Lots of Light Art and One Difficult Question

Nobel Week Lights is a light art festival scattered around Stockholm with a curatorial base in connection to Nobel prizes. It’s organised around December 8th and I visited it last year. The area covered by light art is quite large and I recommend more than one night for visiting the festival. Take your time for rest of the city and its galleries as well, for Stockholm is one nice city!

I t was also nice seeing students' artworks!
No blunders blunders by Constance Michnik Frederiksson

A Difficult Question to Start with 

I had a most interesting discussion about light art festivals and their diversity (or lack thereof) with one of the Nobel Week Lights curators, Lara Szabo Greisman from Troika. She asked me if I could name one artwork in the festival, that would best grasp the idea of Nobel Week Lights. In that hasty moment, I couldn’t, and the conversation galloped on, but the question kept puzzling me. 

Later on I realised there wasn’t one artwork that would be the icon of the whole festival for me. Rather, it would be the theme. Relating every artwork to Nobel prize winners gave me a specific, otherwise not-though-of way to view them. It connected the miscellaneous group of artworks into a solid whole. The theme was strict enough to give the festival a certain spirit but solute enough to choose variant artworks. That, I think, is genius!

A Non-Answer to the Original Question

Choosing one artwork representing the whole festival proved to be impossible but choosing one closest to the Nobel prize history would have been an easy task. 

Heroes by Smash Studios is basically a documentary about Raoul Wallenberg and Dag Hammarskjöld, in a projection mapping form. Stylishly accomplished, heartfelt and informative, on emotional and conscious level. A good competitor was Kroft & Smids’s Nobel Light Walk, a route of quotes of Nobel Prize winners, projected on unexpected surfaces. This, I think, would be a good starting point for a whole new light-literature festival! And of course, there is the large-scale projection mapping Conscience by Ateliers Bk, that really rubs the Nobel medal in our faces, with some sparkles, fluttery fabric, and a Phoenix bird, as is trendy in mapping these days.

"We remember" – I sure hope everyone does

Text and the City

Exploding / sparkling Nobel prize

Light Art Moving People

It’s nice to hear people scream, even if it’s just for joy. The seesaw called Wave-Field, by CS Design, Lateral Office and Mitchell Akiyama appealed to kids and adults alike, inviting them to the very simple and joyful interaction of seesawing. A tad more challenging interaction was found in Alexander Wolfe’s Kinesthesia, where approaching of lamp posts was demanded. Screams of joy still ensued, as people succeeded in creating a composition and a light show by running around the posts. 

Ack, ack, spegelns retrospection by Eva Beierheimer was aptly named, reflecting the spectator in front of it with a slightest delay, modifying the reflection in a very delightful 60’s OP-art way. Tove Alderin’s Orchestrated Entities_Chorus was advertised as interactive, but even after downloading the app and bellowing at my phone I didn’t quite find out how it should have manifested. It didn’t matter, however, since the artwork was beautiful on its own, without me or anyone else (but especially me) adding my voice to it.

Karl XII tells people to move it, move it

An orchestra of lamp-posts

Eva Beierheimer lures people to move it, move it

This artwork doesn't include me screaming

More or Less Minimalistic Artworks

I was quite impressed with the brave simplicity of Ljuset by Johan Thurfjell. The single projected candle became a statement bigger than its size or luxes. Also simple, but not quite small, Luke Jerram’s Gaia recycled the idea of his previous Museum of the Moon. There, a celestial body, in this case Earth, is placed somewhere where it doesn’t really belong, in this case to the Royal Palace. 

Julia Dantonnet’s Horizon is probably my favourite of this year’s edition. Based on an old trick of lighting design, it made light birds fly on the walls of City Museum. Being a close friend with minimalism, I’d be happy just with the birds, but I guess light art festival context demands a showy element, even if it’s just a colour changing light wash.

