Upcoming exhibition: On Invasive Grounds

22 February–19 June 2014

ON INVASIVE GROUNDS
Katja Aglert

PRESS PREVIEW: 20 February at 11 am
OPENING: 21 February at 5-8 pm
Katja Aglert will be present during the opening

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

Helena Selder, Curator and Artistic Director, Marabouparken art centre
helena.selder@marabouparken.se

FOR INFORMATION AND PRESS IMAGES, PLEASE CONTACT:
niki.kralli@marabouparken.se

Marabouparken art centre kicks off the spring season with two exhibitions in which conceptions of nature and naturalness in a roundabout way open the door to our fickle “inner nature”, which manifests itself in that which is accepted and that which is rejected, in history, culture, in our language and in our idea of ourselves.

On Invasive Grounds

In her solo exhibition On Invasive Grounds, artist Katja Aglert explores the widespread notion of a lost natural, primordial state, characterised by harmony and balance, which we strive to re-establish. In neon-based work and video installations, Katja Aglert traces the human hand in the proliferation of artificial light, explores the Arctic of male myths and the flora of the World Heritage site of Suomenlinna. Eventually a completely different idea about the earth’s original state emerges: a world that has always been, and continues to be, in perpetual flux, a world characterised by constant interaction between animals, nature and human beings, the latter of which may be regarded as the earth’s most invasive species.

Around ten years ago Katja Aglert began taking an interest in the Northern Lights as part of her research into the post-industrial phenomenon light pollution. Nowadays the earth at night looks like a disco ball because of all the artificial lights, so nocturnal phenomena such as the Aurora Borealis are erased by all the lights. The lines in the neon-based work Spectaculars Study (2013) are from what is believed to be the first cave painting of the Northern Lights created by pre-historic people some 30,000 years BC and the work may be regarded as a kind of liaison centre for how people have interpreted this celestial phenomenon throughout the ages.

Following a lifelong dream to visit the Arctic, in 2009 Katja Aglert joined an art and research expedition to the polar region. Like generations of adventurers before her, she brought along a couple of project ideas. The video work Winter Event – antifreeze (2009–2010) shows how the woman and the artist Katja Aglert tries to relate to the Arctic history of male heroics and failed adventurers. The film shows a series of shots where the artist and the photographer with comical persistence struggle against the Arctic wind and freezing cold in order to realise their project.

The video work On Invasive Ground (2012) takes place at the Suomenlinna fortress, situated on an island outside Helsinki. The fortress is a Unesco World Heritage site thanks to its military architecture. However, the landscape is an important part of its cultural heritage, seeing that its development is so intimately connected to the history of the fortress. The island’s historic fluctuations have meant that new species have established themselves on the island and co-existed with the rest of the plants.

“Because the flora is controlled and maintained by people, our human conceptions are transferred onto it. The concept of ‘nature’ is a human idea and inextricably linked to our culture. Alongside the official story of the unique co-existence between various plants on Suomenlinna, it eventually emerged that there was some plants that didn’t fit in and which one wanted to exterminate”,
Katja Aglert explains.

The exhibition On Invasive Grounds is presented in parallel with the group exhibition Our Inner Nature.

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Katja Aglert (born 1970) is based in Stockholm and works and exhibits in Sweden and internationally at museums, film festivals and art galleries. The nature of Katja Aglert’s artistic practice is multidisciplinary and she works both individually and in collaborations.
www.katjaaglert.com

PROGRAMME IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE EXHIBITION

3 APRIL at 6 PM  BOOK RELEASE OF WINTER EVENT – ANTIFREEZE WINTER EVENT – ANTIFREEZE WINTER EVENT – ANTIFREEZE WINTER EVENT – ANTIFREEZE, AND LECTURE BY FEMINIST RESEARCHER LISA BLOOM

Release of the publication Winter Event- antifreeze, Winter Event- antifreeze, Winter Event- antifreeze, Winter Event- antifreeze published by Art & Theory, with the editors Katja Aglert and Stefanie Hessler. One of the contributors to the book, the American feminist researcher Lisa Bloom will lecture on her ongoing project Climate Change and Contemporary Art of the Polar Regions: Gender after Ice, on how the threat of global climate change is reflected in contemporary art practices. Lisa Bloom is a research scholar at the Center for the Study of Women at the University of California (UCLA) in Los Angeles. She is active both in San Diego and in New York.

23 APRIL at 6 PM RADICAL GARDENING
George McKay gives a lecture based on his book Radical Gardening: Politics, Idealism and Rebellion in the Garden on how gardens and parks have been favoured by alternative, radical cultures such as music festivals, the peace movement and different kinds of political activism. McKay is Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Salford, England.