A kind of chronology, lots of notes and observations, scattered ideas, photos, drawings and also – at the bottom – some preliminary thoughts, and how it all started.
It serves as a diary for myself and a documentation with reminders. There may be experimenting artists in a situation like mine who may find help/inspiration in some of the down-to-earth information; I have not come across anything similar. We normally only see the final result at an exhibition.
It may also be the embryo of the SPAR book that I’d like to create. My apologies for the sketchy character of this “logbook.”
October 2023
Participate with an online gallery at the Shanghai International Art Fair, SIAF. It’s one of the biggest art events, with 120,000 ‘live’ visitors and over 2 million online visitors. My gallery will be present there for 12 months. See it here – photos and texts to hopefully reach many art-interested people and institutions in China so that SPAR can get to China in 2024.
Showed selected works from the SPAR project at the Cultural Night in September and the Art Weekend in October in Lund. Great response to my work and curiosity about China and why I do this. Also, very happy that several Chinese students came by.
August 2023
I’ve spent quite some time finding the best quote for shipping the two boxes from Venice and the third one from Lund to Nanjing; I did not foresee that it could be so complicated and requite so much data. I am awaiting a decision from the authorities there. In the meantime, I have updated all the SPAR texts here and re-arranged the menus.
Also, I will show some of the SPAR works at Cultural Night in Lund on September 16.
June 2023
Since I wrote two years ago, nothing has worked out. Until now, that is: China has opened up.
As I wrote below, the SPAR – Silk Peace Art Road – Installation was shown at Palazzo Mora as part of the Venice Art Biennale. It ended in November 2019.
It has been stored there since then. It should have been shipped to China, but before it was, the Corona broke out.
But now I have hope!
Thanks to the Chinese ambassador to Sweden, Cui Aimin, who takes a special interest in culture and people-to-people dialogue, I am now hopeful that it will travel to China. The first place may be Nanjing or Suzhou in Jiangsu Province. The long-term plan is that then is shall tour around China and move back to Europe through some of the capitals of the new Silk Roads – the Belt & Road Initiative, BRI.
December 14, 2020
It’s been a long wait. After having created the 10 small photos collage paintings “Combines” for the Shanghai exhibition, all images were sent to my friend and liaison, Xing. After that, we lost contact and it has been at a standstill with no feedback. It goes without saying that it has been months of frustration. The pandemic basically closed down China.
I am now working on alternative options for China. If they do not work out either, I will bring back the SPAR installation from the storehouse in Venice and see whether it can travel around Europe – post-Corona – instead.
To have SPAR shown in Tehran is now also dropped due to the Corona pandemic…
April 30, 2020
Next stop: Shanghai
Shortly after my February notes, the Corona pandemic climbed to the top of international society and changed almost everything. So too, the plan for having SPAR shown in Tehran. It had to be cancelled this spring and will hopefully be shown there at a later point.
Thankfully, Shanghai is still on. The young Chinese man, Yi Shing Lai – “Xing” – who suggested the whole thing on the 2nd last day of the Venice Biennale has been working hard on it. First, from London, where he lived and then from China where he went after COVID-19 took hold in the UK.
Xing was in London to study sound – not music, but sound. And he also runs an agency with his business partner, Jessica, aiming to bring art from the West over to be shown in China. He is based in Shanghai and seems very well-connected there.
After some back and forth about the likely schedule, it looks now to be August. At the Lingang International Art Center (LIAC) in the huge new industrial zone south of Shanghai – you may have heard about it because it is where Tesla recently opened its new car factory.
Get an impression of LIAC here – or see some shots below.
I’m thrilled. It looks exactly like my ideal space.
And here is the preliminary logo of the SPAR Installation Exhibition designed by Xing:
These changes mean that SPAR will travel to Shanghai and then, hopefully, be shown at other places in China, after which it will begin to move back to Europe along the BRI – the Belt and Road Initiative countries.
But I must say that the Corona world crisis – which also impacts the art world fundamentally and for some even existentially – was not exactly what I had hoped after Venice…
Finally, if you feel this is interesting – as art and/or peace promotion – I shall be immensely grateful for even the smallest support. Donate very easily, securely and quickly right here.
February 22, 2020
SPAR waiting to travel
The installation is still stored in Venice, which is what I had hoped to avoid. My original idea was to have it travel from Venice and be shown in capitals along some of the BRI countries and finally reach China.
Virtually all my inquiries to selected galleries, museums, art spaces, academies, China-related institutes, embassies etc., in Belgrade, Istanbul and Athens remain unanswered. Perhaps I’d been unrealistic when it came to planning horizons, but a response would anyhow have been nice.
In hindsight, perhaps this will turn out to be a good thing?
On the second last day of the show at Palazzo Mora, a young Chinese came up to me after having examined the installation and asked whether I was thinking of having it travel after Venice and, if so, would be interested in having it shown in China.
We’ve cooperated ever since and, at this moment, a large brand new art museum in the huge new industrial zone – where Tesla’s new factory is located – a bit south of the centre of Shanghai has accepted it. But there are two problems still to deal with. One is the political check of the images to be carried out, if I understand correctly, by the local Ministry of Culture. The other is how the COVID-19 coronavirus will develop in the light of the show being planned there from mid-June into early August.
So, the present plan is to turn the itinerary around and have the tour start in Shanghai, try to have it shown at other locations in China – Xian is high on my list and so is Beijing, Chengdu and Shenzhen and whoever indicates an interest – and then have it travel 2021-2023 back towards Europe.
But a few days ago, I was informed by my friend in Tehran, Iran, who has worked in the contemporary art gallery sector, that there are one to three museums that would be welcoming it in April-May.
That would be so exciting. Given Tehran’s amazingly vibrant contemporary art scene, I would love to have it shown there.
In June, I am anyhow supposed to go to Tehran to be a keynote speaker at an international conference at Tehran’s University arranged by the Faculty of World Studies because it has set up an international Master’s program in academic peace and conflict studies. I am a little proud to add that it was set up in the wake of my lecture there in 2013.
