Johannes Heldén: Science Fiction (2010). Bokomslag, utgitt av Albert Bonniers Förlag. Gjengitt med tillatelse fra kunstneren.
Welcome to the opening of A New We – Chapter 2, with special presentation of Johannes Heldén.
Opening and readings by the artist, and talk with the artist and Helena Holmberg, director of Kunsthall Trondheim. November 2, 6.30pm. Free entrance.
Johannes Heldén’s work oscillates between close observations of the smallest details in the everyday now – a smell, a movement of a bird – and narratives from a time in which the future already happened. His collection of poetry Takträdgårdar [Roof gardens], published earlier this year, includes four sound files. The music, recorded in 2037, forms a soundscape that alters the reading by displacing the reader and forcing us to look back to the present. Encyclopedia (2015), made in collaboration with Håkan Jonson, which will be installed at Kunsthall Trondheim together with a selection of works in different media, uses a similar strategy. The work consists of a large collection of filing cards, together forming a catalogue over a large number of fictional extinct species – like the Mandrillus asinus (extinct by humans in 2391 AD) who had a tail length of 5 – 6 cm and used to store food in its cheek pouches. As is the case with other works by Johannes Heldén, Encyclopedia not only spans over a gap in time, it also spans the distance between nature and technology, making use of a text generator.
Johannes Heldén’s exhibition is presented within the framework of the group exhibition A New We. In this second chapter, Heldén’s installation will take over the inner room of our ground level space, while the main part of the exhibition continues.
Thanks to Cecilia Hillström Gallery.