Not a piece by Elton John

Every man becomes an Atlas here

Flipping birds

Future Forecast

As a light art educator, I was super interested in the student section. Within and Against, a collection of student works, was compiled from site specific artworks around Serafimerstranden, realised by art, lighting design and curating students of Konstfack, Kungliga tekniska högskolan and Stockholm University, respectively. Few of the artworks actually used added light, the overall approach was quite conceptual and contemplating, making use of existing lights. I couldn’t find all the artworks, but based on what I did find, I expect to see interesting use of light in the Stockholm visual arts scene in forthcoming years.

The Drop by Karin Askling

My trip to Nobel Week Lights has been supported by Frame Finland, and I thank them with all my heart.

The Nice Galleries in Stockholm: Söder with a Map

Stockholm, Sweden, June 1st 2018 and a plethora of previous dates

So, you've arrived in Stockholm from Helsinki via a cruise boat, I presume, and want to see some art during your six hour stay? Good choice! Even if you haven't, you're well allowed to read further. Stockholm's Södermalm, south of the Old City, is a fitting destination, with all its small, mostly uncommercial, artist run galleries and otherworldly nice cafés. You know, Swedish are the world champions in nice, and Söder is the best proof. Galleries included.

A party or a bar? In Stockholm you never know.

The galleries mentioned here are not all open on everyday basis and many of them have an extended summer break. Fridays and Saturdays are the best chances to see at least some of them open. Always check from the websites if there's actually something going on if you want to be sure. Then again, having a nice cup of coffee every time a gallery isn't open is a valid option, too!

The Viking ship arrives in Stockholm at 10 a.m, but it may take some time to get out of it. That's fine, since the galleries don't open before noon anyway. Luckily, there's Fotografiska with superhuman opening times to kill the time in. Turn right from the ship and walk less than a kilometer by the shore and there you are.



Fotografiska, a multi floor exhibition space for photography, takes large clientele seriously and most of its exhibitions are quite, let's say, user friendly. There has been numerous exhibitions lately on fashion photography, for example. Which is fine. Not so fine is how they tend to be camouflaged as something they are not: high art, feminist and distinct, when in reality they're all quite the same, strictly in service of commerce and more or less misogynist. But pretty. And often including celebrities, in front or behind the camera.

On the other side of the coin there are a lot of political, equality driving and even borderline controversial exhibitions, where people are lured to with aforementioned sweet baits. I've seen some great exhibitions in Fotografiska, too! Most of the photographs exhibited are somewhat classically beautiful and technically correct, in any case, no avant garde punk-sassy underground here. The top floor café with its wonderful view over the Strömmen bay and scandicozy furniture is beautiful and technically correct as well. In a good way.

Fotografiska
Stadsgårdshamnen 22
Sun-Wed 9–23
Thu-Sat 9–1 a.m.
Tickets: 145 / 115 kr, children under 12 free

Coffee is good, too

If you didn't have coffee at Fotografiska or want another opinion on the scenery, or are hungry already, or it's not even close to noon yet, stop next in Hermans restaurant. It opens at 11 am and by noon the buffet lunch queues are considerable. Hermans is a vegetarian / heavily vegan restaurant with a slightly mediterranean-middle-eastern touch. The cake shelf proves that vegan definitely is not a synonym of healthy. The space is like a huge summer cottage, where there's always a new terrace to be found somewhere. To get there from Fotografiska, cross the road, climb the exhausting stairs, turn to your left and enter through the garden after a few steps.

Diving is not recommended

OK, the first actual gallery should be open at noon, if the guard is on time, so it's time to move on.

ID:I is an artist run gallery with two small rooms. The running group includes 25 artist, of whom everyone is responsible for the gallery for three weeks every few years. With a wide set of curators, there are a lot of different styles and medias presented, but most of the art is quite minimalistic, subtle and somewhat conceptual. Take your time to absorb, it's worth it! Most of the exhibitions are guarded by the artists themselves, so it's easy to ask if you still don't quite get it.

