Maria Miesenberger Utan titel (Herrarna i hagen) från serien Sverige/Schweden, 1993 — Maria Miesenberger, Untitled (Herrarna i hagen) from the series Sverige/Schweden, 1993 © Maria Miesenberger / Bildupphovsrätt 2016

Moment – Maria Miesenberger

22.3 2014 – 4.5 2014

Stockholm

Maria Miesenberger’s (b. 1965) oeuvre comprises both photography and sculpture. The Moderna Museet collection includes a series of images from one of her best-known projects, Sverige/Schweden (1993–2000), in which she has used pictures from her family album, reducing the human figures to black silhouettes in idyllic yet deceptive settings.

The artist has transformed the typical scenes from family gatherings in the green summer into a precarious sphere where the passing of time and the close relational ties seem to be gone. The older works are accompanied here by three photographs from the recent series Reflection on the Presence of Love (2013). Again, Miesenberger has worked with layering, and the face that appears (the artist’s sister) is hidden by hands that both protect and push it away. An oscillation is generated by the ambivalence between beauty and repugnance, between the moment and timelessness. Crouching on the floor is a tiny creature in stretchy nylon, Duck & Cover from 1999. Its title is from a method taught to children during the Cold War – don’t run outside, but duck and cover your head from a falling bomb. A pressure wave surges through the exhibition, from the small unprotected figure, and back into the world of black and white photographs.

Based on the oeuvre of Maria Miesenberger, the author and playwright Lars Norén has written a new essay: Poros. Om Maria Miesenberger.

Curator: Ann-Sofi Noring

With support from