So, it looks like a lot of Iran travels and activities. That is good also in a larger perspective. People-to-people and cultural contacts are immensely important now the West, the US in particular, is suffocating the Iranian people – 85 million – with extremely hard economic sanctions and an oil embargo, also threatening to attack the country and demonize it ad absurdum, all supported by the mainstream media.
I shall have to be patient. But I do see SPAR as a tiny bridgebuilder for intercultural dialogue and understanding.
The installation’s images have to be checked in Tehran too, of course. In both cases, I do not think there is anything that would not pass the vigilant eyes of officials, but you never know. I’ll find out how to tackle those issues if they appear.
What I work on these months are three related things:
- Producing the best prints on paper of all the works in the installation which shall be for sale where it will be shown.
- With a view to China, create some additional smaller photo-and-painting combines to be exhibited in Shanghai; they are small formats like 60 x 60 cm – perhaps 10 in all.
- Updating my homepage as things develop. The China 1983 Portfolio is already there, with some of the works for sale in the shop. As usual, I like to show quite a few images in the Portfolio but only those I believe are the best for sale.
- And, finally working on the China 2018-1 Portfolio – its works for sale coming in the near future.
The Venice exhibition comes to an end: And then what?
November 30, 2019
On November 24, the exhibition – Personal Structures. Identities – at the European Cultural Centre (ECC)‘s Palazzo Mora (and Palazzo Bembo) in Venice closed.
More than 300.000 people came to Palazzo Mora alone.
It’s been 6 fabulous months for my SPAR Installation!
I was there during all of May, a week in October and the last week, so 6 weeks in total and talked with hundreds of visitors from all over the world. I have reflected on that in the article “The Venice Future Dialogues”.
I feel greatly privileged and rewarded that the ECC and my installation created an opportunity for me to meet so many great, serious, thinking, open-minded, world-concerned and plain lovely people from so many places and cultures.
I learned that art is a world language, a truly universal language. And the fact that SPAR deals with some aspects of the future of humanity, of course, made it easier for people to open up – to talk about their fears and hopes for the future – and share their experiences from their home country and their own travels.
I couldn’t ask for more.
And that can also be said about the professional and very joyful cooperation I have had with everyone at Palazzo Mora over the last 3 years since René Rietmeyer, the founder of the ECC, contacted me and invited me to exhibit.
I have not been writing here since the opening. But it is all registered meticulously: On Instagram, in my PostArt Newsletters and in my Journal/Logbook.
And, so – feeling a bit sad, I must admit – we dismantled the installation bit-by-bit and packed it into its two crates on November 25. It took only 5 hours, thanks to the fine planning of the ECC staff. And then, it was transported on a boat to a storage facility in Venice.
Awaiting its next destination…
And the next step is . . .
The next step is to have SPAR shown in various capitals of the countries that participate in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – galleries, art spaces, cultural centres, museums – what have you. And create more dialogues about the future of our little planet.
As I am writing this, the places that I’m reasonably hopeful about are Tehran, Xian and Shanghai. But the whole dream itinerary is: Belgrade, Athens, Istanbul, Damascus, St. Petersburg/Moscow, Tblisi, Yerevan, Baku, Tehran, Ashgabat, Tashkent, Astana, Dushanbe, Bishtek, Islamabad and then around China.
One must have dreams… or they will never come true!
Regarding reporting developments, in September, I opened an exhibition in my studio in Lund, Sweden, with the images that sit in the installation, printed on fine art papers. Such single editions will accompany the installation in the future and make sales and income – both for the exhibiting partner and myself – possible.
Here is the SPAR Exhibition Partnership Program.
Perhaps you know a potential partner?
In summary here at the end of November: If the first chapter of the SPAR story was the creation of the installation, exhibiting it in the context of the Venice Biennale was the second and for me being a most rewarding, exciting and art life-changing experience.
May 11, 2019
The exhibition with SPAR opens on May 11
So, the Big Day has arrived. Thanks to the professional and generous assistance of the staff at the European Cultural Centre, the SPAR installation was ready on May 6 – way before the pre-openings and parties on May 9 and 10 and the real opening on Saturday, May 11.
More about this fantastic globalizing exhibition in one of the world’s most beautiful art spaces here. And photos and videos on Instagram.
May 6, 2019
In Venice, setting it up
Left Sweden on May 1, found the wonderful flat I had rented just 2-3 minutes from Palazzo Mora and turned up there on the 2nd at 9 AM. Got a warm hugging welcome by all the staff of the European Culture Centre (ECC) – so good to finally meet each other after all these emails.
In room # 216 on the 2nd floor, I found my installation panels in their silk paper and bubble plastic wrappings and the various artefacts, tools as well as the four podiums. All had arrived safe and sound and the staff had handled it so well. Thank you!
And now, it’s just to get going…
What was to be done was this: Getting the fabric wrapped around the podiums and set the four panels with the right 4 cm distance between each and fix them in the wall; secure the objects on these panels (antiques, a shoe, a plastic jewellery, a cup, etc) and securing them against theft (while also enabling that they can be taken off again when the installation shall be re-packed in the boxes), getting videos transferred from my computer to the two iPads in loop mode, fixing the “paibians” on top of each panel, arrange the AI robot on the second wall (and make it work) as well as the calligraphies and the double poster and, finally, set the lights on the installation. In short, a few days of work with creative problem-solving.
The staff assigned to me was Giovanni and Daniele for the practical stuff and Patrick for technology such as the iPads and the robot. Wonderful to work with, highly professional, going out of their way to find solutions, ready to re-think when it doesn’t work, and always a good spirit and sense of humour. Now we are friends!
Here Daniele and Giovanni find out how to fix the shoe with a strong magnet:
It took from May 2 to May 6 to finalize it all. Although there are 169 other artists exhibiting at this year’s “Personal Structures,” I felt I was treated as if I was the only one, really. And never did I hear “we can’t do that” – I only heard “we’ll find a solution, don’t worry”.
I recognize that my installation could be one of the more complex pieces to set up because of all the small things and its multimedia character. Some installations here, of course, are much bigger, complex and heavy, but many are also just single works to be hung on a nail on a wall.
It’s been a wonderful experience – and we’re ready days before the preview, press and party events on the 9th and 10th and the formal opening on the 11th. I can’t thank you guys enough!
