The State of Things
The State of Things is a collective collaborative project within the framework of Landskrona Fotofestival that aims to interpret the ambiguity of the English word state – as “territory”, but also as “status, condition”, regarding objects, people and places at a particular point in time. The artists in the project are interested in a world of objects. Each artist’s individual expression is rooted in sculpture and conceptual art, primarily through the use of lens-based media, from flat scanners to photography and video.
As a collective action, the artists want to create a memory of Landskrona as a “territory of things”. Throughout its long history, the town has had many functions: from fishing village to garrison town to industrial hub. The city has been replanned and reshaped. The printed publication, which presents a thought from each of the artists in the group, can also be downloaded as a PDF and printed at home (state-of-things.com/landskrona).
Rodrigo Orrantia, curator and art historian, specializes in photography. For the past fifteen years he has been involved in projects for major museums in the UK and at art fairs and photo festivals around Europe. He has been awarded the status of “Exceptional Talent in the Arts” by Arts Council England, specifically for having curated and produced collaborative projects to connect communities with international artists. He is based in London where he is currently affiliated with RIBA, the Royal Institute of British Architects.
Participants:
Bärbel Praun: Container. “My idea arose from the circumstance that the cities of Hamburg, where I live, and Landskrona both have a port, different in size and economic status of course, but with one thing in common: both used to have a shipyard.”
Hannah Hughes: Outer Movements. “I use discarded pulp from packaging to create shaky, temporary structures with the focus on the discrete languages that occur in the spaces surrounding objects. The basic premise: Not knowing.”
Joshua Bilton: 67 laments, 2020 // Objects for meditation to be held in the palm of the hand, clay casts and found stones wrapped in thread. “I want to discuss the status of transformations. I aim to urge people to respond with written fragments, personal stories, mythologies, dreams of animal-like forms, and encounters with birds. Within this exchange there is a preoccupation with regret, what we lament and how we do it with the right posture and attitude.”
Tom Lovelace: Malleable Matter. “I want to provide the world with abstract works of art, as an invitation to the recipients to respond and react to these minimal spaces, hopefully in revealing, insightful and unexpected ways. What role does minimalism play in modern visual culture? And what are the possibilities of images, surfaces and spaces, rooted in a weave and form of . . . nothing?”
Eugenia Ivanissevich: Migrare. “I investigate the geometrical grid that is often taught in schools with the aim of visualizing a 3D shape. Historical and contemporary maps of Landskrona further aroused my curiosity and put the focus on the moat surrounding the Citadel. Sometimes I see a blueprint of urban districts, neighbourhoods, communities; other times a bird.”
The publication is also available as an online PDF for download and print at home.
