Johanna Billing
17 Mar - 22 Apr 2006
JOHANNA BILLING
Magic & Loss // Magical World
EXHIBITION DATES:March 17 - April 22, 2006
OPENING RECEPTION:March 17, 6-9
GALLERY HOURS:Tues. - Fri. 10-6, Sat. 11-5
Kavi Gupta Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of Swedish artist Johanna Billing, featuring her two recent films "Magic & Loss" and "Magical World".
Johanna Billing's films can be characterized by situations of societal change. The participants in Billing's work are often in the midst of a struggle that is personal, political, or social. Feelings of melancholy permeate her staged scenes where individuals are invited to participate in a simple task such as laying down and practicing a breathing exercise, walking though an apartment building with a realtor or waiting for a revolution. The 'characters' in her films exist without dialogue, and when they do occasionally communicate verbally, as seen in two of her films, it's through song.
Magic & Loss was filmed in Amsterdam in 2005, and shows a group of people packing and removing the contents of a seemingly pleasant apartment. The methodical movements of people packing boxes, carrying the apartment's contents to the street, and hoisting the furniture to the ground with ropes, and pulleys, silently creates a choreographed mysterious narrative. The owner of the flat is not present, and the unemotional detachment of the movers emphasizes the question of what has happened to the person or persons who once lived there.
Magical World, is a collaboration with Johanna Billing and a group of children from a free after school center based in Dubrava, a suburb of Zagreb, Croatia. The film presents another orchestrated situation where Billing chose the song 'Magical World' by the African-American singer/songwriter Sidney Barnes for the children to perform. Images of the children singing the somber lingering lyrics are interspersed with montages of the changing landscape of Croatia, echoing the country's current situation as it faces the European Union demands and struggles to integrate itself while forging its own identity. The children's sincere effort to sing out of their native tongue and prolong the high-pitched tune hits a crucial mournful moment as the young lead sings: "Why do you want to wake me from such a beautiful dream? Can't you see that I am sleeping? We live in a Magical World."
Johanna Billing (b 1973) lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden. Billing is currently exhibiting Magical World at P.S.1, NY and also in the Biennial Cuvée at the O.K Center for Contemporary Art, Linz, Austria. She has participated in numerous international exhibitions including the 9th Istanbul Biennial (2005), Venice Biennial (2003), the Moscow Biennial (2005), and the forthcoming Momentum – The Nordic Art Biennial (September, 2006). Billing also currently is exhibiting a solo exhibition at kunsthall Marabouparken in Stockholm, where she’s also participating in the ”The Moderna Exhibition 2006” at Moderna Museet. Other recent shows include a solo exhibition at the Knoxville Museum of Art.
Magic & Loss, 2005, 16.52 min/loop, 16 mm film transferred to DVD
Cinematographer: Nina da Costa, Camera Assistant: Bas Tiele, Sound; Marjo Postma, Music: Karl-Jonas Winqvist
Participants: Pia Sandstrom, Audrey Weeren, Seon-Ja Seo, Jan Mech, Remco Kwik, Chris van Zyl, Par Stromberg, Magnus Monfeldt, Liesbeth Sijzling, Karina Bakker
Co-produced by Smart Project Space (production assistants: Astrid Schumacher and Mutaleni Nadimi-Mbumba) with support from the Arts Grants Committee, Sweden
Magic & Loss // Magical World
EXHIBITION DATES:March 17 - April 22, 2006
OPENING RECEPTION:March 17, 6-9
GALLERY HOURS:Tues. - Fri. 10-6, Sat. 11-5
Kavi Gupta Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of Swedish artist Johanna Billing, featuring her two recent films "Magic & Loss" and "Magical World".
Johanna Billing's films can be characterized by situations of societal change. The participants in Billing's work are often in the midst of a struggle that is personal, political, or social. Feelings of melancholy permeate her staged scenes where individuals are invited to participate in a simple task such as laying down and practicing a breathing exercise, walking though an apartment building with a realtor or waiting for a revolution. The 'characters' in her films exist without dialogue, and when they do occasionally communicate verbally, as seen in two of her films, it's through song.
Magic & Loss was filmed in Amsterdam in 2005, and shows a group of people packing and removing the contents of a seemingly pleasant apartment. The methodical movements of people packing boxes, carrying the apartment's contents to the street, and hoisting the furniture to the ground with ropes, and pulleys, silently creates a choreographed mysterious narrative. The owner of the flat is not present, and the unemotional detachment of the movers emphasizes the question of what has happened to the person or persons who once lived there.
Magical World, is a collaboration with Johanna Billing and a group of children from a free after school center based in Dubrava, a suburb of Zagreb, Croatia. The film presents another orchestrated situation where Billing chose the song 'Magical World' by the African-American singer/songwriter Sidney Barnes for the children to perform. Images of the children singing the somber lingering lyrics are interspersed with montages of the changing landscape of Croatia, echoing the country's current situation as it faces the European Union demands and struggles to integrate itself while forging its own identity. The children's sincere effort to sing out of their native tongue and prolong the high-pitched tune hits a crucial mournful moment as the young lead sings: "Why do you want to wake me from such a beautiful dream? Can't you see that I am sleeping? We live in a Magical World."
Johanna Billing (b 1973) lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden. Billing is currently exhibiting Magical World at P.S.1, NY and also in the Biennial Cuvée at the O.K Center for Contemporary Art, Linz, Austria. She has participated in numerous international exhibitions including the 9th Istanbul Biennial (2005), Venice Biennial (2003), the Moscow Biennial (2005), and the forthcoming Momentum – The Nordic Art Biennial (September, 2006). Billing also currently is exhibiting a solo exhibition at kunsthall Marabouparken in Stockholm, where she’s also participating in the ”The Moderna Exhibition 2006” at Moderna Museet. Other recent shows include a solo exhibition at the Knoxville Museum of Art.
Magic & Loss, 2005, 16.52 min/loop, 16 mm film transferred to DVD
Cinematographer: Nina da Costa, Camera Assistant: Bas Tiele, Sound; Marjo Postma, Music: Karl-Jonas Winqvist
Participants: Pia Sandstrom, Audrey Weeren, Seon-Ja Seo, Jan Mech, Remco Kwik, Chris van Zyl, Par Stromberg, Magnus Monfeldt, Liesbeth Sijzling, Karina Bakker
Co-produced by Smart Project Space (production assistants: Astrid Schumacher and Mutaleni Nadimi-Mbumba) with support from the Arts Grants Committee, Sweden