And here is what my dear SPAR looks like on May 5…
April 29, 2019
Right before Venice
The time before departure on May 1 was a bit hectic with lots of details to think of, packing stuff and – above all – two things to finish that I could not expect to get done when in Venice: a) the double A1 poster to sit on the 2nd wall (see below) and b) the two videos that people shall be able to watch on iPads on that wall.
Attempts to get the local southern Swedish media to pay attention to my exhibiting in Venice largely failed. However, Sydsvenska Dagbladet made a very good, short interview with a background.
The double poster required a lot of work – getting it really informative but also not too long, making a nice layout and constructing a series of QR codes so visitors can take the links to important sites with them and watch after their visit to Palazzo Mora. Modern technology offers wonderful opportunities but, alas, also requires quite some work to realize, particularly when you do not have a staff to hand over such things to…
My volunteer assistant, Séverine Renard, who works both for my research foundation and for Oberg PhotoGraphics turned out to be very skilled at video production. Fortunately!
So I bought the latest iPhone (anyhow, I had to) and shot some videos about myself (!), about the Belt And Road Initiative (BRI) and about the thoughts behind the installation – and she edited them and made Ken Burns effects, transitions, fine-tuned the colours and sound, and put logos and music on parts of them. I am very grateful for her devotion and skills.
You can now find these videos at my Vimeo Channel (as much as I can, I avoid everything Google and what it owns and controls, such as its YouTube, Google Search, Chrome, Maps etc., because of Google’s terrible tracking, censorship and pro-war policy). These videos are shot with iPhone and Huawei and edited in iMovie. It’s a good way to reach out, but I do not pretend to be a professional movie-maker in any sense.
The two movies of almost 50 min each that shall be available to the visitors is “One Road” and “One Journey”. The first is one series of contrasting impressions from Silk Road/Belt And Road Initiative countries that you can find photos of in the installation; the second consists of 4 smaller videos. And both are shown in a looping mode.
April 5, 2019
The extra wall
So far, I’ve written about the main installation parts: The four panels, each standing on low podiums and, on top, the four “paibians” (see below). But the people at Mora were so incredibly kind to give me a bonus wall next to it, 196 cm extra in a 90 degree to the installation itself.
This is how I plan to use it – with my apologies for the quick, amateurish sketch and unreadable handwriting:
This wall will be devoted to some explanation but also original Chinese art and technology:
- On top, an original calligraphy with Silk Road, created by artist Wang Chang Lin in Xian for this project;
- A 3-piece “diulian“ here called calligraphy on a red bottom. A “diulian” is placed around all doors in China at the Chinese new year with some kind of good wishes, thoughts and poetry. This has been created by calligrapher Fan Xiaochun in Beijing for this project. They express the wish for peace and how the East and West must connect: “Today’s peace path” – and “Art links Europe and Asia”.
- “Bobi,” the artificial intelligence robot that I received as a present from Sunny Lyn, CEO of iShareYoung Technology Corporation, Ltd. in the high-tech city of Shenzhen. It is a piece of very advanced technology that serves to help children learn a language. It will be programmed to speak and sing and roll its eyes every 20 minutes, for about 20 seconds.
- Then two iPads, one with a “road movie” with haphazard shots from China, Kazakhstan, Venice, Somaliland etc – but not the pictures in the installation. The other has various explanations about both the installation and Silk Road or, rather, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
- Over the iPads, two small pieces of Chinese antique woodcarvings.
- And, finally, a 90 x 60 cm “poster” where visitors can quickly get an overview of the project and a map of the Silk Road as well as QR codes for places where there is more knowledge and references.
April 3, 2019
Safe arrival to Venice
On April 1, the installation arrived at Palazzo Mora in Venice, safe and sound:
This what they looked like when packed at Export Pak in Lund:
200 kilo and very solid in OSB wood, made so the panels will not move back and forth during the truck transport to Venice. That could scratch the sensitive surfaces of the canvas prints. As you see, they are easy for fork-lifts to move.
Before dispatch, the panels were covered first with silk paper and then bubble plastic:
I can’t wait to see it all again on May 2, there in Room # 216, and then work on setting it all up.
Up till the dispatch on Monday, March 25, I was busy 24/7 finalizing the last two panels and lots of details on them. On the famous other hand, also quite proud that I was ready with the whole thing already Saturday the 23rd.
I think it would be wrong to publish the whole thing. That is for the opening on May 11. But here I am in front of one part:
March 28, 2019
Paibians
In China, a “paibian” is a name board with calligraphy that sits over a door or on top of an inner wall. To the left are two in red.
At the top, they lean out between 25 and 45 degrees and for all I know, they are meant as decorative items.
Already when in China, I decided that I wanted something like that over my installation, one over each of the four panels. However, I found out that the real ones in China were both very expensive and very heavy. So, I decided to find something here in Lund, Sweden, that could serve as paibians!
After various trials and errors, I ended up buying some old paintings in handmade wooden frames with a little gold paint from a second-hand shop. And then I painted them over…
As can be seen, the idea is to give them a shiny surface – paibians often have – in one colour and let the original motive be seen, just vaguely. The colours match the colour scheme/movement of the four panels.
I hope that, when I work with these paibians on-site, they will build a calm contrast to all that happens below them in the panels.
The surface is overpainted several times with iridescent white and medium and I think that when they get the spotlight on them, they will have a mirror-like effect and visually kind of finish the panels on top in a homogenous way instead of having the panels meeting directly the ceiling.
They are all amateur paintings with landscapes – while faces and townscapes populate the panels below them.
In summary, an aesthetic touch of Chinese-ness and yin and yang in motive and colouration. Also, while the panels lean inward on the wall on top, the paibians lean outward on top.
March 10, 2019
Here is how the installation has progressed until today:
The right-hand Chinese side of the installation has a test arrangement of some of the possible collages to enter when I have made up my mind as to what is important and how the elements combine into some kind of harmony in each panel.
Half of such work is pure imagination. And when the canvas-printed photos and collages have been fixed to the panels, there is no way back…
I’ve bought a pair of lady’s shoes for the installation, secondhand. One shoe will be fixed in the darker left-hand side of the installation, in conjunction with the photos from Aleppo, Syria.
