Reading in Swedish and German by Karl Larsson and Per Mertens, 14.8.2010, 6.30 pm

The NAK. Neue Aachener Kunstverein is pleased to present the first institutional exhibition by Swedish artist Karl Larsson.
Karl Larsson, born in 1977 in Sweden, is currently a research fellow at the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht, therefor the show is following the institutions tradition of a recurrent focus on it´s euregional geographic position.

Forming the basis of the exhibition is the first book FORM/FORCE by artist, poet and editor Karl Larsson who resides in Stockholm, Maastricht, and Brussels. FORM/FORCE presents a compilation of free associations on various cultural, contemporary historical, and political events. Bound together as poetry and written in alternating languages, various themes are united including the destruction of the gigantic Buddhas in Bamiyan by the Taliban, secret writings from the German Autumn, and constatives by Ian Curtis, the singer of the Dark Wave band Joy Division. Similar to a stream of consciousness, Larsson’s narration reproduces perceptions, thoughts, and reflections of the events, thus, as the narration also recounts, finding their way into consciousness.
An essential aspect and point of reference of FORM/FORCE is the paratext, whose function is to provide the basis for the existence of the text as such and includes, for instance, ISBN numbers, publisher information, etc.
In the exhibition the viewer becomes an interpreter, since force is released through the observation of the elements on display, through the interpretation of the forms exhibited by Larsson. Sensual readings, i.e. perceiving and experiencing the objects in the exhibition with all senses, are intended to make the relatively empty space feel palpable and to release one’s own energy or strength.

FORM/FORCE was first published in Sweden in 2007 by OEI Editör. Parallel to the exhibition at the Neue Aachener Kunstverein, the book has now been translated into German by Klaus-Jürgen Liedkte and will be released in the future.

 

We would also like to take this occasion to thank the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastrict for their generous support of this project and IASPIS, Stockholm for its dedicated support of the publication. FORM/FORCE will be published with Buchhandlung Walther König in Cologne.