UNDIR RÚMI MARGURITE DURAS
KAROLIINA HELLBERG
„Undir rúmi Margurite Duras“ er titill sýningarinnar sem samanstendur af verkum sem unnin voru í Gryfjunni á pop up vinnustofu Karoliinu sem stóð yfir frá 12. október - 12. nóvember 2020.
Fyrir sýninguna sótti Karoliina innblástur til franska rithöfundarins Margurite Duras (1914-1996), þá í gegnum skrif hennar og gömul viðtöl. Hér skapar hún svefnherbergi rithöfundarins eins og hún sér það fyrir sér og þá dularfullu atburði og leyndarmál sem gætu einungis gerst þar, undir rúmi Margurite.
“Mais elle est hantée, elle est elle-même comme un lieu hanté”
“But she is haunted, she is like a haunted space herself”
-M. Duras um eina sögupersónuna úr Lol V. Stein í “Les lieux de Marguerite Duras”, 1976.
Sýningin opnar formlega laugardaginn 14. nóvember en vegna fjöldatakmarkana verður ekki unnt að halda hóf. Hinsvegar er stefnt á að fagna sýningunni helginni eftir þar sem Karoliina verði með listamannaspjall, ef aðstæður í samfélaginu bjóða upp á það.
Karoliina (fædd 1987) er hingað komin frá Helsinki í Finnlandi þar sem hún starfar og býr, þrátt fyrir heimsfaraldur og íslenska veðráttu. Myndheimur Karoliinu samanstendur af raunverulegum og ímynduðum stöðum og rýmum sem hún málar eftir minni. Í rýmunum framkallar hún áhugaverðar senur sem eru uppfullar af táknrænum kennileitum og smáatriðum sem mynda þessa nostalgísku heima sem auðvelt er að gleyma sér í. Verkin eru ýmist málverk á striga eða pappír, en hún notast að mestu við olíu og vatnsliti í sínum verkum.
Karoliina lauk master í myndlist frá The Finnish Academy of Fine Arts árið 2015. Síðan þá hefur hún hlotið verðskuldaða athygli fyrir litrík málverk og metnaðarfullar innsetningar en hún hefur m.a. haldið fjórar einkasýningar, þrjár í Finnlandi og ein í Rússlandi, á the Didrichsen Art Museum í Helsinki (2019), Galleri KANT í Kaupmannahöfn (2020), the Finnish Institute in St Petersburg (2017), HAM Gallery í Helsinki (2016) og Galerie Anhava í Helsinki (2019).
Einnig hafa verk eftir hana verið til sýnis á virtum listamessum og öðrum sýningarstöðum s.s. the CHART Art Fair í Kaupmannahöfn (2018), the Enter Art Fair í Kaupmannahöfn (2020), the Kuopio Art Museum í Finland (2018), the Finnish Institute í Stokkhólmi (2017) og Galleri Elverket of the Pro Artibus acknowledgement í Tammisaari (2016–2017).
Þá hefur Karoliina hlotið verðlaun fyrir verk sín en í fyrra tók hún á móti hinum virtu Didrichsen Art Museum’s Pro Arte Awards. Verk eftir hana eru einnig hluti af stórum söfnum eins og safninu hjá the Saastamoinen Foundation, the Päivi og Paavo Lipponen Foundation og HAM Helsinki Art Museum svo dæmi séu nefnd – sem og einkasöfnum í Finnlandi, Svíþjóð, Danmörku, Bretlandi, Frakklandi, Belgíu og Bandaríkjunum.
UNDER MARGARET’S BED
KAROLIINA HELLBERG
“Under Marguerites bed”, is the result of a month long residency where Karoliina temporarily moved her studio in Helsinki to Gryfjan in Ásmundarsalur. The exhibition is a paint-based installation, with works on canvas and on paper - among other elements.
The title of the exhibition (“Under Marguerite’s Bed”) is an allusion to the French author Marguerite Duras (1914-1996) and to her fictive bedroom as the artist would imagine it – and to the mysteries and secrets that could have only resided there, under her bed. Hellberg has been researching and going through material related to Duras for several years now and is especially enthusiastic of her autobiographical writings and interviews. She feels familiarity to Duras’s approach to the lived space and its both practical and metaphorical dimensions.
“Mais elle est hantée, elle est elle-même comme un lieu hanté”
“But she is haunted, she is like a haunted space herself”
-M. Duras on one of her character Lol V. Stein in “Les lieux de Marguerite Duras”, 1976.
The ingredients of Karoliina Hellberg’s (born 1987) paintings and works on paper are real and imaginary places, various visual sources and autobiographical elements. Richly detailed interior scenes are among the main themes of her works. The rooms appearing in them function as symbolic and psychological places whose enigmatic atmosphere and narrative tensions lead viewers to the realms of imagination and memories. Despite their size, Hellberg’s small works on paper can be just as intensive as her large paintings. The boundaries of time and place are blurred in her works, and things that are absent gain a strong presence.
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Karoliina Hellberg (born 1987) lives and works in Helsinki, she graduated as Master of Fine Arts from the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in 2015 and has also studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, London in 2013. She has held solo exhibitions at the Didrichsen Art Museum in Helsinki (2019), Galleri KANT in Copenhagen (2020), the Finnish Institute in St Petersburg (2017), HAM Gallery in Helsinki (2016) and Galerie Anhava in Helsinki (2019). In recent years, her works have also been on show at, among other venues, the CHART Art Fair in Copenhagen (2018), the Enter Art Fair in Copenhagen (2020), the Kuopio Art Museum in Finland (2018), the Finnish Institute in Stockholm (2017) and Galleri Elverket of the Pro Artibus Foundation in Tammisaari (2016–2017). In 2018, Karoliina Hellberg received the Didrichsen Art Museum’s Pro Arte acknowledgement. Works by her have been acquired for the collections of the Saastamoinen Foundation, the Päivi and Paavo Lipponen Foundation and HAM Helsinki Art Museum, among others, in addition to private collections in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, France, the United Kingdom, Belgium and the United States.
