Books/Audio – Thomas Liljenberg

THE ANSWERS

Thomas Liljenberg — Thu, 20 Sep 2018 15:57:55 +0000

THE ANSWERS

Book in collaboration with Leif Elggren, Stockholm 1999. A correspondence. 260 p. Offset and photocopies. Size 150 x 210 mm. ISBN 91 87066 22 X (Fe No. 91). The Answers was printed with support from Sveriges Bildkonstnärsfond (The Arts Grants Committee).

The Answers was presented as an exhibition at BildMuseet, Umeå 1999 and as a book release at Printed Matter, New York 2000.

”In 1996 we published the book Experiment With Dreams, a book filled with letters to a selection of the most autocratic people of our times. We demanded compensation for the unjust inequality that prevails in the world and because these people profit themselves on everybody’s dreams and possibilities for the future. Nearly every letter ended with: Please send us money on Swedish postal number… Now we are taking the opportunity to publicise all the replies from the correspondence in the present book: The Answers. (From pressrelase, PRINTED MATTER, New York 2001)

Images (from top): 1. The Answers, cover. 2. The Answers, book spread with letters from Johannes Paulus II and Paramount Communications. 3. The Answers, book spread with letters from George Soros and Exxon Valdez. 4. The Answers, installation at BildMuseet, Umeå

IDOL

Thomas Liljenberg — Thu, 20 Sep 2018 15:57:55 +0000

IDOL

Book in collaboration with Leif Elggren. A correspondence, Stockholm November 1993. 45 p. Offset and photo copies. Swedish text. Paperbacked. Size 150 x 210 mm. ISBN 91-87066-10-6 (FE No. 70)

”Hösten 1991 skickar konstnärerna Leif Elggren och Thomas Liljenberg ett utställningsförslag till Björn Springfeldt på Moderna Museet, men får avslag. Elggren och Liljenberg godtar inte museets nej. De skickar mängder av brev där de vädjar, hotar och tjatar om att Springfeldt och intendenten Sören Engblom ska ändra sitt beslut. Tonen blir alltmer indignerad, och det är tydligt att brevväxlingen tagit formen av ett elakt skämt. Men först när konstnärerna yrar om att de har såväl självaste påven som Carl Hill (!), Robert Aschberg och Cindy Crawford på sin sida börjar Engblom ana att någonting är i görningen. ”Måste vara något påven hittat på i sin ensamhet”, replikerar han hurtfriskt. Fast då är herrarna plötsligt vid sina sinnens fulla bruk igen. ”Hur står det till intendenten?” frågar de nyktert Engblom. ”Skojar Ni?” Totalt vansinnigt blir det när Liljenberg och Elggren stjäl Springfeldt och Engbloms identitet och skickar brev på museets eget brevpapper. ”Hela museet står till Er disposition. Välj och vraka. Välkomna!” är deras glada budskap till sig själva. Denna fantastiskt roliga brevväxling finns nu utgiven i bokform på Firework Edition, titeln är IDOL.” (En dag på Moderna Museet: Bo Madestrand, Expressen 16.12.93)

”IDOL, a collection letters published in 1993, opens quite conventionally with the artists sending a proposal for an exhibition to Moderna Museet in Stockholm. Their idea is to show a rigorous and personal selection of role models from modern history, complete with a long list of all those not elected, including the reasons to their pantheon. After a first reacting mildly positively, and generating hope, the museum decides to turn the proposal down.  It seems they shouldn’t have. With the stubbornness of a couple of parrots, and staking their own pride, the artists proceed to try to make the curators reverse their decisions; the courteous tone of the first letters is gradually replaced by cocky appeals and angry disappointment as the artists realise that they are being rejected by the museum. Despite twelve letters relentlessly battering their increasingly weary arguments, the museum’s curators are not brought to reason. The exchange ends, after two years of correspondence, with the artist’s suggestion that the museum staff should kneel in order to listen, just like St. John, to Gods dictation…”(Mats B; A Unholy Correspondences, exhibition catalogue in connection with the exhibition Flown over by an Old King by Leif Elggren, Färgfabriken, Stockholm 2000)