It will symbolize the process of having to flee your home in times of war: What you throw out, cannot take with you and the happy times you also leave behind. It’s one of many artefacts.
Another is an old handmade mirror that will function as a cupboard door that visitors can get a thought-provoking experience by opening.
Nice piece of homemade handicraft with – if you want to see it – a touch of both Italy and China. I like that parakeet a lot, also because one of my collages contains an image of China’s Zhou Enlai – the very important premier 1949-1976, and a parakeet.
This mirror frame was cut in one piece in the 1980s (it’s signed), and I’ve now repainted it a bit. Nothing perfect, but more fresh to look at. Found it in a flee market for about US$ 12.
March 7, 2019
Shipping and deadline
Oh, time is passing so quickly, and lots of time is consumed by practical details rather than working on my installation…
This past week I got the shipping fixed. It’s a fortune because shipping – by boat – about 150 kilo a few kilometres from a hub in Venice to Palazzo Mora is more costly than the truck transport Lund-Venice. I got offers from 5 Italian shipping companies but settled for a sixth – the Danish Lauritzen.
One has to think also of protection, i.e. how to pack it all. Surfaces must be protected first by silk tissue paper and bubble plastic, and then put in a specially constructed box. The box will be built by ExportPak here in Lund in a wooden material called OBS which is very sturdy. And also quite heavy!
I need one large box for the four panels and one for all the rest, including the “paibians” on top – framed canvases, artefacts and much else I will need when setting up the installation on site.
Then there is coordination between these companies and between them and Venice, and there is the question of insurance – having no clue what such an installation is worth in insurance terms. And then the big issue: When will it have to leave my place and start its travel to Venice?
It will be on March 25. So now comes the final spurt!
Managing such a project is much-much more than creating some art. I guess almost 50% of the time is consumed with such things and with public relations about it, such as on social media.
Why write this? A cultural mediation program for the visitors
I hope what I write here can be of some little use to other artists. I found no such thing on the Internet myself when I started out: What to think about and how to plan an art project all by yourself?
Some of it may also go into a booklet that I may create about the project. And there may be a few who are interested in knowing how an art piece like this was created over time. Plus thoughts, reflections and sketches. It’s my logbook.
Also, I’ve been told that the European Cultural Centre, ECC, in Venice has a team who runs a Cultural Mediation Program – aiming to:
…”bring closer your work to the audience, help them to understand your artistic approach and your interpretation of your exhibit. Our cultural mediators will be present in each of our venues to welcome and guide the visitors through the exhibition spaces.”
Isn’t that a great idea?
They were very happy that all the information they needed was already available here. And – already done since the start – it saved me a lot of time too.
February 21, 2019
Room #216 at Palazzo Mora
Today, the good people at the European Cultural Centre, ECC, in Palazzo Mora and I agreed on the room for my installation. What a huge jigsaw puzzle it must be for them, only having sketches, some measurements and perhaps some photos as the basis for placing artworks of 170 artists at two large palaces and some open spaces in Venice.
In addition, they are super professional, go out of their way to help you with your artwork, even trying to find things you may need on the spot. If they care for all artists like they have cared for me, I wonder whether they ever sleep.
After a couple of ideas that did not fit my wishes, we ended up with agreeing on Room # 216 on the second floor of the wonderful Palazzo Mora. My installation will be on the right-hand wall: 3,25 m high – 4,58 m long + an extra wall to the right that you don’t see: 3,25 m high – 1,96 long.
It has one door and is not a place where many visitors just walk by the work; they will walk into the room and be able – undisturbed – to dwell there a bit. In addition to my installation, will be two artworks on the other walls.
I can’t wait to set up my installation in that room – actually, the very room in which Yoko Ono had her “Mirror Image” installation in 2017.
Perhaps Room # 216 will, from now on, be the permanent space of art for/with/to peace?
Here is a fine video about the Global Art Affairs (GAA) Foundation’s and the European Cultural Centre’s mission and exhibition philosophy, as told by their own staff:
February 19, 2019
Neither the photos nor the video here gives an impression of the entire installation idea and how it should appear when set up at Palazzo Mora. My own studio space is only 260 cm, so I can’t fit it all on my own wall.
Also, the good people there need a layout/sketch to find a good place for it in that beautiful old palazzo.
So today I made two quick and rather bad drawings of the whole thing. My apologies for the poor quality of the lines, the quite incorrect proportions and my terrible handwriting.
February 14, 2019
Thanks to my friend and assistant, Séverine Renard, there is now a new, short video, about the SPAR project.
It illustrates the basic idea or “flow” of the photo-based, multimedia installation that I have been invited to create for the European Cultural Centre’s “Personal Structures – Open Borders” international exhibition.
February 13, 2019
On WeChat
Spreading the message is part of the project – both because it is, at least to some extent, a work about peace and war and because I’d like others to know about my work. Most artists do!
Since even before I was in China, I’ve been fascinated with the multi-functional Chinese app WeChat, which is so much more than a chat app. So I set myself up in 2016 there and all my Chinese and some Western friends are using it. It is now a daily tool.
Thanks to my two dear young friends in Chengdu, Jenny Wei and Sarah Wu, I yesterday got the first Chinese-language article posted on my WeChat Public Account, about the SPAR project, of course.
For me, it is also about saying thank you to and keep in touch with all I met in China, for all the hospitality and generosity I encountered.
Immediately 40 reactions and some subscribers. There is now only about 1400 million other people left to reach…! But I think long-term and in win-win terms – as the Chinese do.
Here is the link to it, and you can subscribe too – if, that is, you are on WeChat. I’d recommend you begin to use WeChat; it’s pretty much the future, as far as I can see.
February 5, 2019
Friendship Denmark-China
A project such as this often leads to something else on its way. Since I was in China for the first time, in 1983 and more about it here, I have known Julie Brink who led that Danish delegation’s trip and also the Friendship Association Denmark-China (VDK). And she edits its very rich magazine, DanmarKina.
The latest issue has just been published and you can see it here:
Well, it is in Danish but you’ll get an impression of the fine public education magazine it is.
