New Materialism, Sep 5 - Nov 11

New Materialism
Sep 5^th – Nov 11^th
Participating artists: Tonico Lemos Auad, Andrea Büttner, Andreas Eriksson, Theaster Gates, Petrit Halilaj, Katrine Helmersson, Sheila Hicks, Abdoulaye Konaté, Ellen Lesperance, Éva Mag, Britta Marakatt-Labba, Lee Mingwei and Francis Upritchard.

Media preview, Tuesday September 4^th, 9.30am. The doors will be opened at 9.15am and breakfast will be served. Director of Bonniers Konsthall and curator Magnus af Petersens introduces the exhibition together with co-curator Caroline Elgh Klingborg, accompanied by some of the participating artists. RSVP to kajsa.ponten@bonnierskonsthall.se before September 3^rd.

Bonniers Konsthall proudly presents the large autumn exhibition, New Materialism. Here, thirteen artists who work within textile, clay, wood and ceramics are gathered in a show where performative aspects and process-oriented works are provided extensive space, through installations and workshops. The exhibition pays attention to the increasing interest within the contemporary art field in crafts as a method and material, and presents new names amongst internationally acclaimed artists.

Conceptual art and crafts have long been viewed upon as opposites on a spectrum of high and low, a polarity that today appears increasingly obsolete.

The exhibition pays attention to the practice of contemporary artists and highlights questions regarding consumption and production, as well as concerning our aspiration for something tactile and physical in a digital era. A number of works shown have been unfolded from collective practices and transfers of knowledge; highlighting a process that is often reserved for the artist’s studio, that here resides in the Konsthall.

"The works in the exhibition New Materialism show that the distinction between form and content is hard to maintain and that the content also comes out of the material and is not just communicated through it. Physicality and tactility are realities that we apparently neither want to nor are able to disregard." – Magnus af Petersens, director and curator

Some of the participating artists, such as Éva Mag, Lee Mingwei, Ellen Lesperance and Theaster Gates, create works that unfold and transform during the exhibition period, through collaborations with volunteering visitors, apprentices and paid craftsmen. Here, the participation is a crucial part of the work and a prerequisite for its realization.

Katerine Helmersson and Abdoulaye Konaté, as well as Francis Upritchard and Tonico Lemos Auad, have made artworks that relate to amulets; objects and materials carrying magical qualities. Here, similarities to many new-materialist ideas can be found; materials appear almost alive, constantly changing and continuously becoming. An idea concerning the material that is aligned with animism; the belief that nature is animated.

In Andrea Büttner, Andreas Eriksson, Petrit Halilaj, Sheila Hicks and Britta Marakatt-Labbas works, the material provides a point of departure from which personal and collective memories and histories are highlighted. It concerns matters such as the memory of a material, the journey of a material between different countries or contexts, and the adaptation of a material performed by different hands – or about the human memory and how stories can be told, modified and developed through different techniques such as knitting, weaving, tailoring, clay and ceramics. Here, the sensuous, tactile and inherent qualities of the works are emphasized.

“The hand connected to the eyes and the brain. Hands, eyes, brain: it’s the magic triangulation. It comes from passion, heart and intellect inseparably cemented to your times and to your emotional experiences.
If I gave my designs to someone else, it would be their interpretation of my idea.” – Sheila Hicks

Publication
An extensive exhibition catalogue has been produced in collaboration with the book publisher Art and Theory Publishing. Alongside a wide range of images and essays by the curators, the catalogue also offers texts by writers such as Sofia Victorino, Head of Education and Public Programmes, Whitechapel Gallery, and Monika Wagner, professor emerita, who writes about modern and contemporary art with a particular focus on the semantics of materials. Book release in conjunction with the media preview, September 4^th.

Program
Wed. September 12^th, 6pm, and Sat. September 22^nd, 2pm.
The artist Éva Mag, in collaboration with the dancer Ellinor Tollerz Bratteby, activates the work ‘Stand up. I said stand up.’

Wed. September 19^th, 3pm – 9pm (Care Program)
‘In the Place of Dance’, performance by Irina Anufrieva, dancer, choreographer and performance artist with a background in classical ballet and Japanese Butoh.

Wed. October 17^th, 6pm.
NyMaterialism: Lecture and talk.
An evening about contemporary practices that explores crafts, materiality and processes of materials, in relation to theories of new-materialism. Participants: Susanne Witzgall, Director of the cx centre for interdisciplinary studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich and Editor of the book Power of Material/politics of Materiality, Brazilian artist Tonico Lemos Auad who is exhibited in the show and Mårten Medbo, ceramicist, glass artist and Doctor of Arts and Crafts, 

Wed. October 24^th, 6pm (Care Program)
Live-set with These Heavy Clouds

Care Program - Soul Manufacturing Corporation is a work by the American artist Theaster Gates, presented within the exhibition New Materialism. The artist has installed a ceramic workshop in the exhibition room, operating on a daily basis and run by local ceramicists. Alongside, a so-called “Care Program” is set up, which involves anything from poetry readings and music performances to hand massage sessions and similar, aiming to generate a healthy and inspiring work environment for the ceramicists.

To schedule interviews, please contact Kajsa Pontén, kajsa.ponten@bonnierskonsthall.se 0046 76 228 06 82