Ann-Sofi Sidén

After the Fact

Aug 29 - Sep 28, 2008

After the Fact (2007) and The City Stonesfrom the series CODEX (1992) are two individual pieces. Time as well as material separates them but they both describe potential ways to enter and exit Ann-Sofi Sidéns practice. Together they form an opportunity for diverse interaction.

After the Fact is a series of photogravures that describes a young woman’s inexorable actions and a contemporary stigmatized institutional function. The series consist of video extracts and complementary stills from the work in passing – a video installation that is shown simultaneously at Bonniers konsthall.

Ann-Sofi Sidén has developed a printing method that correlates to the opposing logic within the video work. The picture suite retains filmic qualities by the adaptation of a Technicolor mood and the work is carried out in a format that resembles the structure of a film synopsis. In several diptychs we are invited to follow two parallel stories. One part describes a young mother that for an unknown reason abandon her newborn baby in a ”Baby-Klappe” at a hospital in Berlin. The other part portrays the baby and how it is cared for within the hopital structure. Without judging or moralising, Ann-Sofi Sidén lets us alternately follow their fate just after the separation.

The City Stones discuss a gender specific medieval form of punishment. The work is a part of the CODEX series that was originally produced for Swedish Travelling Exhibitions. Later it has been shown at Art Feminism, Liljevalchs konsthall in Stockholm. When Maria Lind wrote about the piece (1992, ISBN 91-7057-018-3) she started by asking ”Who is the woman?”. The answer is: the filthy, the threatening – the Other. She is the shadown side one does not want to be aware of. With support among the thinkers that shaped the gender discourse of the early nineties she reasons around female stereotypes and how they are constituted within the socio-cultural game. In essence, from Simone De Beauvoir to Julia Kristeva and Jacques Lacan.

Since this perspective is highly relevant also in relation to After the Fact fifteen years later, we now show these two works together.

Other Exhibitions:
Ann-Sofi Sidén

LARSEN WARNER

CHRISTIAN LARSEN is a contemporary art gallery in Stockholm with an extensive international exhibition program. We represent established, mid-career and emerging Scandinavian and international artists. The gallery is committed to nourishing the careers of represented artists, while introducing to the general public other significant international artists who have rarely, if ever, exhibited in Sweden.