The artists with local connections who participate in OpenArt 2024

On Saturday 15 June 2024, the art biennial OpenArt are opening. Among the participants are seven artists and one artist group with connections to Örebro county.

Örebro's city center will change with temporary contemporary art from all over the world and already now we can present some artists who either grew up or are active in Örebro county. In this year's edition, seven artists and an artist group with local connections are presented whose artistic practices ranges between painting, performance, digital techniques and sculpture.

In Mattias Käll's practice there are questions about our relationship with nature and other people. For many years, Käll has dealt with issues such as food waste, packaging, plastic and fast fashion. Photographic series, film, objects, installation and performance are part of Käll's world of art.

The Copenhagen-based duo Wang & Söderström, where Anny Wang grew up in Örebro and Tim Söderström in Jönköping, was one of the favorites of the children's jury at Sörbyskolan earlier this year. Wang & Söderström are both an artist group and a design duo. In their work, the digital and the physical meet, where the digital is tactile and material-driven. What arises in the borderland between the physical and the digital? By examining conventions, they mark a new sensuality in the digital age.

Bitte Alling is an artist and the chairman of Fotograficentrum in Örebro. Through sculpture, text, sound, moving image and installations, she investigates and studies the treacherous language of the mass media image and critically examines war propaganda. In the past, Alling has published several books and worked as an art teacher.

Participation through Magic Carpets

Through the EU project and the collaboration with Creative Europe and the platform Magic Carpets, the participation of five of the local artists is made possible. Among the names is Cecilia Jansson, a veteran who participated in OpenArt back in 2008 and again in 2015.

"I often make large-scale works where the material is as meaningful as the form, and use time-consuming techniques in materials such as porcelain, asphalt, bread and silicone." says Cecilia Jansson about her artworks.

Hanna Stansvik has studied at Örebro Art School and has previously exhibited at KonstBunkern in Örebro, Nora Art and made murals for Springbeast, Snösätra graffiti Wall of Fame in Stockholm and in the ArtMadeThis project for Vasakronan in Gothenburg. Stansvik explores intimacy and closeness in his art. Stansvik uses herself as a model as it allows her to stage and recreate the private moments when you are alone and relaxed. By being his own model, Stansvik can be both experimental, irreverent and playful in his work.

In the autumn of 2022, Ellen Freed carried out a residency at OpenArt, where the final result was shown at the Part of Art event at the Kulturkvarteret in January 2023. Freed will participate with one of her explosive, norm-breaking and sensational performances during the biennal.

Previously, OpenArt has told about Karolina Oxelväg and Victor Jakobsson, alias Kenne-Diss.