INTRO: GUNVOR NELSON

“The natural flow of the Western eye is left to right, which makes right to left motion have more power,” says Gunvor Nelson. Born in 1931 and raised in Kristinehamn, Sweden, Nelson moved to the USA in 1953. In collaboration with Dorothy Wiley, she made her first film, Schmeerguntz, in 1966 while immersed in the San Francisco Bay Area’s lively experimental film culture. In addition to filmmaking, Nelson inspired new generations of artists while teaching at San Francisco State University and San Francisco Art Institute. Nelson moved back to Sweden in 1993, where she resides to this day. With her unique style of personal and poetic filmmaking, Nelson is one of the main protagonists in avant-garde filmmaking from the 1960s to today. Her works touch both the imagination and the physical body. Through the use of repetition in her works, she empowers herself and the viewer to get back to one’s most urgent needs. She’s been the recipient of numerous major awards and grants, including most recently the Swedish Arts Grants Committee’s Grand Award. In 2008 Nelson was awarded an artists lifetime income guarantee by the Swedish Arts Grants Committee. Her films have been screened at major art museums as MOMA in New York, Moderna Museet in Stockholm and cinematheques in Europe and North America. A focus on Nelson’s work is vital because, in its entirety, it can be seen as a nucleus of an artist’s understanding of inscribing oneself in history.

Gunvor Nelson will be present at the screening.