Turns of phrase and repetitions that slow language down and render it unfamiliar form the core of Karl Holmqvist’s exhibition “GÅVÄNTASTANNA” (GOWAITSTOP) at this art center just outside of Stockholm. The exhibition is centered on a cut-up text that assembles fragments and excerpts from William Blake, William S. Burroughs, Gwen Stefani, Elke Krystufek, Artforum.com and other sources into a heterogeneous poem about mysticism, resistance and Josephine Baker. The text (also found in Holmqvist’s 2005 book I ON A LION IN ZION) is printed in black-and-white alternatively onto Op art–patterned posters “inspired by Verner Panton” that have then been used to design the exhibition space, creating a “total installation” together with the other elements of the show: videos, slideshows, recorded readings, poster-magazines, and artist’s books. You enter the space not only to view the exhibition, but to inhabit it for a while, to follow its rhythms and breaks. The spatial arrangement of Beat and Concrete poetry has been carried out with Holmqvist’s characteristic mix of boldness and modesty, pairing simple materials and DIY techniques with Gesamtkunstwerk ambitions worthy of the most utopian of avant-gardes. All in all it’s a sort of a pre-midcareer retrospective of a noncareerist artist, gathering works from the late 80s onward. By extension it shows that this venue is one of the most promising among the new institutions currently revitalizing Stockholm’s art scene.