I am proud to have created the collage on the front page and written two articles in it, all building on my travels in China in 2018.
January 27, 2019
to paint them into the panels’ painted surface — make their edges disappear
Thought it could be fun – and perhaps even useful to others – to offer some info about the research, trials and errors and choice of media as well as strategic decisions in the process:
Panels and acrylic
The panels are plywood which I have settled for as the most useful for my project. All such woods will, sooner rather than later, transmit chemicals that could, potentially, have a bad effect on paper mounted on them. So you need to paint them and, and acrylic is made of pigment suspended in acrylic polymer emulsion (invented in 1934 in Germany).
The panels are now painted in silver/white gold, gold, bronze and dark grey from right to left, from China to the West (see photos in the January 6 entry. I use Winsor and Newton for smaller areas and details and Maimeri acrylic for the large panel surface. And I love to work with acrylic colours: fine structure, easy to apply with various media, water-based and easy to clean afterwards, don’t smell, dry fast, easy to paint over… and no bad chemical effects on other materials such as papers or canvas.
Canvas
I’ve decided that the photos to be mounted on the panels shall be printed on canvas, Lyve canvas which is the best, better I think, than Hahnemühle’s canvas sheets. I like the surface structure better, and the depth and saturation of colours and details are simply amazing. They are 65% polyester and 35% cotton base with 93% brightness.
Furthermore, canvas is easier to combine with acrylic painting, brushstrokes and structures.
Irrespective of the medium, the problem will be to paint over the edges of the pictures so the single photos and photo collages appear like painted into the panels and not just mounted on them as if it was an exhibition: Either thick layers of paint or some heavy (sand) gel, or both. So, I am approaching some kind of three-dimensionality that will also give depth and life when spotlights are directed at the work.
And how to fix the canvas? Well, not by glue – it would not be even and there is always a risk that, over time, chemical elements from the glue will penetrate from behind and appear as yellowish stains on the print surface. So, stainless steel staples – but let the canvas dry and stretch well first, by hanging them for a few days by drawing pins.
Elevations
In addition to the panels, I plan to have 2 x 4 more elements. I want each of the 2,50 meters panels to be elevated from the floor, some 30-40 centimetres and then leaning into the wall on top. I’d look for some wooden materials, for instance from Venice, some piles that have been in the water in a canal, or something from the roof of a building. Or some construction wrapped in silk.
I like the idea that the installation include some local elements, artefacts, objects. There will be such things from China and, when being exhibited in Venice, why not something Italian/Venetian?
And on the top of each, I intend to arrange something that look like what the Chinese call paibians. It’s a forward leaning piece of wood that hangs over doors, most often with some calligraphy inscription. Here’s a photo that I took in Chengdu of two red paibians:
I can imagine to have one or two in which mirrors have been inserted; visitors can look up and see themselves. And/or create some transfer images on them, or paint acrylic figures/calligraphy-like shapes on them.
Buying them in China is beyond my means, the really old ones costing a fortune and being very heavy (and, thus, expensive) to get shipped the whole way to Sweden. I’ll have to find some other solution to realize that idea…
Proportions
I work in a relatively small room compared to the installation. I have to imagine how it will appear when seen from a larger distance in a larger room and how the works placed on the panels will interact with each other when seen as one installation and not as I see them, as four panels. Working with 10 square meters and adding elevation and the paibians means a totally different approach from the one I have always used when creating and printing smaller single images on maximum A1, i.e. roughly 60 x 90 centimetres.
But it’s fun to experiment and find out what works.
Protection – varnish
Since it’s estimated that as many as 300 000 people will see this exhibition between May 11 and November 24, I have to think about how to protect the prints’ surface. They have to be transported and handled, and there may be visitors who touch the surface. And I’d love to think that, after Venice, it may be shown somewhere else.
This means applying some kind of varnish, or lacquer, to the canvas prints, not just the usual Hahnemühle Protective Spray. After lots of consultations with various people and on the Internet, I have decided to use a product from the same company that produces the canvas, Breathing Color’s Museum grade matte varnish in the Timeless series.
The wonderful people in Venice
To produce this work and see what is possible, I am in frequent contact with the people at the European Cultural Center and Palazzo Mora in Venice. They are super professional, helpful and very open to help realize ideas. A clear win-win attitude similar to the Silk Road idea.
They will let me work on the installation well before the opening; provide various materials and solutions, they offer to build the four foundations for the panels; they are willing to help with an Italian cupboard door or small window that I need; they will secure the two iPads that will be part of the installation so they are not stolen, etc. etc.
It’s a joyful cooperation and I feel encouraged every time we have had a mail exchange or Skype meeting.
Of course, not all the exhibiting artists have an installation like mine. Many simply deliver a painting or a sculpture. But it feels great that there is, with every one of them, super professionalism and kindness.
January 6, 2019
During December, I grappled with a series of trials and errors, questions to be solved and strategic decisions. Each, unfortunately related to all the others somehow. Change one thing, and something else has to change too – like the Mikado game:
What type of panels in which size should I mount the whole installation on? How could I secure that the plywood I chose would not, over time, taint the prints on fine art Hahnemühle and Canson papers that I fix to those panels? How to paint those wall panels, colour combinations – symbolic of what, if anything? – and what type of colour?
Can you do inkjet prints on calligraphy paper, or other papers I have bought in China? What is the best technique for photo image transfers to such painted boards? How do I envisage that such transfer images would combine – interact with and speak with – the real prints, perhaps in frames, and the artefacts I have collected and want to use? How will the colour setting of the panels interact with the colours of the photos I will finally choose – will I have to repaint them all for yet another time?
There will be four plywood panels, each 100 cm x 250 cm, placed with intervals of about 10 cm, and they will be standing upon some kind of Chinese baskets or flower pots and leaning on the wall.
It’s quite a challenge to work with 10 square meters for someone who is used to a maximum A1, or 91 x 61 cm.
Here is how they have developed so far:
And that last one to the right should not be so colourful, of course. It is the first layers that will give depth when it is painted over:
How much will the whole thing finally weigh and, thus, what transport costs to reckon with sending it down to Venice and back to Sweden after the exhibition?
