ART BASEL
ONLINE VIEWING ROOM

Andréhn-Schiptjenko is delighted to premier new works by Martín Soto Climent and Annika von Hausswolff in this June’s online presentation of Art Basel. This presentation is a reflection of our booth, to be presented at Art Basel in September.

Annika von Hausswolff and Martin Soto Climent have a shared sensibility for illusion and even delusion – that things are not necessarily what they seem to be. This applies on a basic level in terms of chosen techniques and materials, but also conceptually – exploring hierarchies of class and gender, working with themes of alienation, sexuality and popular culture in the age of hypercapitalism. Both artists share an interest in, and continuously explore, the implications of materiality. Annika von Hausswolff and Martin Soto Climent, whilst differing in aesthetics and practice, both redefine what constitutes artistic raw material, pushing the boundaries for what can be considered as painting, photography or sculpture.

Annika von Hausswolff, b. 1967, Sweden. Lives and works in Gothenburg, Sweden.
With photography as a point of departure, sourced from private photo albums and news archives, The Hole is a Noun consists of a series of images which have in common that they depict a hole of some sort. A hole is often defined as an opening or a recess in a specific material, and in philosophy the question is debated as to whether a hole can truly be said to exist. Opposed to the act of by word defining these holes, openings and absences of material, the hole is here portrayed – sometimes as an act, other times as a fact. That the word “hole” belongs to the word class noun, which the title of the of the series point to, is a way to draw attention to the absurdity that a thing, which might not exist, can be part of a classifying system. Holes, or the active making of them, can naturally be perceived as a metaphor. On an allegorical level, the images (which originate from different epochs and contexts) here function as a projection surface for the viewer to mentally connect to the matter of which the hole consist.

Annika von Hausswolff, regarded as one of the Nordic region's leading artists, was first introduced by the gallery in 1994 and has since been widely exhibited in Scandinavia and abroad. Recurring topics in her work are patriarchal structures, criminology, global capitalism, the subconscious and her deep interest in the photographic image. In February 2021, the Moderna Museet in Stockholm is doing a large solo-exhibition of her work, accompanied by a catalogue. Annika von Hausswolff represented Sweden in the Venice Biennial of 1999 and her work was the subject of a large mid-career retrospective, Grand Theory Hotel at Hasselblad Foundation in Gothenburg in 2016.

Martín Soto Climent, b. 1977, Mexico. Lives and works in Mexico City, Mexico.
Tights, a material which has been characteristic of the work of Soto Climent over the last few years, has in this new body of work transformed into a stencil, leaving a trace in which emptiness takes presence; a process running parallel to the situation large parts of the world have suddenly had to face as obligatory confinements and restrictions of movement were implemented. The things you take for granted are suddenly not there and all you have access to is the trace of the memory. With a material shortage resulting from his home- confinement, Soto Climent turned to old recipes for creating and binding pigment and turned to fire to source charcoal, thus creating a new pigment he called “Charcoatl” - a wordplay with the Aztek language Nahuatl’s word for snake “coatl” and coal, as shredded and dried snake skin together with coal is a part of this pigment mix. The snake’s shedding of its skin and the fire are both strong symbols for resurrection, continuity, regeneration, rebirth form destruction and coming back from the ashes – a regenerative process suddenly experienced on both a collective and personal level in large parts of the world.

Soto Climent is well known for his surrealist manipulation of images and objects. His practice refers to the forms of the body and the psychology of desire embedded within a consumer-based economy. With a long list of international institutional and gallery exhibitions behind him, such as Palais de Tokyo, Paris, Hessel Museum of Art, Hudson USA, and Kunsthalle Wintherthur, Switzerland, his work is today included in several noteworthy private and public collections.


For more information on Art Basel, please visit www.artbasel.com.

We can be reached at:

Ciléne Andréhn
+46 707 44 54 18 / +33 788 14 79 59
cilene@andrehn-schiptjenko.com

Marina Schiptjenko
+46 707 44 54 38
marina@andrehn-schiptjenko.com

Hanna Lundberg
+46 737 18 73 81
hanna@andrehn-schiptjenko.com