Facts: Roy Andersson
Debuted in 1970 with “A love story”.
The sequel “Giliap” in 1975 was panned by the critics, and Andersson then worked for many years with commercials. There he developed a visual and narrative language based on long shots in full frame – a kind of tableau.
During the 2000s, made a trilogy of feature films: “Songs from the second floor” (2000). “You alive” (2007) and “A pigeon sat on a branch and thought about existence”.
The exhibition “I saw” runs from January 13 to March 12 at Artipelag and consists of 17 images from Andersson’s film “On the Infinite”, which premiered in 2019.
Artipelag is located on Värmdö outside Stockholm and was founded in 2012 by Björn Jakobson, the entrepreneur behind the company Babybjörn.
Ever since the debut “A love story” from 1970, Roy Andersson has had an obvious place in Swedish film art – and with later films such as “Giliap”, “Songer från andra våningen” and “Du levande” has developed an increasingly distinctive visual language.
On January 13, the exhibition “Jag såg” opens at the art gallery Artipelag outside Stockholm, where 17 images from Andersson’s latest film “If the Infinite” are exhibited. The pictures are part of the art gallery’s collection and have been purchased by the founders Björn and Lillemor Jakobson, according to Iselin Page, curator at Artipelag.
A desolate restaurant interior in Andersson’s typical aesthetic is depicted in one of the pictures in the exhibition at Artipelag. Press photo.
— They have followed Roy Andersson from an early stage of his career and have always been fascinated by his production and artistic universe. The pictures have been in the collection for a while and we have been waiting for the right opportunity to show them. Now it feels right because Roy turns 80 in March – and besides, this time of year is very suitable for his aesthetic universe, she says.
“Conveying the big in the small”
The film “If Infinity” premiered in 2019 and was awarded, among other things, the Silver Lion for best director at the Venice Film Festival in the same year. The director’s typically wayward film view of humanity is loosely inspired by the fairy tale collection “One Thousand and One Nights” – and consists of a number of stylized tableaus.
The 17 images shown at Artipelag depict, among other things, a loving couple who, like the couple in Marc Chagall’s painting “Over the town”, hover over a war-torn Cologne, a typically desolate restaurant interior for Andersson – and a priest, who pours the communion wine for to drown the anguish of a lost faith.
A priest, who pours communion wine into himself to drown the anguish after losing his faith, is depicted in one of Andersson’s pictures. Press photo.
According to Iselin Page, one of Andersson’s distinguishing features is his ability to convey the big in the small in a narrative where irony is never far away.
— He succeeds in conveying both everyday and more existential themes with humor and not least with irony. Artipelag’s founder Björn Jakobson has described Andersson as unique in his ability to make people completely transparent, she says and continues:
– Then there is also great artistic work and enormous craftsmanship behind his films.
“Esthetician Andersson’s signature”
According to Iselin Page, Roy Andersson’s influence on contemporary film artists is great – at the same time she emphasizes that his aesthetic is also completely unique.
— There are younger directors who refer to Roy Andersson, but he is very unique in his visual language – and his aesthetic is very much his signature, she says and continues:
The images shown at the exhibition at Artipelag are all in Roy Andersson’s characteristic aesthetic. Press photo.
— I feel that in the pictures, in the same way as in the films, he succeeds in making the viewer stop and perhaps look at situations and people in a new way.