SWEDEN DREAMS

Thomas Liljenberg — Thu, 20 Sep 2018 15:57:55 +0000

SWEDEN DREAMS

Book, Stockholm March 1998. 64 p. A combination of dream texts and photographs of Swedish Prime Ministers. Offset printed. Paperbacked. Size 212 x 150 mm. ISBN 91-87066-11-4 (FE No. 73). Published in conjunction with the exhibition SVERIGE DRÖMMER at Kalmar Konstmuseum and The Swedish Parliament Building, 1993.

Initially shown as an exhibition at Kalmar Art Museum and in the building of the Swedish Parliment, the book Sweden Dreams consist of a combination of dream texts and photographs of Swedish Prime Ministers. The dreams were obtained and collected through advertisements in Swedish local newspapers during 1992 and 1993. The photographs of the ministers were copied directly from the Parliment’s books on file. The dream texts and the photographs of the ministers were then combined completely at random – one dream for each Swedish Prime Minister during the twentieth century until 1993.

PARTIET

Thomas Liljenberg — Thu, 20 Sep 2018 15:57:55 +0000

PARTIET (THE PARTY)

Box in collaboration with Leif Elggren, with printed matters: party program (catalogue), ballot paper, voting poster and color photo from the exhibition/project THE PARTY in conjunction with the Swedish General Election 1994. Swedish text. Edition of 200 copies. Size 160 x 230 mm. (FE No. 74). Stockholm November 1994

EXPERIMENT WITH TIME

Thomas Liljenberg — Thu, 20 Sep 2018 15:57:55 +0000

EXPERIMENT WITH TIME

CD. FIREWORK EDITION RECORDS. FER 1026. Stockholm 2000. Total length: 61:03. Recorded at Galleri Mors Mössa, Gothenburg 1982 in conjunction with the performance SERIAL AKTION. Digital mastering at Firework Edition, may 2000. Photo: Erik Pauser.

”The sound for this CD was recorded live in January1982 at Galleri Mors Mössa in Gothenburg as a part of Serial Aktion. During the 48 hours that the performance lasted I marked my presence in time and space by firing three pistol shots at three targets at three given points in time (at 0 hours, at 24 hours and at 48 hours). The sounds of these shots and all other sounds in the gallery were recorded on a 60-minute cassette tape, which was immediately played and recorded together with all the other sounds on another tape recorder. In that way the 48th and last tape contained all the sounds that had occurred in the gallery during the entire performance, layer upon layer, distorted and re-formed through time and space and the natural wear and tear on the cassette tape. My actions were determined by the tape being played, that is, by what I did the hour and hours before. As with the sound these actions grew, hour by hour, into more and more complex and layered form.” (Text from CD booklet)

SERIAL AKTION

Thomas Liljenberg — Thu, 20 Sep 2018 15:57:55 +0000

SERIAL AKTION

Folder with book (52 p.) and poster. Size: 220 x 320 mm. Offset, letterpress and photocopies. Printed in an edition of 100 copies. Firework Edition No. 16. Stockholm June 1983. A documentation of the performance/installation SERIAL AKTION at Galleri Mors Mössa, Gothenburg 1982. Photo: Erik Pauser

STOCKHOLM – GRONINGEN

Thomas Liljenberg — Thu, 20 Sep 2018 15:57:55 +0000

STOCKHOLM – GRONINGEN

Folder with book (62 p.), booklet and poster. Size: 220 x 320 mm. Offset, letterpress and photocopies. Swedish text. Printed in an edition of 100 copies. Firework Edition No. 13. Stockholm, May 1983. A documentation of the exhibition/performance Stockholm – Groningen, at Gallery Metro, Groningen, 1982.