ID:I Galleri
Tjärhovsgatan 19

Thu–Fri: 12–18
Sat–Sun: 12–16

Centrum för Fotografi, as the name suggests, presents photography, mostly Swedish, from both graduating students and seasoned professionals. The exhibitions are mostly contemporary photography, from a range of different genres, both single artist and group shows. The gallery is run by the Swedish photography association, which aims to educate the public as well, so they have a lot of seminars and other happenings going on, too. The space is one of the neatest and largest on the route, but still quite, well, nice.

The artist run Studio 44 shares the gallery with Centrum för Fotografi, so either one probably has something going on there. The profile of Studio 44 is pretty much same than ID:I gallery, even the number of artists running the place is the same. I've so far missed Studio 44's exhibitions, so no first hand experiences here, but it looks pretty interesting site to see mostly Swedish contemporary art of every possible media!

Tjärhovsgatan 44 / Kapsylen
Red door in the gangway
Centrum för Fotografi

Wed–Fri 12–18

Sat 12–16

Studio 44

Thu–Fri 12–18

Sat–Sun 12–17

Enter, works from graduating students of Mittuniversitet in CFF

In need of coffee? Right beside CFF there's a vegetarian / anarchist / berlinesque Kafé 44. I'm sure it's the nicest anarchist café ever. I mean, just how nice can an anarchist kladdkaka be?

Kafé 44 also has a tiny terrace in the backyard

Galleri Axl Sund is not really part of this tour, since it opens weekdays at 16 and you should be back in the ship by then. If you're rich enough to visit Stockholm on Saturday or Thu–Fri after 4 pm, pop in, but in other cases, just peek in from the windows. And for that, Dear Mr. Sund, would you mind leaving the lights on for the proletariat to see in properly from the dark, cold, rainy, nice street?

Galleri Axl Sund
Folkungagatan 103
Thu–Fri 16–19
Sat 13–16

Lusine Djanyan and Alexey Knedlyakovsky: Den Vita Cirkeln  

Steinsland Berliner is my favourite gallery in Stockholm. It has edgy contemporary art, as a proper edgy gallery should, but also abundance and colours – and even humor! The gallery is not afraid to exhibit controversial themes, but doesn't shy away from "old fashioned" plain old paintings exhibitions either – always well curated and displayed. The gallery is run by Jeanette Steinsland and Jacob Kampp Berliner, and with that kind of cool surnames, it would be stupid not to have a nominal gallery. The space is also super nice with large windows and a lot of day light pouring in. Well, video artists might disagree on that.

Steinsland Berliner
Bondegatan 70
Wed–Fri 12 – 17
Sat 12–16

Arvida Byström: Cherry Picking

Galleri Axel is a tiny one room gallery, dedicated to showing details of and new angles to known photographers' works as well as introducing new talents. The style of the art presented is mostly quite classical – but definitely not boring. The gallery is run by the photograph Bea Tigerhielm and it also has a fine web shop. It comes in handy, since most of the photographs can easily be imagined on a wall of a super nice cultural home that Stockholm is filled with.

Galleri Axel

Södermannagatan 16

Thu–Fri13–18

Sat 11–17

Galleri Axel is probably the tiniest of the tour

Tegen 2 is another gallery that has escaped me, but try your luck and see if it's open. According to past exhibitions, the program seems interesting, comprising mostly of video/media art of political kind.

Tegen 2
Bjurholmsgatan 9b, inner yard (I guess)
Fri–Sun 12–17

Even if the Tegen 2 gallery is not open, the yard is worth seeing.
If you manage to sneak in.

On your way, you'll notice (if you're observant) a funny piece of public art, in Nacka's hörna (Nacka's Corner). The statue See you at the goal (1984) by Olle Aldrin was erected in honour of a Swedish football player Lennart "Nacka" Skoglund. That makes me wonder two things.

First, Sweden has kicked Finnish (among other nationalities) ass in ice hockey for thousands of years, why a statue for someone who kicked ball in the fifties, with one famous goal, and pretty much spoiled his life with alcohol? Isn't this a Finnish thing to do? Second, what's with the nicknames here? In Sweden and Swedish speaking Finland people have the most inexplicable nicknames, whose sole purpose seem to be as weird and far from the original name as possible. There's no logic whatsoever!

