Ola Pehrson - Unabomber

a cura di / curated by Francesca Marianna Consonni e Davide Di Maggio

YEAR 2010

OLA PEHRSON
Hunt of Unabomber
curated by Francesca Marianna Consonni

After the winter pause, the Galleria Davide Di Maggio, in cooperation with the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, is pleased to present the first solo exhibition in Italy  of Ola Perhson. The Swedish artist realizes a perfect remake of the documentary dedicated to the well-known sociopath. The work consists of two co-present scenes: a video and a set full of objects. The video is a careful and detailed remake of the documentary Hunt of Unabomber, remake of the famous event of the bomber who affected with panic for almost twenty years all U.S.A.: the murderer goal was determined to undermine the basis of the American economy and the capitalistic system. The artist collect from the documentary every single detail used to build the story: circumstantial evidences, traces, documents, objects, photos, buildings. All the apparently useful archive of things that in every good investigate report compose “the reconstruction”, all that is weaving  to the plot through the thread of tension and the needle of the investigation is here reproduced in polymer clay, plasticine, wax and different materials.
Two hundreds miniatures compose the material of the video: the artist shot again all the report with surgical reliability replacing objects, settings and media documentations with those reconstructed. His low-reliefs are absolutely true, build so that they prove to be real through the video. The work is in fact a kind of four-colour sculpture: the object is not completely three-dimensional, the mass of colors are juxtaposed, the shadow colored, the result is strongly chromatic like that of the 3D films, seen without glasses. Everything becomes magically true when shot in black and white. Moreover, all the dramatic moments, typical of the “discovery” tale, always alarmed and anxious, are showed for their punctilious untruth: the only reconstruction make the pretense paradoxical. The work by Ola Pehrson is the mise en scène of the play of the communication and the sacrifice of the performance. The beauty and the worth of this work are also in its technical commitment, in its hard-working and faithful preparation, in the declination of the media used till the paradox, without any moral effort.
The aspect of the stickiness of the mediatic communication, the absolute ambiguity and the continuous mistake between the truth and the fiction, the fact and its reconstruction, the rhetoric of communication and the simulation of feelings, the conflict between real psychosis and those induced by our systems of information set this work in a content continuity with the most updated Ballard's themes.
Ola Pehrson (1964-2006) born in Stockholm, died in Ljunsdal Sweden.
He studied art at the Hochschule der Künste, Berlin, and received a master of arts degree in 1997 from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Stockholm. Pehrson’s solo exhibitions include those at Galleri Lars Bohman, Stockholm; Galeria Noua, Bucharest; and Collective Gallery, Edinburgh. His work has been included in group exhibitions in Sweden at the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, and the Malmö Konsthall, and in Japan at the Yamaguchi Museum of Art. Hunt for the Unabomber was included in the 9th International Istanbul Biennial in 2005 and the 27th São Paulo Biennial in 2006.

Solo exhibitions
2007, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, United States / 2005, Galleri Lars Bohman, Stockholm, Sweden / 2003, Galeria Noua, Bucharest, Romania / 2002, Galleri Lars Bohman, Stockholm, Sweden / 2001, Collective Gallery, Edinburgh, United Kingdom / 2000,  "Art Statements", Art Basel, Switzerland (with Galleri Axel Mörner) / Galleri Axel Mörner, Stockholm, Sweden /  1999, Galleri Axel Mörner, Stockholm, Sweden

Group exhibitions
2009 - 2010 “Chasing Napoleon”, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France / 2009 “Wealth of Nations”, Cinema City, Novi Sad, Serbia / 2008 “RITORNELL, Nine Stories”, Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck, Austria / “Coming to you LIVE”, Art in General, New York, United States /  “My Computer”, 300m3 Art Space, Göteborg, Sweden / 2007, “Negatec”, Espacio Fundación Telefónica, Buenos Aires, Argentina / 2006 “Altered Stitched and Gathered”, P.S.1, New York, United States / “We all laughed at Christopher Columbus”, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands / "27th São Paulo Biennial" São Paulo, Brazil / “Modernautställningen 2006”, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden / 2005 “Post modellismus”, Krinzinger projekte, Vienna, Austria “/9th International Istanbul biennal”, Istanbul, Turkey / “Edstrandska Stipendiet”,Malmö Konstmuseum, Sweden / 2004 "Muslim Mulliqi", Prishtina, Kosovo /"Momentum 2004", Moss, Norway /  "Delayed on time", Zagreb, Croatia / ”Scream”, Färgfabriken, Stockholm, Sweden / "channel 0" Yamaguchi Art Museum, Yokohama museum of contemporary art, Hagi uragami museum, Japan / 2003 “Invisible wealth”, Färgfabriken, Stockholm, Sweden / "SE-BASHKU-JUNTOS-TILLSAMMANS", Tirana Biennale, Albania / “Look into the future and understand why”, IASPIS gallery, Stockholm, Sweden / “Boogie woogie wonderland”, Yamaguchi, Japan / 2002 "Money - the last taboo", Biel, Switzerland / "Over the Horizon", Malmö Konsthall, Malmö, Sweden / 2001 "Stereo", Yamaguchi museum of art, Japan / "Platform", Kitakyushu, Japan / "WHW" Zagreb, Croatia / 2000 “Organising Freedom” , Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden / 1999 “Best Before”  Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden / "Onufri" Tirana , Albania

Collections
Malmö konstmuseum, Sweden / Moderna Museet, Sweden / The National Public Art Council Sweden

Opening: Martedi 5 aprile 2011, ore18.30

GALLERIA DAVIDE DI MAGGIO
Viale Monza 10 - 20127 Milano
dal martedi al sabato 11-13.30 e 14.30-19.30
ingresso libero