Matilda Tjäder
spelling the wind without words
Sven and Ellida Hjort’s Exhibition Grant

Feb 24–Apr 2 2023
Vernissage: Feb 24, 6–9 pm
Performance by Matilda Tjäder and Yen Chun Lin: Feb 24, 7 pm

Performance programme:
Ruby Nilsson and Sanna Helena Berger: Mar 11, 7 pm
Rat Section: Mar 24

Curator: Khamlane Halsackda

In spelling the wind without words the wind becomes the artist’s shapeshifting collaborator; an antagonist at times, mender at others, – and instigator most of the time. Capricious yet quantifiable, the wind is here explored as an agent that interacts with each subject and object it interfaces with – a protagonist encountered via its material, metaphorical, sentient and infrastructural characteristics. Much like the wind, the performances that activate and intervene in the space are central to this exhibition.

 

A window in the gallery has been opened to make place for an aeolian harp to interact with the outside, calling in the physical presence of the wind. In the language of this harp: if there is wind, there is harmony. This assumption is however contested and interrupted by the breathing organism in which the harp is hosted, that is, the building itself and the ventilation system that penetrates its floors and rooms. These frequencies are like the lungs of a human, filled with information. By amplifying the building’s existing vibrations, it becomes an instrument and mediator of coded noise – to which the artist invites to a sedimentary listening that allows for slippages between audible and non-audible frequencies.

 

The small gallery has been turned into a listening space where a four-channel sound piece of field recordings and collected stories from interactions with the wind is played. To listen to the wind is also to listen to the pulse of a place – wiggling its entire body to create movement. Whilst detecting the arteries of this very space, a silhouette of the outside buildings have found their way into the room during the daylight.

 

spelling the wind without words is an invitation to tune in past the thin membrane of the exhibition, and to become vulnerable to subtle frequencies and deeper levels of listening.

 

The artist has invited collaborators to intervene with the themes of the exhibition. For the listening space, Asta Lynge has created a scenography. Additional thanks to Tim Bishop: sound technician/consultant.

 

Matilda Tjäder is a Malmö-based artist, and the current recipient of the Sven and Ellida Hjort’s Grant. From the jury’s statement: “Matilda Tjäder’s artistic practice is a sharp, resourceful and affective exploration of different worlds. Through experimental storytelling, Tjäder invites and delicately immerses us into new fictitious worlds, rendering bare the fickle structures of our own world. The works’ dystopian tonality collides with the poetic meditations of text, performance, sound and motion with an undercurrent of humor subtly at play. With careful attention to other sensorial dimensions than sight, Tjäder leaves room for unexpected openings within the self, where transformation and refusals are always a possibility.”

 

About the stipend
Sven and Ellida Hjort’s Exhibition Grant is awarded annually to an emerging artist from Skåne. Hanni Kamaly was the first recipient of the grant in 2017, followed by LealVeileby, Ikram Abdulkadir, Cia Kanthi, and Sana Jarrar. The 2022 jury, appointed by the board of Skånes konstförening, consisted of Jon Aagaard Gao (artist), Lena Bergendahl (artist), Khamlane Halsackda (dancer, choreographer) and Jonelle Twum (artistic director, film director).