December 20, 2018
Paper production – and in the footsteps of Robert Rauschenberg
My visit to the Anhui Province was of special importance. Through a series of contacts with people who knew people who knew people, I ended up at a small mill where a few people produced the famous Xuan Paper according to traditional methods.
Here is a photo from the gate of the mill. From left, my travel companion and brilliant translator, Liu Jian, her daughter Canran, mill owner Zhu Shuibin and his wife and partner, Tang Quan.
And…
I cannot imagine that I could have found any more kind and generous people than those two who did not only explain everything, showed us around but also took us to where he was born in the village, to a far-away temple, several other villages and then to dinner with the town’s mayor and to an overnight stay at another far-away place – spending two full days with us as well as picking us up and dropping us off at the railway station.
I ended up buying several meters of calligraphy paper and various smaller sheets, it was all packed very carefully in a large study roll for dispatch directly to Sweden. A short while later, a local courier came and picked it up, I paid for it all and about ten days later, it all arrived at my address in Lund, Sweden.
A wonderfully human and technical experience, a glimpse of traditional China, in the province where paper was invented and is still produced from the same type of tree.
Robert Rauschenberg had gone to a similar place in June 1982 – which can be seen here in a postcard downloaded from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation.
If you read it carefully, he seems to have been in a very awkward situation at the time, being kept from local people. China has indeed changed to the better since then.
My visit was so joyful and the people I met were totally open and helpful in all ways. Thank you, thank you!
November 11, 2018
From Xian, I went to Chengdu, then to Jingxian in the Anhui Province, on to Suzhou and then ended my trip in Shanghai.
Chengdu gave me lots of new contacts, and I enjoyed the modern art museums there – I also went and looked at the statue of Mao, which I took a picture of in 1983. Indeed much had changed, even the statue itself.
New friends helped me identify a special bookstore in an old flat where I bought a lot of old publications, calligraphy books, school books, photo albums etc. – to become parts of my SPAR installation.
And I now have two wonderful student friends – who insist on calling me “professor” – who will assist me in getting on WeChat in Chinese. That’ll be great.
The purpose of going to the city of Jingxian in the Anhui province was to study paper production. I had read in the book about ROCI – the Rauschenberg Overseas Cultural Interchange that Robert Rauschenberg went there in 1984 and worked at (or, rather, near) a paper mill, and I knew that the first paper ever produced was Chinese and that it came from this province. More in-depth background here.
My friends in Shenzhen helped me identify a particular, small paper mill and a dear friend Liu Jian came over from Beijing with her daughter to experience this very old production of handmade papers. Without her, I could never have learned so much because the paper mill owner and I could not communicate. And, of course, I bought a lot of paper there and had it sent to Sweden.
How is it to print photos on the world’s oldest and finest handmade calligraphy papers? Can’t wait to try!
Then on to Suzhou, the “Venice of the East,” as the saying goes. That may have been fitting in 1983 but today, there isn’t much Venezia-like. OK, there are some old quarters and streets as well as fabulous museums and interesting cultural centres and galleries. But it is quite commercialised. Fortunately, I did take a lot of photos there.
Finally, Shanghai – where I was focusing on the new art area of this city, The West Bund, that the Chinese intend to make the world’s leading art and exhibition area anywhere. And big it is!
And now, back in Lund, Sweden, I have to make a series of decisions about the character and look of my photo-based, multi-media installation for the Venice show at Palazzo Mora with the European Cultural Centre.
In May next year – oh my God, it feels like so close!
Some such decisions: How shall I select among the 4000-5000 photos I’ve taken during these 6 weeks?
Structure of the work, which is to be 4 metres x 2,5 metres on plywood panels? Shall photos from each country – China (1983 and 2018), Kazakhstan, Myanmar, Somaliland, Iran, Syria and Venice – be mounted and arranged to communicate with each other?
And how to make it relate to the Silk Road?
If only one decision stood alone – but everything is now intertwined and rather complex… How frightening! How exciting!
Trial and error will have to be my main method from now on.
October 20, 2018
Around China
Travel around China for 6 weeks, from October 1 to November 11. As of today, I have visited Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guiyang and Xinguyi in the Guizhou province, and I write this from Xian.
Shanghai is a centre of contemporary art, Chinese as well as international.
Hangzhou is the centre of silk and hosts the two-campus, China Art Academy, by some ranked as the best.
Guizhou has incredible landscapes – green mountains, rivers, waterfalls and wonderful rice fields and small villages all around.
Xi’an (Xian) is the old capital and also the starting point of the old Silk Road.
In Xian, I walked over to the southern wall surrounding the centre of the city and there explored the artists’ quarters which seem to have been overlooked by Lonely Planet and other guides. There I met Wang Chang Lin, an artist and calligrapher working in his combined atelier and shop – right in from the street in a small alley filled with artists, galleries and art shops.
He spoke little English and I speak no Chinese, so we used body language, smiles and apps for translations on our phones. I let him read the Chinese version of the description of me and the SPAR project on my phone and he got very enthusiastic.
Resolutely, he rolled out calligraphy paper on his table, dipped his brush in the darkest black ink and here is the amazing result dedicated to me and the project:
This is but one example of the spontaneity, generosity and kindness that one repeatedly encounters when travelling around in China.
I am eternally grateful to him and must find a way to make good use of this fine piece of art in the various SPAR materials (like on top of this diary). Unfortunately, Wang has no homepage or e-mail, so I cannot promote him by making a link.
On the way, I have uploaded a new portfolio with a few of my photos from China in 1983.
September 1, 2018
Launched ObergPhotoGraphics.com today according to plan. Six portfolios and a lot of other things now ready, including a brand-new online shop.
Works will be added to the existing portfolios and new portfolios will be added. But – there is something to read and quite a lot to see.
Browse to your heart’s desire!
August 25, 2018
I’m not going to just hang some photos in some kind of pattern or sequence on that wall in Venice! Photos are – well, flat! From Day One, I’ve grappled with the idea of some kind of multi-media work in which photography would dominate but there would also be objects, artefacts, whatever, that I pick up during my travels.
The moment you say objects, we are into three dimensions (unless they are flat too, and some may be, of course).
