends a sense of timelessness to the images.

Annegret Soltau (*1946, DE) lives and works in Darmstadt, DE. There is no promise of release in Soltau’s work. She does not believe in healing, even if she thinks of her biography, her fears, and traumas as important motivating forces behind her work. „This needle, the stitch that you feel inside: that is an important impulse.“ Since 1975, her performances, photo, and video works have been awarded by o.a the Art Fund., Bonn (1982), the Villa Massimo in Rome (1986-87), the Maria Sibylla Merian Prize (1999), and in 2000 with the Wilhelm-Loth-Preis der Stadt Darmstadt.

Christer Strömholm (*1918 – 2002, SE), the doyen of modern Swedish photography and certainly its most influential figure has influenced generations with his work. He occupies a central position in international photography history and his work has in no small measure contributed to the establishment of photography as an independent art form. Strömholm knew how to capture the individual persona of a character, however briefly it was revealed. The series in which this succeeded most successfully is that of his images of Place Blanche in the red light district of Pigalle in Paris, where he began to photograph the transgender community in the mid-1950s.

Susa Templin (*1965, DE) lives and works in Berlin and Frankfurt am Main, DE. Templin explores the question of how spaces and memories permeate each other. She traces these universal, timeless memories of certain environments photographically and architecturally. Often the rooms she herself at one point inhabited return in her work be it as photographs, collages, or installations, creating accessible sculptures of dreamlike lightness and fragility. 

Margot Wallard (*1978, FR) lives and works in Paris, FR, and Värmland, SE. In 2012 Wallard moved to a small hamlet in Sweden with her partner, the photographer JH Engström. While there she started the project Natten, turning the lens on herself and taking refuge in nature. The forest becomes her playground, where she could give free rein to this urge to document herself. Using long exposures, she left the shutter sufficient time to etch her movements onto film.

Margot Wallard + JH Engström (*1969, SE) have a collaborative practice focused on photography which has culminated in several publications. Foreign Affair, a book of photographs taken between December 2010 and February 2011 while in the midst of an unstoppable and blind passion, includes the image shown in the exhibition. 

Die Dorothée Nilsson Gallery freut sich, die Gruppenausstellung “Entangled” in ihren Räumen zu präsentieren. Dabei sind die Künstler*innen Lotta Antonsson, Josefin Arnell, Martina Hoogland Ivanow, Annegret Soltau, Christer Strömholm, Susa Templin, Margot Wallard und Margot Wallard + JH Engström.

Eingehüllt in sich selbst, allein, nur nach innen schauend. Eng umschlungen miteinander, zu zweit oder mit mehreren. Die hitzige Energie zwischen zwei Liebenden, gleichzeitig unangenehm eng aneinander gepresst. Eingeengt durch Gedanken, durch andere oder scheinbar durch alles um einen herum. Ebenso wichtig ist das Bedürfnis, die unberechenbaren Teile zu kontrollieren, die Schlange, die ihren Kiefer um ungeschütztes Fleisch legt; das Netz, das fester um den widerstrebenden Körper gezogen wird. Geschlossene oder blockierte Augen; Kontrolle, die Ruhe bringt.
Die gezeigten Arbeiten spielen mit diesen gegensätzlichen Interpretationen des Themas in unterschiedlichen Medien – Fotografie, Aquarell, Performance-Dokumentation und Video.

Installation images by: Marjorie Brunet Plaza