Image (below): Leif Elggren and Thomas Liljenberg sleeping at Galleri Metro, Groningen. Photo: Lars Wendin

TWO THIN EATING ONE FAT

Thomas Liljenberg — Thu, 20 Sep 2018 15:57:55 +0000

TWO THIN EATING ONE FAT

CD, in collaboration with Leif Elggren. FIREWORK EDITION RECORDS FER 1022. Stockholm 2000. 7 tracks, total length 55′ 85”.

Documenting following performances by Elggren and Liljenberg: A Whole in the Palisade, at Moderna Museet, Stockholm 1998. Konstskolan, in conjunction with the exhibition Saltsjöbadsdokumentet, Nacka, Sweden 1998. The Answers, Bildmuseet, Umeå, Sweden 1999. Partiet (The Party), Kulturbolaget, Malmö, Sweden 1994. Transformatorische Bordelle, Fylkingen, Stockholm, Sweden 1997.

”Swedish conceptualists Leif Elggren and Thomas Liljenberg have published Experiment With Dreams, a book of outlandish letters sent to politicians, film stars and business leaders, positing absurdist questions while claiming that they had stolen Elggren and Liljenberg’s dreams. For their part, the duo assert that their dreams intermingle, as though they were attempting to communicate to each other through their nightly visions. Any intrusions from outside were addressed in the letters found in Experiment With Dreams. Two Thin Eating One Fat appears to be much more personal documentation of their dream communication – it features recordings of themselves quietly mumbling through a number of meandering narratives marked by a strange political rhetoric and the repeated phrase, ”let me in”. Thick metallic drones, distant pounding drums and rhythmic exercises with a Piezo buzzer accompany and at times interrupt the ongoing murmur. Though these recordings were originally produced for various installations and performances, the collection is remarkably consistent articulation of their absurd intellect.” (Jim Haynes; The Wire 2001)

Image (from innersleve CD): Painting by Pieter Bruegel, 1564

FAS 1:6

Thomas Liljenberg — Thu, 20 Sep 2018 15:57:55 +0000

FAS 1:6 (Föreställning för sju aktörer, objekt och ljudband)

Box with book and poster, in collaboration with Leif Elggren. Size: 200 x 220 mm. A documentation of a performance at Fylkingen, Stockholm 1981. Firework Edition No. 10. Stockholm May 1983

Images (below): Katrin von Rettig, Per Jonsson, Leif Elggren, Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Thomas Liljenberg and Inger Arvidsson performing in Fas 1:6. Photo: Olof Thiel

DEVIANT STUDIES IN CITYPLANNING

Thomas Liljenberg — Thu, 20 Sep 2018 15:57:55 +0000

DEVIANT STUDIES IN CITYPLANNING

CD. In collaboration with Bo Samuelsson. 11 tracks, recorded in Kista/Husby 2009 – 2010 in connection with the project KAC (kistaartcity). FIREWORK EDITION RECORDS/KAC FER 1091, Stockholm 2011.

”In his book Topophilia sociologist Yi-Fu Tuan emphasizes the neglected connection that exists between the outward formation of the city and how people experience identity. A city or a place, however trivial or insignificant, he writes, is in this perspective always an opening into something else. Into people’s memories, emotions and dreams. But in the long run the city’s texture and physical formation can also change people and their dreams. The absence of connections between inner spaces and outer forms is manifested as obstacles, limitations and barriers that permeate people’s minds. A city or a place in this sense is nothing more than a membrane; a double projection and an interaction between inner and outer. A transformable texture, which therefore requires double planning. Alongside the planning done with purposefulness and alertness all cities, communities and politics also need a bi-purposeful, non-planned, dreaming and deviant planning.

Deviant Studies in City Planning is published in connection with the project KAC (Kista Art City) and is based on field recordings from Stockholm districts Kista-Husby and Vårby gård.” (Text from pressrelease, Stockholm 2011)

Image (below): Kista center (from innersleve CD)