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.
SALLE 2:118 SIRI is a filmic study of a place through its surfaces and the depths that open up in between them. The scene is set at the Stockholm subway station Östermalmstorg, where Swedish artist Siri Derkert’s work “Ristningar i betong” (1961-1965) is carved into the concrete walls.
By using a hand-held camera, a natural seeming movement is evoked that resembles that of the human body and vision. At times the camera closely zooms in on the walls and seems to caress them with its movement, at other times it focuses on the angles and varying perspectives of the architecture. The place is comprehended through fields of colour and details of the walls, such as spots and surface texture. The only text visible in the sequence is the word “Woolf” referring to Virginia Woolf, revealing the political nature of Derkert’s artwork.The images are accompanied by sound that was recorded in a quiet room. It is hardly distinguishable, but contributes to a sensuously tangible topology of the space.
Born 1969 in Lerum, outside of Gothenburg on Sweden’s west coast, Olsson was trained at the Department of Photography and Film at University of Gothenburg 1993-96.
As a student Olsson started a decade-long collaboration with Göteborg film festival, the largest film festival in the Nordic countries. This resulted in several books, the possibility to work with guests such as director Wim Wenders, and sharpened Olsson’s eye for film making and led to an ongoing interest in cinema – and, later, a flirt with acting.
After graduating, Olsson has participated in numerous group exhibitions and had several solo exhibitions, both in Sweden and abroad. In 2018 he showed some works in the main exhibition of the Venice Biennale of Architecture (together with architect Petra Gipp). Olsson’s collaborations are wide-ranging and include various forms of expressions and representations. He has worked with Japanese fashion designer Jun Takahashi, Swedish Palme d’Or winner Ruben Östlund (The Square), Italian director Luca Guadagnino and British artist and director Isaac Julien.
In his photographs Olsson investigates the reenactment of history and the presence of the past in current times. Even if his works might be reminiscent of classical documentary photography, Olsson´s underlying aim is to redefine the genre. Taking the question of how we look at pictures as a starting point, he is interested in how authenticity is used as a visual language.
