Nordin Gallery Catalogue 24 - Johan Bergström

Johan BergströmPagan Postcards

9 February— 3 March

Exhibition No 24 | 2012

Throughout Johan Bergström’s photographic works the landscape recurs as a scene whereupon ideas and questions are projected. Within his works dif-ferent visual approaches and conceptions are inter-played to shape alternative meanings. In the work Pagan Postcards, Bergström presents a Norwegian scenery in the manner of Romanticism, accompa-nied by excerpts of lyrics written by Norwegian black metal bands. In their merged form, the images cel-ebrate the grandeur of nature and at the same time hints at an approaching apocalypse.

Johan Bergström is educated at The School of Photography at the University of Gothenburg (BA). His work has been shown at Fotogalleriet in Oslo, Hasselblad Center, Liljevalchs Konsthall, Karlskrona konsthall and Centrum för fotografi among others and at international fairs such as Paris Photo and DFOTO in San Sebastián. He is represented in the collection of Fotomuseum Winterthur and was re-cently nominated for the Foam Paul Huf Award 2012.

Pagan Postcards is his first solo exhibition in Stockholm.

I flertalet av Johan Bergströms fotografiska arbeten utgör landskapet en projektionsyta för idéer och frågeställningar. I sina arbeten lånar han ofta olika visuella uttryck och föreställningar för att sedan stäl-la dem mot varandra och låta nya betydelser ge-staltas. I Pagan Postcards avbildar Bergström det norska landskapet i ett manér hämtat från roman-tikens måleri. Landskapet ackompanjeras av utdrag från låttexter skrivna av norska black metal-band, texter som hyllar naturens primitivitet och amoralitet. I dess sammansatta form ger bilderna uttryck för ett upphöjande av naturen och samtidigt en antydan om en stundande apokalyps.

Johan Bergström är utbildad på Högskolan för fo-tografi i Göteborg. Hans arbeten har bland annat visats på Fotogalleriet i Oslo, Hasselblad Center, Liljevalchs Konsthall, Karlskrona konsthall, Centrum för fotografi på internationella mässor som Paris Photo and DFOTO in San Sebastián. Han finns representerad i Fotomuseum Winterthurs samlin-gar och blev nyligen nominerad till Foam Paul Huf Award 2012.

Pagan Postcards är hans första separatutställning i Stockholm.

Nordin Gallery Exhibition No 24 | 2012

Johan Bergströmb.1978 in Piteå, SwedenLives and works in Stockholm, Sweden

Nordin Gallery | 24 | 2012 — 5


English Svenska

The work Pagan Postcards takes the ideologies of Norwe-gian black metal as its starting point. In this series of photo-graphs excerpts of black metal lyrics are taken out of their context and projected on Norwegian scenery, the same scenery that served as inspiration for a new wave of black metal. Instead of approaching the characteristic dark and symbolic visual codes of black metal, the landscapes of Pa-gan Postcards are displayed in the manner of Romanticism and influenced by Norwegian Romantic painters like Johan Christian Dahl, Hans Gude and August Cappelen. Many of the ideas that defined Romanticism can be found in the phi-losophy of black metal, two hundred years later. For all of its violence and misanthropy, black metal is a deeply romantic movement and nowhere is this more evident than in their hymns to nature.

The underground music scene became notorious world-wide through sensationalized media reports on a series of symbolic acts of violence. The second wave of black metal, which emerged in Norway in the early 1990s, expressed a more aggressive and incarnated satanic or heathen ideolo-gy than its predecessors. Bands like Mayhem, Darkthrone, Burzum, Immortal, Emperor, Enslaved and Thorns came to define what would soon be labeled “True Norwegian Black Metal”. The scene’s quest for authenticity triggered an arms race that ended up in suicide, murders and church burnings, all in an attempt to appear as the most evil, or the most “true”. Besides the anti-Christian mindset and an opposition to modern society in general, black metal is fixated with notions of an idealized pre-Christian past.

