Sweet, Sour, Bitter (and Just a Little Salty) at fond

There are moments when that indescribable Swedish air around things becomes less allusive, when you can almost pinpoint the qualities that makes these things so deliciously…well…Swedish. Maybe you know exactly what I’m talking about? It’s a mix best clumsily described as gloomy and sublime, what you feel during an Ingmar Bergman film, or listening to ABBA’s The Winner Takes It All. You could also call it a mix of sweet, sour, bitter, and just a little bit salty, which, coincidentally, is exactly how Gothenburg restaurant fond introduces their autumn menu.

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Kahlo and Rivera: The Gelman Collection at Göteborgs Konstmuseum

They used to say that behind every great man, is a great woman. Although certainly a valid statement in regards to Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, I’d like to extend that line of thinking out of any feminist debate, because particularly when Kahlo’s name is attached, it’s a road so-traveled that we needn’t go down it again. Instead, let’s focus on what lies at that center of that thought, which while certainly being gender-neutral, is by no means neutral in the success of any artist: support. You can certainly make comment about the support system that Rivera and Kahlo had between themselves as a couple and as artists, but without dwelling on that any longer, it simply brings us to another reinterpretation of what stands behind every great artist, and that’s a great story. So, check and double check for Rivera and Kahlo.

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Surfs up! In Sweden?!

Maybe, like me, you had no clue that Sweden has a thriving surf culture, but I’ll bet you that, considering the Swedes’ reputation for relaxed perfection, it’s totally awesome!

In kind of a backwards version of the story told in Stacy Peralta’s legendary 2001 documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys, sometime in the late 70s Per Torstensson, Stisse Bengtsson, Micki Carlsson and Ake Gylling decided to take their skateboarding skills and hit the waves. The resulting, mythic Porridge Bay Surf Club was at the forefront of the sport in Sweden’s West Coast where famously tight-lipped local surfers still safeguard the hottest stretches for the areas best surf.

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New Nordic Photography 2011 at the Hasselblad Foundation

(left) From the series:  A Melody for Grandpa by Erika Hedman, (right) Fresh paint on rusty spots, 2008 by Sven Drobnitza

It is possible that I am just being overly romantic about historical images, but when I see <new> used in conjunction with the name of the camera that was used to photograph man’s first landing on the moon, I really want to believe in that <new> standing for innovation. With their annual exhibition dedicated to the current trends and tendencies of young Nordic photographers, it seems that the Hasselblad Foundation – established by and named after, of course, Victor Hasselblad of Hasselblad cameras – sees it that way too.

This year, the New Nordic Photography exhibition features 9 newly graduated Bachelors and Masters students who are taking part in the exhibition as well as competing for scholarships to London and New York. Called the Victor Fellowships, these scholarships couldn’t be named after a better role model. After studying in then-center-of-the-world-optics-industry Dresden, Germany at the age of 18, and then going on to study in Rochester, New York with George Eastman, Victor Hasselblad understood the value of an international education in one’s field. He then took that education back to his hometown of Gothenburg where he developed aerial surveillance cameras for the Swedish military during World War II, and eventually the consumer camera the Hasselblad 500C, which through requests and development with NASA, became the camera of the Apollo 11 mission.

The 9 young photographers in the exhibition aren’t competing with their technical innovations. While The Hasselblad Foundation is dedicated to promoting research and academic teaching in the natural sciences and photography, here it is artistic innovation that counts. I wonder if Arvid Viktor Hasselblad, who started the photographic division of the family business in the mid-1800s, could have imagined it going so far. It just goes to show you never know where your work or ideas will end up; there are 12 Hasselblad cameras still lying around on the Moon, after all.

The exhibition runs from May 28 until August 21 at the Hasselblad Foundation’s Exhibition Hall, which is located in the Göteborg Museum of Art, situated at Götaplatsen. Closed Mondays.

If you’ll be headed to Gothenburg and looking for an equally innovative place to stay, White Line Hotels edit Hotel Flora has got what you’re looking for.

Images courtesy www.hasselbladfoundation.org/

In Gothenburg They’re Dancing in the Streets

The summer festival season is off to an amazing start. Across Europe it seems like it’s going to be one long glorious summer of pouring into the streets and celebrating whatever is at hand. In Gothenburg they’ll be celebrating the 37^th year of the Hammerkullekarnevalens. Similar to many carnivals of culture that happen in other European cities, the Hammerkullekarnevalens has Latin American flair, but it really is a citywide celebration of diversity.

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