Labyrinth Archive

”Those who imagine a limitless universe forget that within it exists only a certain number of books. I dare to suggest the following solution to this ancient problem: the library is unlimited and periodical”. (From Jorge Luis Borges ”The Library of Babel”, 1963.)

With this quote from Jorge Luis Borges, Botkyrka Konsthall invited artists to contribute to the Artist Book-exhibition Labyrinth, 18/11 2006 – 31/1 2007 an international exhibition which examined how the book is used as an artistic expression in contemporary art today. More than one hundred artists and artists’ collectives from different countries participated.

The term Artist Book was minted in United States in 1960s by artists experimenting with new ways of shaping and spreading art. There are also further information that even earlier in 1920, russians like El Lissitsky and Ilia Zdanevich where pioneers working with the book as an alternative art form. But Twentysix Gasoline Stations by Dieter Rot and Ed Ruscha from 1962 has been claimed as the first Artist Book ever made. Soon the Artist Book became an artistic expression unto itself.

An Artist Book is a book or a bookish object where an artist’s involvement has been of vital importance. It’s a manifestation of an artist’s creativity and an artwork proper/itself. This definition excludes most exhibition catalogues, magazines, papers, etc.

The exhibition was comissioned by Pia Sandström, artist, and Joanna Sandell, director at Botkyrka Konsthall. Pia Sandström also created the set design as a circular library with site specific furniture. A catalogue that corresponded to the exhibition architecture was also produced. Neither the exhibition nor the catalogue had a beginning or an end – instead there were unlimited number of entrances and exits, as the labyrinth-like book Jorge Luis Borges describes in his short story The Garden of Forking Paths (1941). Also the visitor was able to borrow some of the artist’s books in the exhibition. Labyrinth is currently in development and will be back in Botkyrka Konsthall in a new improved version during 2008.

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TextKonst

TextKonst is a project in process in Galleria Huuto since 2005. The idea is to initiate, show and increase cooperation between artists working on the borders between text and image in Sweden and Finland.

By inviting the Swedish artist Pia Sandström and The Project Labyrinth from Botkyrka Arthall we now turn the perspective and pick our point of departure from the Artists point of view.

We are very proud and happy to present Pia Sandströms work and at the same so many different and interesting pieces of art that combine, question and show us what an image and a text can be. We therefore want to thank all the participating artists that generously gives us opportunity to se parts of the extensive Project Labyrinth from Botkyrka Arthall.

Marirna Ciglar

Background of TekstiTaide

In the summer of 2005, in co-operation with NIFCA (Nordic Institute for Contemporary Art), Galleria Huuto produced in the Viiskulma premises an exhibition by Cecilia Grönberg and Jonas (J) Magnusson. The exhibition was given a ISBN code, which made the premises become a book.

TextTaide – TextKonst part I

In co-operation with the Swedish poetry magazine, OEI, and a Finnish one, Tuli&Savu, Galleria Huuto Viiskulma produced an exhibition of Jörgen Gassilewski and Anna Hallberg from Sweden and Cia Rinne from Finland. On November 22, 2005, thirty poets and artists performed non-stop in Dubrovnik Lounge and Lobby, a “cultural and recreational complex” in Helsinki (http://www.andorra.fi/en/index.html).

In the summer of 2006, an exhibition curated by composer, poet, and publisher Jukka-Pekka Kervinen was held in the Viiskulma premises of Galleria Huuto. The exhibition, Post-taide ja Visuaalinen runous (“Post-Art and Visual Poetry”) consisted of the works of nine American visual poets and around a hundred post-artists.

TekstiKonst – TextTaide part II

During September 15 and 16, 2006, in Café Edenborg and Ugglan in Stockholm, the poetry magazine OEI presented translated Finnish contemporary poetry called suOmEI (edited by Leevi Lehto). A visual part called VisuOmEI was included, the curators of which were Marina Ciglar and Fredrik Hertzberg. A non-stop show by the name of Finnish Poetry Now was held in co-operation with the Tuli&Savu magazine, which also demonstrated a TekstiTaide reading project of Stefan Hammaréns poem.

(TextTaide – TekstiKonst parts I and II were organized in association with Finnish, Swedish-speaking Finnish and Swedish artists and poets: Galleria Huuto (Marina Ciglar), Tuli&Savu poetry magazine (chief editor Miia Toivio), and OEI poetry magazine (chief editor Jonas (J) Magnusson, and correspondent in Helsinki Fredrik Hertzberg), as well as Leevi Lehto (Kriitinen Korkeakoulu and the Poetic Conference.)

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