Voice, vision and sense of place

I work with image, text, sound, installations and interventions, as well as collaborative and web based projects. Another way to describe my practice is to say that I work with föreställningar – a Swedish word that in addition to perception also refers to preconception and performance. On the one hand my projects concern the perceptual and cognitive prerequisites for how we as individuals perceive our environs, and on the other hand the social and ideological structures that shape our world view and interaction with others.

Narrative installations. I often use voice-overs in combination with constructed situations to create multi-layered narratives. The stories told, fictional and documentary, are related to what you see, but also the situation you find yourself in while listening. Voice and vision, or lack of vision, are thus used to activate specific perceptions and preconceptions in a kind of one-man performances. See for example the work "Paranormal", or "From Here to There".

Collaborative projects. Narrative strategies, as well as sampling and recontextualization of already existing material, were used on a larger scale in the 2-year-project "Monument for the Masses", made in collaboration with Po Hagström. Here we took an existing proposal for a monument in Estonia, altered it in substantial ways and presented our re-make as a counter-monument. Our proposal was used as a point of departure for mapping stories and rituals surrounding art in public space. Rather than focusing on the values and virtues monuments are said to symbolize, we explored the misunderstandings, conflicting relations and stories associated with them.
Questions related to democracy, the use of public space, city branding, identity and social sustainability are also at the heart of the long-term collaborative projects “Mushrooming” and "A Radical Shift of Scenery", made in relation to the new Regional Development Plan for the Stockholm Region.
My interest in storytelling and research based practices is the reason I in 2005 started SQUIDproject.net together with Katja Aglert. "SQUID" is an ever-expanding, online archive of texts written by cultural producers from different countries, but also a framework for activities such as public events. In 2008 Martijn van Berkum [NL] joined as project manager on a regular basis.

Theatre. Since 1992 I have also made works for the stage.



Read more

"Are You Willing to Get Stupid?" [EN], by Janna Holmstedt (Chto delat?/What is to be done? magazine)
"The Familiar Reconfigured" [EN], by Hassan Khan (catalogue text, pdf)
"Some Day They’re Gonna Name A Street After Me" [EN], by Po Hagström and Janna Holmstedt (Estonian Art)
”Welcome to ESTonia – en roadmovie i fem delar” [SV], by Po Hagström and Janna Holmsted (Paletten Art magazine)

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