Mirror of the Soul
Lena Mattsson – Mirror of the Soul
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22 November – 22 December 2024
Vernissage Friday 22 November at 17:00-20:00
Artist talk at 18:30
Gallery Rostrum, Malmö, Sweden
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Lena Mattsson's new works are filmed and cut to be projected and shown at Galleri Rostrum. We get to enter as visitors into a magical world, a realization of the place's own poetry. There, past, present, dream and reality are woven together.
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Lena Mattsson is interested in how our perception relates to being, time and space. With a poetic and sensitive visual language, she touches on existential themes in our lives. A magical realism appears in the works, the seemingly obvious takes on another dimension and the works are filled with a deeper symbolism. Can we trust what we see? Are the eyes the mirror of the soul? These are questions that Mattsson examines and illuminates in his works. Mattsson twists and turns the symbolism of the eye and asks questions about seeing.
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Lena Mattsson (b. 1966, Kungshamn) lives and works in Malmö. She mainly works with moving images but began her career as a painter. She is also active as a curator for contemporary art. Mattsson's own works often refer to art history and film and are in an intense conversation with both the present and history.
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She studied at Målarskolan Forum (now Malmö Art Academy) in Sweden. Mattsson’s works, films and video installations have been exhibited in Sweden and internationally. Swedish exhibitions include Moderna Museet Malmö, Malmö Konsthall, Borås Museum of Modern Art, Malmö Konstmuseum, The Art Gallery at Bohusläns Museum, The Nordic Watercolour Museum in Skärhamn, Nässjö Konsthall, Göteborgs Konsthall and Island of Light, Smögen. Selected exhibitions abroad are Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark; Museum of Contemporary Art, Santiago, Chile; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; the National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; The Metropolitan Art Museum, Pusan, South Korea; SPARK VIDEO: BEACON New York, USA; and the Portobello Film Festival, London, UK. She has also won art prizes and grants, including the Edstrand Foundation Art Prize and the Swedish Arts Grants Committee’s ten-year grant. Mattsson works as a curator, and she and Ola Åstrand co-curated Generation – En spegling av 1990-talets konstscen (Generation – A Reflection on the 1990s Art Scene) and Kultur under Covid-19 (Culture Under Covid-19) at Borås Museum of Modern Art in 2020-2021. In 2024, Lena Mattsson has won several awards at international film festivals around the world
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Galleri Rostrum
Lena Mattsson – Mirror of the Soul
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https://rostrum.nu/lena-mattsson-23-11-22-12-2024/
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Art review by Carolina Söderholm in Sydsvenskan Kultur ​
Are you wondering if the eye is the mirror of the soul - or if a French AI can draw houses? ​
Carolina Söderholm guides you to the best art in Malmö and Lund right now. ​
Lena Mattsson's exhibition is about gaze and power, seeing and being seen, with references to advertising models and art history's love goddesses, writes Carolina Söderholm.
Lena Mattsson: Is the eye the mirror of the soul? ​ Malmö artist Lena Mattsson occupies Galleri Rostrum with an exceptionally well-made exhibition. The effect is striking, even painterly, when she projects her two-channel video work directly onto the wall, where a young woman in a coral red bikini stretches out. Right next door, the same woman plays with the flame of the cigarette lighter. The music has been created by Conny C-A Malmqvist, and its brittle-sounding, evocative rhythm is decisive for the condensed atmosphere of the work. It's about gaze and power, seeing and being seen, with references to advertising models and art history's love goddesses. Is the eye the mirror of the soul? Mattsson asks. It is clear that you can both reflect and lose yourself in her work. ​
"Mirror of the soul", Lena Mattsson, Galleri Rostrum, Västergatan 21, Malmö, until 22/12. On 7/12, two of her films will be shown at the LiAn Film Festival at Cinema Panora, Malmö, Sweden.
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FLM Sweden's leading film magazine
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Movie tip week 48!
Every week, FLM publishes a selection of physical and digital film tips for the week ahead.
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https://flm.nu/2024/11/filmtips-v-48/
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