Magnus Strandberg
Minneslucka
Galleria Huuto Jätkäsaari, Pikkujätkä
16.9.-1.10.
On fading memories, losses and translations – Magnus Strandberg’s Minneslucka
With his fourth solo exhibition, Magnus Strandberg continues the material-based investigations where the immaterial and intangible play a major role. Despite the impossibility of the task, he repeatedly tries to translate the untranslatable, using the paradox of immaterial matter as a starting point. Still, his artistic madness builds on a solid methodology. What we have here is an obstinate attempt, which reveals a firm belief in the fragility of memories, experiences and the world in general. He takes on an impossible task – to regenerate a site-specific experience – nothing more, nothing less. After all, reaching for the impossible is of greatest artistic importance.
Magnus Strandberg has a preference for the experimental. Each and every time he challenges the limits of his expression and art. He expands towards the formerly invisible, and tries to find connections between different things and phenomena. For his current and previous exhibitions, he has tried to find connections between translating and making installation art. During the working process a few questions emerged. Is it possible to translate the untranslatable? What happens when memories fade? Do they disappear, or merely transform into something increasingly imaginary? The artist has stated the following about the basic thoughts that revolve around the exhibition series: “What I considered to be the content of the original work, has less and less significance. I am mostly trying to remember, what being in the exhibition space felt like. Occasionally the recalling becomes a desperate action. I can no longer remember what actually existed, and what I am constantly creating as I try to remember. The second exhibition, Minneslucka, certainly deals with loss. Still, I refuse to accept that a work I have created can disappear without a trace. In fact, I believe this can be applied to any occurrence.”
Translation is also a part of the exhibitions title. It is specifically called Minneslucka, not muistikatko or blackout. According to Strandberg, the Finnish and English equivalents lack the word ‘lucka’ – an absence of something or a space in between, but also a peephole or a gate leading somewhere. These are missing from muistikatko or blackout, and still they creep into every memory of Minnesluckan. The title hovers somewhere in the background, very much like the animation we encounter in the exhibition space – a trace from the previous exhibition, partially reflected from the projection surface. Otherwise we find ourselves in the shadows, led towards memories and experiences we never have complete access to.
Magnus Strandberg is an artist and translator from Helsinki. He graduated from the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture in 2015.
PhD Juha-Heikki Tihinen
The exhibition is supported by Konstsamfundet and Svenska kulturfonden.
Additional information can be acquired from Magnus Strandberg:
m.h.strandberg(at)gmail.com
0443605284