Nacka's famous "curling home direct from a corner" kick. I presume.

If you think you'll need some coffee, Älskade Traditioner (Beloved traditions) is handy available by the route, at Södermannagatan. They have all kinds of organic, raw, vegan and other type of good stuff on their shelves, and good coffee, too.

Candyland's ten(ish) founding members are free to invite any artist to exhibit in the gallery, without the consent of the others. So, there's no strict line in curating, apart from a theme of gentle, warm humanity, which may or may not be in my eye only. Most of the exhibitions are comprised of paintings and drawings of up and coming nordic artists, but to not give a too traditional picture here, there also has been shadow theatre, freedom training and a performance about border control in the exhibition program.

Candyland
Gotlandsgatan 76
Opening times vary, usually Fri–Sun 13–16

Building up the next exhibition

Now, here's some street credibility for you: hangmenProjects gallery looks like it's an ex garage, how grunge is that? Surprisingly, the funding of the gallery is less bohemian: there's an exhibition/art producing firm backing the bills, owned by the artists that run the gallery. So, no responsibilities to funding authorities, meaning free hands. What a curatorial dream! That being said, there is no specific curatorial line, if mostly presenting works of the gallery owners and the group of artists working for the company doesn't count as one. In this case, a dash of nepotism of a professional kind is a good spice.

hangmenProjects

Ringvägen 86 

Opening times vary

Gotten so far? Now, go a few step back and to the back of the house

You probably are a bit tired already, so take a bus back to the harbour if you don't feel like walking another 2 km. You can check the timetables from sl.se, the nearest stop to the harbour is Londonviadukten with some 200 m of walking. Be sure to leave at 15:30, absolutely latest, to be in the ship in time. Earlier, if walking. And even earlier, if you like to "save" and buy your own food instead of eating in a ship restaurant.

A good, nice place for snack shopping is Urban Deli by Nytorget. My favourite there is the frozen creme caramel, which I obviously only buy to keep my other (healthy) food cold in the bag. The shelves of the small shop are filled with things you just need to taste or the world will come to a sudden end, and by the counter you'll find why it was necessary to use quotation marks in "save".

But definitely not in nice.

OTHER PEOPLE VISITING STOCKHOLM GALLERIES
• Insinöörin taideopas: Tukholman galleriat (in Finnish)
• Scandinavian Traveler: Stockholm Art Gallery Guide

Traditions and Obsessions on a Baltic Cruise

Baltic Sea Between Helsinki and Stockholm, March 11th to 13th 2018 (and various other dates)

The Stockholm cruise is somewhat an institution among the Finns. And Swedes, too. The previous call it ruotsinlaiva (Ship to Sweden) and the latter finlandsfärja (Ferry to Finland). Especially in the ruotsinlautta case, one is supposed to overeat at the buffet, drink the cheap booze, party in the overtly colourfully lighted disco, including at least some dance steps to the 80's hits played by a cheesy cover band, sing some karaoke with deepest of feelings, buy some more cheap booze from the tax free and pass out in someone else's cabin. All this wearing glitter decorated tops and polyester shirts, possibly changing wearer during the night.

Sunsets are the only reason to go outside during the winter,
in the summertime there are additional bars on decks

Kids are supposed to, according to their ages, pass out early by sugar rush caused by the cheap candies bought from the tax free, cry in terror of their parents behavior or scheme their way to the very first sip of alcoholic beverages. In the morning, parents are supposed to throw up and take the kids to Gröna Lund amusement park, where the kids throw up and then it's time to go back to the ship and do it all over again.

Even though the EU has ruined the really cheap booze part and there are occasionally actually good bands performing, you can still live this dream. Anyhow, there are other options. Like, here I am, as I write, relaxed, having a sip of sparkling wine (not the very cheapest, I might add), well fed, surrounded by pretty much sober families. The scenery passes by peacefully and if it was summer, I could even see it. A success!