Secondly, I’ve thought a lot about making it possible for the visitors to interact with at least parts of the work – the installation, as I think it is going to be.
Since the SPAR project is related to the Silk Road, the road is a throughgoing metaphor. But that huge, almost global vision – that emerging new world order – is also an opening. Doors open – and when they do, they let in light.
I began to think of some kind of panel on the wall in that beautiful palace where one or more doors could be opened by the visitors – for instance, one to the left to China and one to the right in the installation to Venice.
And what happens, then?
I’m on Instagram every day and about a week ago, I suddenly see the Rauschenberg Foundation’s posting something that catches my attention. Remember, Robert Rauschenberg is one of my favourites, a great inspiration.
Here’s that picture:
It’s “Rodeo Palace (Spread)” from 1976. See more about it at the Rauschenberg Foundation’s page here.
It has much bigger dimensions than I can have, but there are some ideas here to be explored…
July and August 2018
No holiday this year. Either. But I love what I do, so it’s OK. I’m working hard on preparations:
Contacting dozens of people and institutions in Scandinavia and China + establishing an “infrastructure” of the project, getting things to work while travelling and also reporting to my network and to social media.
This will be an open project in the sense that the process will be documented step-by-step. Images will be uploaded regularly, if not daily, on my Instagram account.
It has been very time-consuming to develop a brand new photo homepage – multi-dimensional too. It’s true that a picture may say more than a thousand words, but I want a new homepage where things are explained, a journal, a project and process description of SPAR as it develops, thematic portfolios, info about my prints in general, background etc. – and a shop where each work I have chosen is described and can be purchased right away.
This is also time-consuming because I improve each and every photo file. There are technical developments, not the least in Photoshop, which imply that you can do things to a file that wasn’t possible 5-10 years ago. And I want the best presentation. And a new selection.
I do it all myself. I don’t have the funds to ask a design company to create a photo homepage for me – probably in the vicinity of US$ 10.000 – and they would also not be able to structure it and make the photo files the way I want.
So it’s all on WordPress with lots of possibilities; the theme I have identified is a medium-complex one and cost only US$ 69. The real cost is 200-300 hours of work…
It’s worth it and can be adjusted, expanded and changed in unlimited ways in the future.
And then there are all the other travel and project preparations. I still hope to get off to China at the end of September.
In July, my application for a 3-6 months residency scholarship at the Swatch Art Peace Hotel in Shanghai was turned down; they don’t give your any explanation. So I had to change my plans along this line “Less Shanghai, More China and the Road”.
Perhaps in the end, that will turn out to be better. It will permit me to learn more aspects of China.
Three months fixed in Shanghai would have given me a lot, but also limited my work geographically and given me less flexibility. We’ll see what it implies.
While it would probably have been wonderful to be there for at least 3 months, I have now more freedom and time to travel around on my own. See the positive in the negative…
June 2018
Roaming around the Basel Art Fair – and who do I see? Zhijie’s works (see below), together with Nilima Sheikh’s hanging scrolls – in the booth of Hanart TZ, Hongkong.
I’m out to be inspired and steal ideas!
May 18, 2018
I’m in Stockholm for an evening lecture on Iran, and the day after I go to The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities because I’ve seen that an exhibition on paper, “Paper Stories,” opened there in February.
And what a wonderful learning experience in that magnificent building… Here is the museum’s collection of photos from the opening.
Little had I ever thought that paper could be used in so many artistic ways…
Here are a few shots of my own that tell you what I learned…
This, in particular, made me curious:
And why?
Because one of my lifetime inspirations in the art world is Robert Rauschenberg. Between 1984 and 1991, he did the global project, ROCI – Rauschenberg Overseas Cultural Interchange.
In the book about ROCI, he says that, as part of that huge project, he spent time at the world’s oldest paper mill, Xuan, in Jingsian in China’s Anhui Province in 1982 (p. 160).
The paper I saw and took a shot of at the museum’s wonderful exhibition is from there. I only found out when I came home and looked up where it was, Rauschenberg had been, although I never found the exact village or paper mill. Read more about Xuan paper here. And here on Inkston.
I’d like to visit such a paper factory, presumably making the oldest paper ever made. And try printing – and painting – on it. Possible?
April 2018
I was greatly inspired by leading Chinese artist Qiu Zhijie’s exhibition “Journeys without Arrivals” at the municipal art hall here in Lund, Sweden, where I live – Lunds Konsthall. Fabulous diversity, multi-media and such a wonderful mix of new and old.
I was drawn to Zhijie’s modern version of an old Chinese scroll – and thought about the possibility that I could produce a series of scrolls, side by side, which – when seen as one – would make a picture of the Silk Road and its people and artefacts.
Here you see how the original is under glass while his modern version is on the wall, the motives being basically parallel:
… and he works a lot with artefacts, things he has collected, memorabilia etc. and combines them with his works in installation-like ways…
I’d love to meet him when in China…
I saw this exhibition in March and for a second time on April 17 when Zhang Li, the director of the Chinese Cultural Centre in Copenhagen, CCCCPH, visited me and, after a long discussion of my project and showing him around my studio, I guided him and his assistant to the Lund Art Hall to see this exhibition.
Preliminary thoughts 2018
The SPAR project already stands on some foundation regarding photographic materials, structure and connection with China’s new Silk Roads, he Belt & Road Initiative (BRI).
Staying for an extended period of time in China, and travelling around, opens huge new vistas. Being in China, creating new images on the go, learning on-site from Chinese art history and techniques, integrating one’s own materials with whatever new (also non-photo, multimedia) that comes by during such a stay and perhaps encountering people with compatible interests and co-create something – well, it would be beyond words overwhelming, intense and stimulate my “high-temperature” production.
It would probably lead to the creation of works also beyond what could be shown at Palazzo Mora.
And, furthermore, this 2018-2019 project could turn out to be just the beginning and be extended into the future. It will depend on what develops, and the experimenting process, by its very nature, causes ideas about the final result at this point to be rather vague and adaptable as time goes by.
But in principle, at the moment, I see infinite possibilities – while, of course, there are limitations to take into account such as funding, practical obstacles, finding interested partners, and that sort of thing.
