The Film Club: Egill Sæbjörnsson

Egill Sæbjörnsson’s art can be sheer beauty, other times he surprises with hideous wild trolls. What connects these contraries is the technological examination – with painting and sculpture as a basis – of the space between the physical and the virtual, which Sæbjörnsson sees as one and the same reality.

On April 29, the Film Club will be presenting three works by Egill Sæbjörnsson: the documentation of the performance work “Skinn & Lak” (2001); the performative video installation “Mr. Piano and Mrs. Pile” (2004), in which a piano and an indefinable pile of bird droppings have a philosophical discussion of space, objects and pure emotions; and finally the lecture performance “Object Species” (2021).

It’s one Film Club you don’t want to miss! Also not to miss: the after party, which runs from 20-01. Welcome!

By bringing together some older works by Egill Sæbjörnsson with his new lecture performance “Object Species” (2021), and by giving visitors a chance to experience his work in relation to the exhibitions at Kummelholmen in Vårberg Centrum and Andys Gallery in Stockholm, we are able to bring to the fore Sæbjörnsson’s holistic view of how people, nature, and objects are interconnected.

The collaboration among the different kind of art institutions – Moderna Museet, Kummelholmen, Andys Gallery, Stockholm Art Week, Brillo Vox, Market Art Fair and The Embassy of Iceland – also sheds light on another of Sæbjörnsson’s philosophical ideas – that art is a species in itself that interacts with people and in turn makes people interact with each other.

The installations “Skinn & Lak” and “Mr. Piano & Mrs. Pile” will be shown inside and outside the Auditorium, until 1 May 2022.

Egill Sæbjörnsson

With a background in painting, the Icelandic artist Egill Sæbjörnsson (b. 1973) has over the past twenty-five years developed works of art that bring together 3D environments, digital projections, technology and sound. It’s revolving around small intimate exhibitions in museums or galleries to large-scale permanent public works. His ground-breaking architectural installation Steinkugel for the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin, is the first self-generating permanent video installation initiated outdoors in Germany.

His art is seemingly humorous and playful, but seeks deeper ontological and philosophical issues. He regularly gives lecture performances where he examines the theoretical basis of his practice. Egill Sæbjörnsson has exhibited at the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin, the Frankfurter Kunstverein, the National Gallery in Prague, the 57th Art Biennale in Venice, and in 2019 he was nominated for the Ars Fennica Art Prize in Finland.