Staring at the scenery

There are two ferry companies, Viking Line and Tallink Silja, of which Silja is traditionally regarded a tad classier but is accordingly more expensive. I've traveled both, found the differences quite small and ended up using Viking Line, because of the prices and better location of the harbor in Stockholm.

The main rule is to travel starting Sunday–Wednesday. Thus you avoid the most drunk weekdays of Friday and Saturday on board. Also, the trips are cheaper. Following ads, or even by joining Viking Club, you get quite favorable special prices, starting from a few euros. Offers don't happen between start of June till mid August, though, because the ships have more than enough customers in families with vacationing school kids then. So go before / after. By answering the company's email questionnaires and buying enough stuff from the tax free, you might get an offer for another cruise, and then the same happens again and all of a sudden you're in the Viking Loop. I should now, I traveled eight times last year.

Why? you ask. WHY ON EARTH??!!!! you might even put it. Well, the biggest reason is obviously Stockholm, but more on that in another posting.

The welcoming port of Stockholm

When in middle of travels, I need my methadone, and a short trip abroad, anywhere abroad, is just that. Also, for some reason, I sleep very well in ships – especially in a tad more luxurious two persons cabin, equipped with a two persons soft bed, which is just large enough for one. The humming of motors gives me such a good sleep. Furthermore, I find the few hours in open sea, when internet doesn't really work, very relaxing. Viking Line has lately very kindly eased the non-internetting, by making the users renew the connection once in an hour and changing the password every day. Rather than going to info to check the new password in one's pajama's, it's so very alluring to just give up and read a book. Of course, it's also quite relaxing not to be able to actually go anywhere, without serious risk of drowning.

I mentioned the soft beds of a tad more finer cabins. Let's go deeper in that. Never settle with the cheapest option of windowless cabin. The stereotype of drunken Scandinavians is based on reality, and you might spend some time in your cabin, trying to avoid them. Or non-internetting. In the cheapest cabins, you'll have a good chance having one or eight of them as neighbors, too, or even more horrific teenage versions. Quite loud. So, upgrade at least to a cabin with a window, it really is not that expensive. The cabins are quite small and it's not exaggerating to have one of four persons all to yourself. The mentioned lux but still affordable cabins are available in the ship Mariella only.

The cheapest cabin with a window option on the left, 
a tad more expensive on the right.
Humans added for scale.

In my childhood I dreamed of the overwhelming buffet of the ship, pouring with shrimps and chocolate sauce, my favourites at the time. Respectively. Nowadays I sport a tad more developed taste, but the food still is ok. The wine is included in the reasonablish whole deal price, which drives people to drink too much and buy scarves they can't afford, but overall the ambience is quite civilized in the restaurant. There are other restaurants on board, too, but let's just say that it helps to be a carnivore. With a vegan friend of mine, with whom I started my career as cruise ship regular, we usually buy fancy food in advance and do not leave the cabin. A very viable option, that one, too.

Example of a moderate picnic in the cabin with food oriented friends

The buffet includes food, too

The tax free shop looks innocent enough and you'll walk in like "oh, there's nothing I'd have to buy from here, I'll just stroll to the candy shelf and buy me a chocolate bar", but be warned: amongst all the usual nothing special stuff there might be lurking something you just feel compulsed to buy. Like a Balmuir scarf just your colour, too expensive, last one left. Just a random example. For those believing in the almighty power of Elizabeth Arden's 8 hour lip balm in curing dry lips, leper and broken limbs; it's sold here very affordable. FYI: In Finland the stuff is known as Ellun ihmerasva (Elsie's miracle cream) and it has a cult following.

Defs not a shopping trip

Pieces of Information

Viking Line departs from Helsinki at 17:30, arrives in Stockholm the next morning at 10, departs back to Helsinki the same day at 16:30 where it arrives at 10:10 next morning. You have to be in the ship half an hour before the departure. The scheme is almost the same with Tallink Silja. 

• Ferry companies: Viking Line, Tallink Silja

• Other people done the cruise:  Malins mix (in Swedish), Wandering Dejavu (about a Silja cruise), Nordic Fairy