Every year, Bonniers Konsthall presents the Maria Bonnier Dahlin Foundation Grant Recipients. The 2007 Grant Recipients are Johannes Heldén, Caroline Mårtensson and Martin Sundvall.
Johannes Heldén has for a long time worked in a world inspired by science fiction. Supported by a strong narrative, often with cut-up text, voice-over and sound, his literary work, installations, animations, and online works often assume a dark and imaginative form. His references come from various subcultures, comic books, television series and science fiction, which Heldén boils down to peculiar worlds filled with latent violence, feverish pursuits, rapid flights or a numbing state of waiting. Johannes Heldén has published Burner, The Subterranean System, A Light Machine, as well as participated in exhibitions at UKS, Oslo, Göteborgs Konsthall, and, most recently, in Against Time at Bonniers Konsthall. Johannes Heldén was born in 1978 and works as an artist, writer and musician. Educated at Valand School of Fine Arts, he lives and works in Stockholm. Current project: Bug Bomb at OEI Editör.
Caroline Mårtensson works with sculpture, objects and installations. By using shifting scales, absurd clashes and additions, she accentuates and highlights a perceived imbalance and discrepancy between the individual and that which is commonly shared. It can, for example, be about how one’s gender identity clashes with stereotypical ideas of masculinity and femininity. In several works, Caroline Mårtensson has explored issues of nature and culture. By taking the culture of hunting as her starting-point, she has created miniature shooting towers reminiscent of baby high chairs, and the interior of a fictitious hunter’s home with an unusual hunting trophy. Caroline Mårtensson has exhibited at Galleri Mors Mössa, Göteborg, Galleri S:t Gertrude, Malmö, and participated in several group exhibitions in Sweden. Caroline Mårtensson was born in 1977, educated at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen, The Royal University College of Fine Arts, Stockholm, and Malmö Art Academy. She lives and works in Lund. Current exhibition: Kontrast at Dunkers Kulturhus.
Martin Sundvall uses the computer as his main artistic tool in order to create a synthesis of traditional artistic techniques and engineering. His work deals with issues of representation and reconstruction, in relation to art historical ideas of depiction. Martin Sundvall sets out from personal memories and subjective ideas, as, for example, when he attempts to recreate a Ford Mustang toy car from his childhood, or an apartment building in Gärdet, Stockholm, where he worked as a porter. A supporting structure of his work method is to use algorithm and machines to produce the final work in form of sculptures, graphic works or installations. Martin Sundvall was born in 1975, educated at The Royal Institute of Technology and The Royal University College of Fine Arts, both in Stockholm. He lives and works in Jönköping. Since September 2007, he is represented at Campus Linköping’s Sculpture Park with a 32 centimetre tall monument of himself with the title Martin Sundvall b. 1975.
The Maria Bonnier Dahlin Foundation awards an annual grant for the support of young visual artists and artistic work. The Foundation was founded in 1985 by Jeanette Bonnier in memory of her daughter Maria. Since its inception, the Foundation has awarded 57 artists, which gives a sense of the role the Foundation has played in the Swedish art world. Some of the former recipients include Jacob Dahlgren, Gunnel Wåhlstrand, Cecilia Edefalk and Karin Mamma Andersson, all of whom have received wide acclaim in Sweden as well as internationally.
The Grant Committee comprises the Board of Directors of the Foundation: Jeanette Bonnier, Chair; Pontus Bonnier, Director, Bonniers Konsthall; Hans Dyhlén, Director; Ewa Kumlin, Director, Svensk Form [the Swedish Society of Crafts and Design]; Lars Nittve, Director, Moderna Museet; David Neuman, Director, Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall; Dan Wolgers, artist; and the Director of Bonniers Konsthall, Sara Arrhenius. Every year, two guests are invited to the Committee. This year’s Grant Recipients were selected in collaboration with Magdalena Malm, artistic director MAP, and Pia Kristoffersson, freelance curator.
Grant Recipients 2007
Maria Bonnier Dahlin Foundation
December 9 2007 - January 6 2008