The Nordic Pavilion at the 54th International Art Exhibition - la Biennale di Venezia

Sweden presents: Fia Backström & Andreas Eriksson

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Fia Backström and Andreas Eriksson are two of the most interesting and prominent Swedish artists of their generation. Both operate on a conceptual basis, while each engages in different methods and media, resulting in divergent projects. The works of both artists relate to Venice and la Biennale. Fia Backström’s work will be tied to the structure of national representation within la Biennale. Andreas Eriksson's work relates to the Nordic Pavilion, which plays with the notion of indoors and outdoors, nature and architecture, with its two glass walls and trees growing indoors.

Fia Backström (b 1970) has enjoyed increasing international acclaim in recent years. For more than a decade, she has been living and working in between Stockholm and New York, participating in numerous exhibitions and projects, including the Whitney Biennial in 2008 and MoMa 2010.
 
Fia Backström produces events, environments and projects, which challenge our habitual notions of what constitutes an exhibition – its institutional context, the dialogue with the audience, and even the works of art that are presented. Occasionally she incorporates works by other artists into her work. She works with structures around politics, authorship and the capacity of images to generate meaning. Her methods and media are chosen according to the situation and theme.

Biography Fia Backström

Andreas Eriksson (b 1975) employs a variety of techniques and media, including painting, sculpture, photography, installation art and, more recently, film. He works conceptually, but with a finely-tuned visual sensibility. In 2007, he was awarded the Art Balois Prize at the Art Basel Statement. He had a major solo exhibition at the Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig in Vienna in 2008, and has participated in numerous group exhibitions.

In recent years, his work has been intimately linked to the place where it is created, the rural terrain outside his studio in Västmanland. In the late 1990s, Andreas Eriksson was living and working in Berlin, caught up in an intense phase of his burgeoning international career, with numerous major exhibitions, when he began to suffer from electromagnetic hypersensitivity. He was forced to move far away from the city, from densely populated areas, and the electromagnetic fields of urban life. Andreas Eriksson’s art has always been strongly associated with the context in which it is produced, his life and surroundings. In consequence, these radical changes in his existence are also reflected in his work. Trivial events and observations from everyday life and nature set off his metaphorical and existential contemplations.

Biography Andreas Eriksson