Ann Sofi Sidén

Ann-Sofi Sidén is a name that stands out in Swedish contemporary art. She has a long-standing reputation on the international art scene, and over the past few years she has had large solo exhibitions in London, Paris and Vienna. Now that Moderna Museet is showing some of her most essential projects, this is a dream project come true. Ann-Sofi Sidén's artistic explorations revolve around various social phenomena of a historical, medical or psychological nature. The borderline between science, society and man's inner soul, are under scrutiny. With questions about vulnerability, control, violence and vigilance, Ann-Sofi Sidén unravels the threads of the history of the human psyche. Her method is an evocative blend of journalism and scientific method. With Queen of Mud, Ann-Sofi Sidén has created a series of eerie tales in which the lead character is a mute being of the female sex, who is covered in mud and turns up in every conceivable and inconceivable situation in time and space. "She has the ability to merge with people's dreams," says one scientist in a dry but nonetheless fascinated tone of voice in one of the "documentaries" about Queen of Mud. This repulsive and disturbingly wild being reveals our social sub-conscious in a spooky way. The exhibition at Moderna Museet will include a series of key works from 1990 to today, and the material on Queen of Mud will feature extensively. The work It's by Confining One's Neighbor that One is Convinced of One's Own Sanity represents another path. This work centres on a fictitious psychiatrist, Alice E Fabian. She claims to lead a perfectly logical life, and everything around her can be scientifically explained and controlled. But her perception of reality soon appears pathological, and the story eventually develops into a history of mentality thriller. Ann-Sofi Sidén got the inspiration for this work when she was in New York on a scholarship and was given access to an apartment that had formerly belonged to a psychiatrist who suffered from paranoia and schizophrenia. But Ann-Sofi Sidéns primary preoccupation is not with psychology, mental illness or the spectacular, but something infinitely more universal and profoundly more human. She gently outlines the social behaviours, exoticising and exclusion mechanisms that characterise western history. One of her more recent works - 3 mph from 2003 - was filmed during a 25-day ride on horseback she undertook in Texas. The journey starts in San Antonio and ends at the NASA space research centre in Houston. The 35-minute panorama film installation cuts through a myriad of social and cultural strata in contemporary Texas.

A richly illustrated catalogue, with essays and new photographic material, will be produced in conjunction with the exhibition.

Pressetext

Ann Sofi Sidén
Kurator: Cecilia Widenheim