ERNST BILLGREN
THE MAN FROM DOGGERLAND
DIRECTED BY TOMAS ALFREDSON
10 NOVEMBER – 10 DECEMBER 2023
REVIEWED BY
DAGENS NYHETER
10 JANUARY 2024
DAGENS NYHETER
15 NOVEMBER 2023
“I got the idea for this exhibition a few years ago when I passed by some galleries on Södermalm and peered through the windows at the art. It was often reasonably good, original and interesting, but all the artists made some annoying mistake on the canvases that was repeated over and over again. With a little direction, someone to guide their images, everything would look so much better. I quickly realized that this also applies to me, of course. In other cultural practices, to have an editor or director who points out mistakes is a given, but this has been missing in the visual arts since modernism. So I asked the director Tomas Alfredson to decide which pictures I should paint. We’ve been working together for 20 years on various film and TV projects. In 2014, we did an exhibition where Tomas wrote scripts that became paintings, so why not leave the image creation entirely to him? He came up with the motifs, so I didn’t have to worry about my own ideas of what should be painted and could devote myself completely to the painting itself.
I have long been fascinated by people with amazing self-confidence. What makes them think that their views are so infinitely better than others? Is it luck or genius? Mathematically speaking, it is highly unlikely that you are the one in the world who happens to have the best opinions, roots for the right team, belongs to the right group, right religion and lives in the right country. Attitudes that are often cause for endless conflicts. If you think about it, you would realize that you are most likely wrong.
Opinions are probably a virus that came via some parasite in the apple that was eaten in the Garden of Eden, since the apple came from the tree of knowledge. With knowledge comes opinion – and that is the problem. Knowledge makes people less susceptive to information and those who know they are right are completely insusceptible. The virus has completely taken over the person.
If we had half as many opinions and the remaining opinions were half as strong, we would live happily in a peaceful world.
People with little knowledge of a subject are the worst, they tend to be very confident. People who know a lot, on the other hand, are usually more hesitant and claim that most things are a bit uncertain.
Is there a risk of losing yourself with these thoughts? One can certainly hope so. In the empty space that arises, you can choose who you are.
Doggerland is the name of the area of land between Denmark and England that suddenly sank into the sea 10 000 years ago. Ever since I was a child, I have believed that this is where I come from, for lack of anything else.
This exhibition is a democracy project. Attached is an article from Svenska Dagbladet in which I explained the background of the project.”
– Ernst Billgren
Ernst Billgren, born 1957 in Stockholm, currently lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden. Ernst Billgren studied at Birkagårdens folkhögskola, 1979–81 in Stockholm, and at Valands Konsthögskola in Gothenburg, 1982–87. 1997 he became a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Sweden.
Ernst Billgren’s work has been exhibited at Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Göteborgs konstmuseum; Prince Eugen´s Waldemarsudde, Stockholm; Norrköpings konstmuseum; Lunds konsthall; Jönköping läns museum; Bohusläns konstmuseum; Färgfabriken, Stockholm; Liljevalchs konsthall, Stockholm; Borås konstmuseum; Jönköpings konstmuseum; Linköpings konstmuseum; Kristinehamns konstmuseum; Västerås konsthall; Kalmars konstmuseum; Läckö slott, Lidköping; Varbergs konsthall; Samtidsmuseet, Oslo; Centre Culturel Suedois, Paris; Galleri Anhava, Helsinki; Galerie Forsblom, Stockholm and Helsinki; Lars Bohman Gallery, Stockholm; Musée Rath, Geneva; Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, Rio de Janerio; Musée Diego Rivera, Mexico City, among others.
Ernst Billgren’s work is in the permanent collection of Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Moderna Museet, Malmö; the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki; National Museum of Art, Oslo; Malmö konsthall; Borås konstmuseum; Norrköpings konstmuseum; Göteborgs konstmuseum; Gävle konstmuseum; Sundsvalls konstmuseum; Uppsala konstmuseum, among others.
Ernst Billgren has done several public commissions, among them Skåne University Hospital, Sweden; the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki; the Westman Palace, Stockholm; Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg; Sky City, Arlanda; and Umeå University.
Installation images Per Erik Adamsson