Fia-Stina Sandlund
Nominated by: John Peter Nilsson
Born: 1973
Sweden
Lives/works: Sweden
Statement
My work could be described as one long on-going project where I constantly interact with society through the arts scene but also through media and political activism. I am interested in both the similarities and the differences between these three fields. On one hand they have a lot in common as three ways of expressing social criticism. On the other hand, they are surrounded by very different rules, opportunities and obstacles. Lately, I have spent a lot of time working with conversations that illustrate those issues. They have been documented and presented in books, papers, as sound installations, radio, or as performances based on documentary sound. PICTURE nr 1) “My Business With The Bikini King,” started in spring 2005, when Panos Papadopoulos, owner of the swimwear company Panos Emporio, phoned me and asked for advice concerning the future of the Miss Sweden contest. He is the new owner of the rights to the competition. My contribution on the other hand, is that I performed a successful protest action against the show on live TV in 2001. The work is based on my (endless) conversations with Panos and articles that have been published in Swedish papers. It deals with matters of different kinds of capital and our official roles in society. I compare my position of power and my personal capital, my "Me Inc", with Panos Papadopoulos, also known as the Bikini King. In his case, the self-branding is quite open; he has chosen to give his company his own name, and he previously owned a soccer team, which he called Panos Ljungskile (Ljungskile is the name of a town). In my case, self-branding is perhaps not so obvious but I am also a trademark: my name is linked to feminism, generally of the more radical kind. PICTURE nr 2) “Konstnärsklubben“/“The Artist's Club”, an audio study in which I phone members of the so-called Artist's Club in Stockholm. This 150-year-old society is for male artists only – women are not allowed. The club has a large amount of money and awards grants. The club is almost like a religious group with its rituals, private meeting place and burial site. The members meet every Thursday to eat, drink and listen to lectures about art. New members are recruited at, for example, the art academy and some of Sweden's most successful artists are members of the club. In my piece, I simply ask them about what they do at their meetings? Why are women excluded? And if I could come there and hold a lecture? PICTURE nr 3) "If you are the rebel, I will be decent” is a solo performance commissioned by Riksteatern. From October to December 2006, I was touring Sweden and performing in various theatres. The performance is a documentary in three acts. Each of them is about an encounter between me and another person. Act 1 is set in the world of art, act 2 is media and act 3 is set in a political activist context. The set consists of three large blinds and some chairs. My dialogue is mixed with documentary sound clips and projected texts and photos. In each of the encounters, underlying absurdities are revealed which would pass unnoticed in another context. When they are highlighted via sound clips, they appear as hidden power manoeuvres and social norms that have not yet been questioned.
Recent Exhibitions
2007: SPACE.GAZE.DESIRE, Den Frie Utstillingsbygning, Copenhagen 2007: AGORAFOLLY, EUROPALIA, Brussels 2006: National Swedish Tour with the soloperformance; If you are the rebel, I will be decent 2006: The Moderna Exhibition, at Moderna Museet, Stockholm 2006: Capital It Fails Us Now, Kunstihoone, Tallin
