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.
The film has been in the making during three years, the editing was done in close collaboration with filmmaker Gunvor Nelson who has been advising editor on the project. Filmed at the biggest sun power plant in Europe (Spain), Solstices closes in on never before filmed phenomena that occur mainly around winter and summer solstices there. Having worked with light-sculpture during years I see this tower as a gigantic light-sculpture in a landscape that appears in a time when we struggle to find our way into the future. Possibly it is also a portrait of sunlight – which through the gigantic mirrors and time – has been geared-down to where it is possible to see?
The connected film THE MIRROR PARK (3:57 min, 2015) documents the production process behind SOLSTICES and is available when renting SOLSTICES at no additional cost.
Håkan Dahlström, born in Sweden (1952) has dedicated himself to art since his childhood in Málaga (Spain), he spent some ten years there and studied at Picasso’s Art School. A lot of his youth he travelled extensively with his family, both his parents were artists (writer Sture Dahlström and painter Anna-Stina Ehrenfeldt).
They lived for a year in the Arizona desert, to which he years later – in 1974 – returned and filmed the 16mm film “Mirror Movement”.
His understanding of Nature and Cosmos is vital, observing plants and animals that are present in his work since his beginnings.
He started out as a filmmaker when he found his father´s camera at the age of 14 and in 1967 won the gold medal at Unescos 5th International Contest for Young Filmmakers (Paris). The following years in California, (San Fransisco) he lived and worked among other artists in the avant-garde circles and participated in the underground film movement, showing his work amongst other places at the Berkeley Film Archives. Back in Sweden he won prizes from Swedish Television in 1967, 1968 and 1969. His work has been shown in cinemathéques and art centers in Scandinavia, Paris, London as well as on television.
Today he continues filming on video, using different media and also ways to achieve interaction between film, photography and 3-dimensional work.
