Grand Theory Hotel

A solo exhibition by APT artist Annika von Hausswolff opens the spring season at the Hasselblad Center. The exhibition features a selection of the artist’s works from the past ten years, in which the themes that have always characterized Annika von Hausswolff’s production are developed, and her importance as one of the leading Nordic artists is manifested.

Some recurrent subjects in Annika von Hausswolff’s works are patriarchal structures, criminology, global capitalism, the subconscious and a profound interest in the photographic image – with a predilection for analogue technology. The exhibition features, among other series, the dreamlike suite I Am The Runway of Your Thoughts (2008), sculptures from the series Social Abstraction (2010), images depicting gold teeth in the series An Oral Story of Economic Structures (2012), as well as the latest works – suggestive enamels created by existing archival images (2015–2016).

Annika von Hausswolff became established in the early 1990s as one of the most influential artists in Sweden who challenged the 1970s documentary tradition and 1980s subjective oriented photography. Her works are often imbued with a social commitment. She uses stagings and an associative imagery as method to create images where the boundaries between fiction and reality are fluid. Another distinctive feature of Annika von Hausswolff’s works are the spatial installations in which the photographs are often combined with sculptural elements, such as window blinds and textiles – everyday details from domestic environments that also appear in the photographs. Placed in the exhibition space, they become more than an extension of the images – they form an immersive installation.

Annika von Hausswolff’s multifaceted oeuvre is reflected in the exhibition’s title, Grand Theory Hotel, where the artist invites us to different rooms – surreal, feminist or photographic – that are woven into a vertiginous and multilayered whole.