Venice, Italy – May 9, 2019
Dear friend of photography and other art
It’s an untimed timing!
Today, it is 10 years ago I opened my studio in Lund, Sweden, started a one-man company and called myself an art photographer – self-taught, so my apologies to the ‘real’ professionals out there!
My homepage, under multi-year development, indicates what has been achieved – parallel to my academic work for peace here.
And tonight…!
Tonight is the opening for specially invited people of the European Cultural Centre’s exhibition “Personal Structures” at Palazzo Mora here in Venice.
Quite unbelievably even to myself, one of the 170 invited exhibiting artist is – well, me. I guess I know have a sense of how it feels to win an Oscar or the Eurovision Song Context…
The 58th Venice Biennale
It happens in the context of the 58th Venice Art Biennale to which around half a million people are expected from all over the world on the opening days May 9-11th. By any standard the Venice Biennale and the “collateral” – more diverse, dynamic – events all over Venice is the world’s most important event for contemporary art.
SIlk Peace Art Road – SPAR
So, I’ve been working on my installation the last 12 months and now set it up here, ready 4 days before the opening. It’s called SPAR – Silk Peace Art Road – and is a 20 square meter photo-based, multi-media installation with the new Silk Road, or the China-initiated Belt And Road Initiative (BRI), as it theme. Apart from aesthetic values, it seeks dialogues about how the world order is changing with the decline of the West or A/Occident and the rise of the China/Orient.
All about SPAR here and daily updates from Venice on Instagram here. A series of smaller videos related to the SPAR installation can be found on Vimeo* – and a few will be added later this week.
A dream come true
I’ve seen the earlier exhibitions at the magnificently beautiful Palazzo Mora and every time thought to myself that it would be a dream, a once-in-a-lifetime chance to exhibit something there – and make it extraordinary – in terms of idea, complexity, technique and sheer size (used as I am to work only with smaller prints on papers).
That dream has now become true and wonder how it will be received and perceived.
Thanks to everyone at the European Cultural Centre and Palazzo Mora
I cannot praise the wonderful people of the European Cultural Centre here who during the entire process have been helpful and professional beyond words and made me feel like I was the only one to exhibit. And I want to thank also the initiator of this whole “Personal Structures” process since 2003 for having invited me – Dutch-born Rene Ritmeyer. See his homepage and his relations to the Biennale, the Global Art Affairs (GAA) Foundation and the European Cultural Centre (ECC) in Venice here.
Come to Venice before November 24
Over 300 000 will visit Mora between now and November 24. Perhaps you? If so, SPAR is found in Room # 216 on 2nd floor – where Yoko Ono had her installation two year ago. I am in Venice until May 28.
Otherwise, follow the project’s development here and on Instagram.
Jan Oberg
* Since I now avoid Google as much as possible because of its corporate non-ethics and closeness to US militarism, I have discontinued my presence on Google-owned YouTube.