Filmform (est. 1950) is dedicated to preservation, promotion and worldwide distribution of experimental film and video art. Constantly expanding, the distribution catalogue spans from 1924 to the present, including works by Sweden’s most prominent artists and filmmakers, available to rent for public screenings and exhibitions as well as for educational purposes.
Through her video camera, Petra Lindholm loves investigating and narrating different moods. In her recent video called No End, the taxi ride of a young woman becomes the time for an inner journey into herself. The film, which was shot in New york City, starts by showing a handrail running trough the eyes of the main character, who is sitting in a car. The camera then moves to the skyscrapers and the streets of the city.
As the artist explains, the voyage is the time when our thoughts can develop freely and intensely. As a matter of fact, new thoughts often need new scenarios. Thus, the broadening of the New York setting becomes the source of a feeling of ´endlessness´. Just like the forming and the vanishing of a cloud of breath through the woman´s breathing, it brings to mind the continuity of the flow of life.
This video fascinates not so much for its narration, whose development is sometimes quite sketchy, but for the account of feelings and moods that the soundtrack helps chase. The artist usually writes the music and lyrics for her videos, where she sings as well; in No End, on the contrary, the musical score was realised by Swedish band The Ark.
Petra Lindholm (b. 1973 in Karis, Finland) lives and works in Småland, Sweden. She is educated at the Royal Institute of Arts in Stockholm (1996–2001). She has exhibited at galleries, museums and institutions in Sweden, Finland, Germany, Poland, Italy and the US. Petra Lindholm works mainly with video, textile and sound. Her films do not have a specific narrative structure. They are focused on nuances and changes in color and image; which creates a tense atmosphere rather than a clear-cut story. Lindholm often depicts situations that are easily recognizable or phenomena in the environment, where the real and ordinary things seem unreal. She composes the music for the films and sings herself. In 2001 she received the Maria Bonnier Dahlin Foundation’s Artist Award, 2002 the FilmForm Award and in 2006 she won third prize in the Carnegie Art Award. In 2018 the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm awarded her the prestigious Axel Theofron Sandberg Prize. Her works are represented in the collections of Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Malmö Konstmuseum, Borås Konstmuseum, Västerås Konstmuseum, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki. EMMA–Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Finland, ProArtibus, Finland among others. In recent years she has completed a number of larger public commissions working with site-specific sculptures and installations.
