Jan Svenungsson

The Eternal Present
9 February - 23 April 2017

In the exhibition The Eternal Present, we are granted the opportunity to see beyond the chimneys that Jan Svenungsson is often associated with. Here we find works that pose questions regarding language and artistic identity. Here are maps interpreted as purely aesthetic images, but that also function as starting points for reflection on political identity and the drawing of boundaries. The artist's copying of his own images reveals an obstinate investigation into what originality and singularity actually mean, as well as what growth and progress entails. Precision and chance interact in the blood stains that spread throughout the exhibition space like a rampant virus. Jan Svenungsson's HEBDOMEROS by Giorgio de Chirico from 1999 has been centrally placed in the exhibition. In the same way that de Chirico's metaphysical novel has long been a key point of reference for Jan Svenungsson's art, this piece now constitutes the heart of the exhibition. Here, Hebdomeros' philosophical questions pulsate incessantly, addressing the nature of man, language, place, art and the eternal present.

Jan Svenungsson (b. 1961) grew up in Uppsala and has lived in Berlin since 1997. He has served as Professor of Drawing and Printmaking at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna since 2011.

www.jansvenungsson.com