Là-bas→ Magnus Strandberg
The exhibition in the space:
Studio Là-bas→, The Cable Factory (C-staircase basement), Helsinki
12–28 February 2021, Wed-Sun, 12am – 6pm
One can see the exhibition also outside the normal hours by appointment. The entrance to the basement is from the door of D-staircase. If the doors are closed, please call 044-3605284.
The event on the web:
www.la-bas.fi
1–28 February 2021
Là-bas → Magnus Strandberg starts a series of exhibitions at Helsinki’s Cable Factory's Studio Là-bas. Magnus Strandberg (b. 1980, Helsinki) is a Helsinki-based visual artist and translator who grew up in Ekenäs and graduated from Aalto University's School of Arts, Design and Architecture in 2015. The impetus for his transition to visual art was in realizing the potential of the extended field of painting in processing images, textures, and light into place-specific works. Strandberg has held six solo exhibitions so far and his work Nocturne has been acquired for the Pro Artibus Foundation's collections. Là-bas→ Magnus Strandberg aims to present a survey of Strandberg's body of work to date and at the same time present White Rabbit, a new work created in the premises of the Là-bas performance space.
The internet section of the exhibition includes an article on Strandberg's development so far and four samples, made specifically for the project, from Strandberg's most important works Mappa mundi (2015), Minneslucka (2017) Nocturne (2019) and Scener (2020). Like performances, Strandberg’s works cannot, in principle, be documented or presented by static photography or even a single video. Therefore, the exhibition website rather aims to simulate the viewing experience of Strandberg’s works. The White Rabbit installation in Studio Là-bas space continues the themes of the work Living Dead in the exhibition Scener. The themes of supervision, gaze and control are expressed in the enclosed room of a concrete cellar in an abstract space from which natural light and the outside world are excluded.
Studio Là-bas is a studio space in the basement of The Cable Factory rented by Irma Optimist and converted into a performance and event space by Lauri Luhta. Since 2000, the studio has hosted dozens of performance and sound art events called Là-bas→ (French for “there”, “over there”). With the expansion of Là-bas activities to other venues and numerous international festivals, the active use of Studio Là-bas fell short in the 2010s, but is now set to start again in a new form. In addition to live art events, the space will host exhibitions that the artist can build in the studio in complete peace. As a part of the exhibitions, the curators Jenni and Lauri Luhta analytically examine the artist's entire body of work and compile a presentation of it in collaboration with the artist. Such a person-centered, retrospective reflection is rarely realized other than in connection with exhibitions in museums. However, this approach was already used at the Là-bas festival Itself as the Third (2017). At that festival, the Cable Factory's giant Merikaapelihalli was built, for a single day’s time, as a museum-like scene, where performance art was restored to its original visual artistic context by placing live performances, installations and visual works side by side to represent both their authors' entire body of work and the stage of their work at that time.
More information:
Là-bas: info@la-bas.fi, 044-2830186
Magnus Strandberg: m.h.strandberg@gmail.com, 044-3605284