Many black metalers desire a transformation of the self into a new/old version of humanity that they believe is empow-ered, violent and inseparably linked to the harshness and amorality of nature. By placing almost exclusive emphasis on emotion, sensory experience and mysticism, black metal rejects the basic tenets of the Enlightenment.

In less misanthropic, still resembling philosophy, the Ro-manticism movement celebrated independence of human spirit and the supremacy of feeling. Romantic artists investi-gated human nature and personality, folk culture, national and ethnic origins, the medieval era, the exotic, the mysteri-ous, the occult, the diseased and the satanic. In Romantic art, nature—with its uncontrollable power, unpredictability and potential for cataclysmic extremes—offered an alterna-tive to the ordered world of Enlightenment thought. The movement validated strong emotion as an authentic source of aesthetic experience, placing new emphasis on such emotions as trepidation and awe—particularly that which was experienced in confronting the sublimeness of untamed nature and its picturesque qualities.

Through sampling and recontextualisation the work Pagan Postcards takes an open-ended and ambiguous shape, on the one hand celebrating the grandeur of nature and on the other hand hinting at an approaching apocalypse. It gives a voice to the gloomy moods of contemporary society in the wake of financial crises, natural disasters, wars and acts of terror as well as to a rising back-to-nature movement.

6 — Nordin Gallery | 24 | 2012


“Besides the anti-Christian mindset and an opposition to modern society in general, black metal is fixated with notions of an idealized pre-Christian past.”


“Besides the anti-Christian mindset and an opposition to modern society in general, black metal is fixated with notions of an idealized pre-Christian past.”

Next spread: Pagan Postcards (Hades Excerpt #01), 201143x59cm / 65x89cm / 100x137cm




Pagan Postcards (Emperor Excerpt #01), 201143x59cm / 65x89cm / 100x137cm


Pagan Postcards (Mayhem Excerpt #04), 201143x59cm / 65x89cm / 100x137cm


Pagan Postcards (Satyricon Excerpt #03), 201143x59cm / 65x89cm / 100x137cm


Pagan Postcards (Darkthrone Excerpt #01), 201143x59cm / 65x89cm / 100x137cm


Pagan Postcards (Carpathian Forest Excerpt #01), 201143x59cm / 65x89cm / 100x137cm






Pagan Postcards (Carpathian Forest Excerpt #01), 201143x59cm / 65x89cm / 100x137cm

Previous spread:Pagan Postcards (Forgotten Woods Excerpt #01), 201143x59cm / 65x89cm / 100x137cm




CompleteSeries





Neu Horno #04, 200939x47cm, from the Smoke Signal series


Nochten #02, 200968x81cm, from the Smoke Signal series


Smoke Signals #05 (Schwarze Pumpe), 200987x104cm, from the Smoke Signal series



Domestic Interiors #07, 201090x75cm, from the History Will Repeat Itself series


Pine Scenery, 2010Diptych, each 68x84cm, from the History Will Repeat Itself series

Next spread:Close Encounters #16, 200760x78cm, from the History Will Repeat Itself series





The Blind Spot, 200890x149cm, from the History Will Repeat Itself series



TheGallery

TheGallery



EnglishNordin Gallery opened in Stockholm in October 2007. The gallery is set up by owner/director Axel Nordin as a project room for young contemporary artists. Our intention is to represent emerging Scandi-navian and international artists, establishing a programme dedicated to video, photography, performance and installation art. SvenskaNordin Gallery öppnade i oktober 2007 på Tulegatan 19 i Stockholm och drivs av Axel Nordin. Galleriet representerar unga konstnärer från Sverige och internationellt. Fokus ligger på fotografi, video, skulptur och installationskonst.

The GalleryNordin Gallery opened in Stockholm in October 2007. The gallery is set up by owner/director Axel Nordin as a project room for young contemporary artists.



Nordinary People Photographer Pierre Björk

Jan HåfströmFamily Secrets | Exhibition 23

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Nordin Gallery Catalogue 24 - Johan Bergström