Like a ship waiting to dock in a safe harbor, the Sebastian Schildt Gallery presented a spontaneous exhibition project to exorcise life in quarantine.
QUARANTENA was in fact a term used in the 1300s-1400s Venetian language and referred to the period of time that all ships were required to be isolated before both passengers and crewmembers were allowed to go ashore during the plague epidemic, and means "forty days".
It is no coincidence that the exhibition image is the signal flag "Lima", also called the "Yellow Jack", which is the International maritime flag for "ship is under quarantine".
The exhibition opened on May 7 and was open to the public for forty days.
The exhibition features brand new works by 29 local and international artists, who have all been inspired by their personal experiences of the current pandemic. QUARANTENA is a contemporary collection of art works conveying stories of the waiting, longing, worrying and paining but also the resilience, gratitude and hope that people are experiencing in the midst of this ongoing crisis.
The exhibition forms a unique testament to these strange times that we are all going through.
From left to right: Olle Olls, Sculpture, Toilet paper roll, sterling silver; Castello Hansen, Brooch, Vanitas, monopink, reverse with black wreck from ship wreck, lock in gold and steel; Kuki Constantinescu, Pocket watch with watch chain and brooch, Close encounter, silver.
A wide variety of works of art that both tell about personal stigma, thoughts of perishability but also about newly discovered joys and happiness of being together. The artists' reflections are both consistent and heartfelt, as well as showing the analytical and important ability of the art and craftsmanship.
The future is difficult to assess, but when one day we will have the opportunity to look back on this period, we will have the pleasure of having artistic imprints. It is art that will again function as a haven, questioning and inspiring both ourselves and generations to come.
Some of the quarantine symbols, which were present in both individual and collective imagination, return here, sometimes ironically, such as the mask, the toilet paper, the passage of time, the social distancing.
Castello Hansen for example presents a pink brooch, Vanitas, which, if looked at it closely, presents the profile of a skull, inscribing the narrative within the more general tradition of the Memento Mori.
Kuki Constantinescu, in the piece Close Encounter, describes the wait to touch and embrace again.
Silversmith Olle Olls submitted a sculpture of a toilet roll in sterling silver.
Swedish glass artist Ulla Forsell created this series of five individual sculptures, together forming what appears like a scene from a magical apothecary or laboratory setting. A medicine or vaccine is being produced here, but the alluring colours of the sculptures also evoke images of toys. Ulla Forsell’s work is titled “Virus shot / The Corona Collection” and is an expression of her wish for a solution to this pandemic.
The exhibition presented the brand new works by the artists Tobias Andersson, Tobias Birgersson, Kuki Constantinescu, Anna Forsberg, Ulla Forsell, Mona Fällberg, Castello Hansen, August Happ, Aia Jüdes, Ann Karlholm, Tove Knuts, Caroline Lindholm, Åsa Lockner, Charlotte Mrani, Olle Olls, Åsa Pärson, Ru Runeberg, Helena Sandström, Karlheinz Sauer, Sebastian Schildt, Jin-Sook So, Ulrika Swärd, Pamela Wilson and Ann Wolff.
Tove Knuts, Mouthguard, Or la Orville Peck, cotton fabric, fringe, rubber band; Ulla Forsell, Sculpture, Virus Spray / The Corona Collection, glass.
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