Ingela Ihrman, Frutti di Mare, Opens at Malmö Konsthall

Ingela Ihrman
Frutti di Mare

30.9 2023 – 14.1 2024

Opening Friday September 29, 2023
Press opening: 28 September at 11am

The fall exhibition at Malmö Konsthall is the largest presentation to date of the internationally recognized Swedish artist Ingela Ihrman. In Frutti di Mare, visitors encounter an exhibition focusing on performative works that change daily, the theater piece Vilka är ni?, and works that revolve around the sea and the origin of life. With disarming humor and playfulness, Ingela Ihrman's work tackles questions concerning the conditions of one's own existence. By donning sculptural costumes fabricated by herself, the artist pretends to be someone else: a giant otter giving birth, a blooming giant water lily, a fig splitting in two. At the same time, the work brings forth the imbalance and the problems that have arisen ever since humans began to distinguish themselves as superior to nature. Ihrman has previously participated in, among other things, the Venice Biennale and has recently been shown at The Carl Eldh Studio Museum, Stockholm, and at Gasworks and the Eden Project, both in Great Britain. Public Opening: September 29. Press contact: Sofia Bertilsson, Art Insider PR, press@artinsiderpr.com

Ingela Ihrman, Frutti di Mare
The exhibition at Malmö Konsthall will include sculpture, installation, video and performance and consist of around twenty works, mainly from the last ten years when Ihrman lived in Malmö. During the exhibition period, the artist will activate some of the sculptures and meet the audience as a toad, a clam, or a pinecone, characters that behave unexpectedly in the exhibition space – as they emit fragrance, secrete nectar, give birth, feed, or reproduce.

Frutti di Mare literally means fruits of the sea. In Italian, it refers to shellfish – marine invertebrates with exoskeletons. Their bodies all have something hard on the outside that encloses a soft inside. It reminds me of my costumes that I sometimes think of as armor, a second skin that protects what is vulnerable, or as an attempt to hide inside someone else. (Ingela Ihrman, more quotes from the artist below.)

Social relations, scientific facts and human experiences serve as the starting point for Ihrman’s exploration of the human being and the complex relationship with itself and other living beings in our modern society. By wearing sculptural costumes, she explores her own body and the possibilities and limitations of the self. Her works connect to feminist performance tradition, but equally relevant is the search for meaning and community through rituals and ceremonies. The handmade and unwieldy costumes become an extra layer of flesh and skin that encapsulates and hides one’s own being in favor of another. The workmanship in the quirky costumes is precise and the materials are simple, found, or recycled.

The sculpture group A Great Seaweed Day, which was shown in the Nordic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2019, will be on view in architect Klas Anselm's light filled kunsthalle. A jetty leads to the works in Det inre havet, a title that refers to the cytoplasm in egg cells, which explore the connection between man and the primordial sea. Like all terrestrial organisms, the fluid that surrounds mature egg cells has the same salinity as this ocean at the beginning of time.

A collection of large seaweed sculptures in saturated colors connects the flora of the sea to the flora of the human stomach and intestinal system. First Came The Landscape, 2022, rests directly on the expansive spruce floor of the exhibition space - a giant skeleton laid out of logs, branches, and sticks from an alder tree that lived and died in one of Malmö's green areas. After the end of the exhibition, the wood is returned to the cyclic processes of nature by placing the work on the ground of the Guldängen playground.

The exhibition will also include the theater play Who Are You? which will be performed on several occasions in November 2023. Ingela Ihrman has created the script, costumes, and scenography in close collaboration with director and playwright Maja Salomonsson. Six actors from Ögonblicksteatern in Umeå portray characters from the kingdom of plants and animals, and discuss with the audience what it means to be someone or something: What does it mean to play a role, and who decides who you are?

The exhibition, curated by Mats Stjernstedt, director of Malmö Konsthall, has its public opening on September 29 and will run until January 14, 2024.

About the artist
Ingela Ihrman was born in Kalmar in 1985 and studied at Konstfack in Stockholm. She lives and works in Malmö and Stockholm. Ihrman has exhibited at Carl Eldh's Studio Museum, Stockholm; Gasworks, London, Eden Project, Cornwall, (all 2023); Åstorp konsthall (2022); Karlin Studios / FUTURA, Prague (2021); Kristianstad konsthall (2018); der TANK, Institut Kunst, FHNW Academy of Art and Design, Basel (2017) and Tensta konsthall, Stockholm (2016). Her work has been shown in group exhibitions at the Wellcome Collection, London (2021); Moderna Museet, Malmö; Kiasma, Helsinki (both 2020); Castello di Rivoli, Turin (2019); Lunds konsthall (2018); Art Lab, Gnesta (2016). She has also participated in the Yokohama Triennale (2020); Nordic Pavilion, Venice Biennale (2019); and in the Gwangju Biennale (2016).

Press contact: Sofia Bertilsson, Art Insider PR
press@artinsiderpr.com M +46 733 866820
Pressroom
Press images on Malmö Konsthall website: Pass word: ”press2023”.

Ingela Ihrman talks about the exhibition and her work

About the exhibition Frutti di Mare
The title is in Italian, but to me, Frutti di Mare is something you call a pasta or a pizza where maybe some tinned clams and pre-peeled prawns swim in a sea of cheese. Frutti di Mare in Swedish is related to tutti frutti and Lasse Holm's canneloni macaroni hit. A 90s dream of something tropical to aspire to that might say more about those who long for it than the actual location on the Mediterranean or any other turquoise waters.

With Frutti di Mare, the art gallery becomes a huge pan pizza and the pine floor a thinly rolled dough. My works from the last ten years are scattered on the surface, ready to be rebaked and served up again.

Frutti di Mare literally means fruits of the sea. In Italian, it refers to shellfish – marine invertebrates with exoskeletons. Their bodies all have something hard on the outside that encloses a soft inside. It reminds me of my costumes that I sometimes think of as armor, a second skin that protects what is vulnerable, or as an attempt to hide inside someone else.

In the art gallery, a long jetty leads out to The Inner Sea, a project in several parts, the title refers to the fluid that surrounds mature egg cells in the egg follicles of all land-living organisms. The liquid has the same salinity the primordial ocean once had – the ocean where life once arose billions of years ago. So, all life is really the fruit of the sea. In the inner sea of the art gallery, The Passion Flower, Seaweedsbladet, The Coral and Rövanemonen, a collection of sea urchins and a bright blue giant clam gather.

About the sculpture First Came The Landscape
First Came The Landscape is a giant sculpture made of sticks, branches and logs from a dead alder that grew in the Bulltofta nature area. It rests directly on the art gallery's spruce floor and resembles a mixture of a child's drawing and a whale skeleton. When the exhibition closes in January, it will be laid on the ground in a playground in the neighborhood Guldängen.

About The Inner Sea
The Inner Sea is a multi-part project that embraces the fact that I love to swim. The title refers to the fluid that surrounds mature egg cells in all terrestrial organisms, including myself. The liquid has the same salinity as the primordial ocean once had, the ocean where life once arose many billions of years ago. So, even today, we carry this ocean with us in our bodies.

Image credit: Ingela Ihrman, Grodan och solen går ner i havet, 2015. Photo: Helene Toresdotter