One concrete limitation is the price of the wall space at Palazzo Mora and the funding to pay for it (see below). Secondly, there is the transport between Europe and China of whatever works may result (types of materials, size, fragility, material flexibility).
It’s difficult to imagine the form of presentation at Mora in Venice, but it could be one large collage-like work stitched together in up to, say, 4 x 3 meters. It could also adapt to a Chinese presentation form such as a series of vertical or horizontal scrolls – or other forms and combinations.
In my thinking at this early stage, one inspirational model would be one of my favourite artists, Robert Rauschenberg’s ROCI – Rauschenberg Overseas Cultural Interchange (no comparison otherwise) that he conducted with colleagues 1985-1990: working together with people where you are and let your works be heavily influenced by the local historical and contemporary aesthetics and materials.
Another would be Chinese artist Qiu Zhijie whose multi-media production and “Total Art” philosophy greatly appeal to me.
The European Cultural Centre and Palazzo Mora in Venice
The invitation came in 2017 from the Dutch Global Art Affairs (GAA) Foundation to participate in the exhibition “Personal Structures – Open Borders” subtitled Time • Space • Existence, organized by the GAA Foundation and hosted by the European Cultural Centre in the context of the Venice Biennal 2019. It takes place at the Palazzo Mora in Venice. It was a wonderful surprise for me.
Over the years, I have held exhibitions only in my studio in Lund and used my photo homepage, Instagram and Vimeo as a sort of online exhibition of my works and reached out by irregularly emailed messages that I call PostArt.
I had obviously been found via the Internet by artist Rene Rietmeyer who initiated the Personal Structures concept back in 2002 and was, he told me, searching for ways to focus more on photography than in the previous years.
I felt strongly that this invitation was an extraordinary opportunity I must give my best to realize.
So in November 2017, I went down to Venice for the Biennale and then also met with the GAA people and saw the exhibition (as I had also in 2015). It contained so much creativity, quality and diversity by both known and not-so-known artists from 50 countries around the world.
Palazzo Mora is an incredibly beautiful venue with several floors, a great variety of rooms and light, renovated while maintaining the ambience of the classical palace style. The exhibition had attracted no less than 300.000 visitors worldwide from May to November. My contacts there are now Lucia Pedrana – who, by the way, is also developing GAA’s relations with the Chinese art world – and Alessandra Valle.
The project will be documented on this blog, on my Instagram account and on Facebook. It shall open up the possibility of interaction, cooperation and synergy with people who, for this or that reason, take interest in it, and may help in one way of the other or find contacts too. And I am also thinking of producing a book with the works as well as the process of creating them.
Exploring relations
Buddhist thinking is more about both/and than the Western/Occidental either/or. I like holism and diverse perspectives, even eclecticism.
The SPAR project is about:
• art and peace or, perhaps rather, peace in art and art in peace; we have too many images of violence and too few of what peace could be;
• the emerging world order, Old and New Silk Road (history in the future, future in history) and, thus it is about reality and imagination;
• interactions of cultures and expressions – thus various kinds of co-operation and co-creation;
• art and documentary photography’s interaction with other media;
• while I know how to print on canvas and fine arts papers (and sometimes metals), it may provide an opportunity to also explore – why not? – silk, paint and print on it.
And the road is the connecting metaphor but it doesn’t have to be a straight line from A to B – it can also be curvy like Brice Marden’s brush strokes or more like three-dimensional, or taking inspiration (as mentioned) from Rauschenberg’s eclecticist ‘combines’ and Zhijie’s total art approach.
There are many roads.
A synergy between my two lives
Through my life, I’ve grappled with art and with peace – both with a research-based approach.
Life # 1 – Art photo
Born in 1951, I grew up with art since my industrialist father, F W Oberg (1913-1981), was also one of Denmark’s pioneering collectors and gallerists (Ars Studeo in Aarhus and Copenhagen) with a focus on contemporary European and American artists like Rauschenberg, Lichtenstein, Motherwell, Stella, Johns, Hockney, Hamilton, Jones, Kitaj, Paolozzi, etc. (and Cobra’s Danish Asger Jorn and other leading Danish artists).
As a high-school student, I worked as his secretary, translator and assistant in his gallery, corresponded with printers, artists and galleries and arranged exhibitions under his direction.
That was my early art education, and ever since, I’ve ploughed through museums, galleries and art fairs and cared well for what I inherited. In 2009, I set up Oberg PhotoGraphics as a more sustained activity for my own photography endeavours with a studio where I work with and print my own works, arrange exhibitions and host a Culture Salon for locally interested people.
Life # 2 – Peacemaker
I got a PhD in sociology with a specialization in peace and conflict research in 1981, directed the Lund University Peace Research Institute, LUPRI 1983-89 and, since the department was closed down, have lived a freelance life as a) visiting professor/lecturer, among others, Japan (5 times), Spain, Italy, Austria, Switzerland; b) conflict analyst and mediator in conflict/war zones such as Somalia, Yugoslavia, Georgia, Iraq, Burundi and, lately, Iran and Syria and c) author, columnist and media commentator. More about me on my personal blog.
The private Transnational Foundation for Peace & Future Research, TFF, which my wife, Dr Christina Spannar, and I established in 1986, is an independent, people-financed think tank devoted to the UN Charter norm that “peace shall be established by peaceful means” (article 1) and that war shall be abolished (the Preamble).
It rests on a basically Gandhian philosophy. It’s a network of some 60 experts and one of the most prolific and sustained peace research think tanks, the production of which can be studied at The Transnational.
I perceive this Silk ArtPeace Road project as an opportunity to bring my two “lives” together and create synergy for the common good of the collaborators along the Road as well as the spectators in Venice and wherever else its results may be shown afterwards. The TFF Board has accepted this as an integral part of its program.
Winter and spring 2018
I start this project’s diary, or logbook with notes.
At this stage, it’s all about defining the SPAR project, write up a solid description and work plan, communicating with the good people in Venice and beginning preparations and fund-raising.
The first version of the SPAR project plan was published here in early 2018.
Subscribe to the “PostArt” newsletter and keep updated with SPAR’s development…
Updated and revised in August 2023
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