Matts Leiderstam: Seen from here

We cordially invite you to the inauguration of our gallery on Saturday 26 April from 4:00 - 8:00 pm. We will open with the evocative exhibition ‘Seen from here’ by Matts Leiderstam.

At 4:00 pm Matts Leiderstam will give a presentation on his work followed by an interview by Bik Van der Pol and an open Q & A session with the artist in which guests are invited to participate. Then from 5:00 pm until 8:00 pm there will be drinks and music by James Beckett to celebrate the opening. We would be very pleased if you could join us on this special occasion.

The gallery will be open as of Thursday 1 May and its opening times are: Thursday - Saturday 1:00 - 6:00 pm.

We would hereby like to extend our thanks to: Bik Van der Pol, Wim van Egmond, Ciléne Andréhn and James Beckett.

< LESS Viewing nature, built-up areas and the things that surround us in general, is an experience that is partially determined by our culture. We even perceive unspoilt nature through our ‘cultural glasses’, which causes it to become a depiction; a landscape. For many centuries, artists have been delivering artistic interpretations of our environment. And their works as well as the context in which these are exhibited, feed back into this (cultural) experience of viewing. Matts Leiderstam is interested in this interaction and in how context and time influence our perceptions. Leiderstam revives for example the meanings of old paintings, investigates their origins and the way that these images are being presented and seduces the audience with new stories. ‘The exhibition will be about stories that emerged from the act of looking closer at paintings/landscapes/ photography. This includes the provenance as well as other stories connected to the images and to the site where they are being exhibited as well as that they portray. The title "Seen from here" aims to point out different positions from where one can observe. These include the physical experience of seeing the work in a gallery as well as memory, culture and history – and how all these come into play when viewing, for example, a painting, a landscape or a photograph. Perception always includes a position, a point of view from where we are observing. When we express that something can be "Seen from here", this includes a desire to envision "there" from "here". For example, in "Ways of Seeing", John Berger writes: "If we can accept that we can see that hill over there, we propose that from that hill we can be seen."’ Through so-called Claude glasses*, Matts Leiderstam shows us a visitor’s centre in a park in the American state of Arizona (View (Papagopark), 2007). This location can be observed - almost spied at - through a coloured focus, which makes these lenses seem like they know how to expose unclear events. In fact, background information reveals that this specific spot is not only used as a landmark by hikers, but also functions as a cruising area for homosexuals. One could ask: what else happens here that we don’t (yet) know about? For this opening exhibition, Matts Leiderstam created two new works, one of which was produced in close collaboration with the gallery. This work is mainly based on the photograph of a waterfall made during the Darien Expedition (1871), a voyage aimed at finding new passages between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. A vintage print of this photograph was recently acquired at an auction in New York and can be viewed in the gallery.

Leiderstam’s project, Grand Tour, was shown at Magasin 3 (Stockholm), after which it travelled to Dundee Contemporary Arts (Scotland), Göteborgs Konsthall (Gothenburg) and Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein (Vaduz). Last year he was shown at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (Arizona),the Badischer Kunstverein (Karlsruhe) and Andréhn-Schiptjenko(Stockholm). The exhibition at the Badischer Kunstverein was recently reviewed in Art Forum and Springerin. Upcoming solo-exhibitions include those at the Belgrade Modern Museum and the Düsseldorf Kunsthalle.

The exhibition runs through May 31 and the gallery is open Thursday - Saturdays 1-6 pm. For further information and visuals, please contact the gallery.

*) The so-called Claude glasses are an instrument that was used to experience the picturesque qualities of a landscape. They are a typical 19th century invention (just like national parks) and consisted of lorgnettes with different coloured lenses through which hikers could view their natural surroundings in a variety of hues. Claude glasses were named after the 17th century landscape artist, Claude Lorrain, who submersed his paintings in a specific

Matts Leiderstam
Seen from here