Artist on artist: Petra Gipp on REDOUBT

Read Petra Gipp’s reflections on her own work and the exhibition REDOUBT:

THE WORDLESS

I work in the borderland between architecture and sculpture, where room-sized castings touch upon something wordless, allowing us to approach existential realms in which the elements become carriers of life itself.
In my practice, I begin with the cast material—plaster and concrete. The cast forms are scaled to the human body, a scale that relates to the physical body situated within a context. Here, the cast stands in relation to intervals, light and shadow, to sequences and dynamics; to the personal and the collective.
My most recent work, “DDR: Traces of Escape; in Landscape, Body and Memory,” takes its point of departure in several archives in the former East Germany and in Russia. Based on the information I am able to obtain, I follow in my father’s footsteps. The traces lead me to places that in turn bear traces of other human destinies; the personal and the collective intertwine into a narrative with many voices and fates. Where the traces come to an end, the cast form steps in—wordless, with a language and a presence that make possible a story of what remains unspoken.

TRACES

John Skoog’s monumental sculpture, a reconstruction in the traces of Karl-Göran Persson’s anxiety and care, fascinates and unsettles me. A human destiny that, in the guise of sculpture, bears traces of both hope and despair. A singular voice that unites the deeply personal with shared reflections on fear and vulnerability, but also on love and care for one another.
I feel a strong kinship with John Skoog’s sculpture “Svalebo,” its silence carrying traces of a human life. In my own artistic practice, I have approached silence—the wordless—through monumental sculptures that carry unspoken human traces.

ABOUT Petra Gipp

Petra Gipp (b. 1967, Stockholm) lives and works in Stockholm and on Ven. She was educated at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, where she has also taught architecture and transformation. She is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts and was awarded the Prince Eugen Medal in 2025. Her sculptural works have been exhibited nationally and internationally, including at Liljevalchs konsthall, Artipelag, Färgfabriken, Skissernas Museum, as well as several times at the Venice Biennale. Petra has received several awards and grants, including a five-year working grant from the Konstnärsnämnden (2024–2029) and the Artist Scholarship from Sven-Harrys Konstmuseum (2023).