Image: Felix Vasquez Aguilera
”Life changes fast. Life changes in the instant. The ordinary instant. You sit down to dinner and life as you know it changes.”, Joan Didion wrote in what is one of her most celebrated books; “The Year of Magical Thinking”. In the book, which presents as a meditation on mourning and loss, she processes life following the sudden passing, close in time, of both her husband and only child. When Didion herself passed shortly before Christmas Eve of 2021, at age 87, she was considered one of the titans of contemporary American literature. Her extensive authorship encompassed various literary traditions, and a staple in her work was her canny and microscopic eye in observing quotidian society and the human condition. She had an unprecedented ability to engage her reader even in the most mundane things and invite a sense of vivid presence right with her.
For the exhibition curator, Joan Didion has served as a guiding compass through adult life. In The Joan Arcs, the three artists; Felix Vasquez Aguilera, Hannes Michanek and Marta Galindo, all newer names for the local art scene, intersect in their interest in allowing for Didion’s words to inspire their making. The intent at hand is not for anyone to be a scholar of Didion’s work or to exhaustively treat it, but rather to set off an overlap between literature and contemporary art, with Didion’s words as fuel. For the exhibition, which is an intimate homage, essays about John Wanye, natural phenomena and grief have served as points of departures for new artworks that are created specifically and being presented for the first time.
The exhibition marks the celebration of the twentieth-year anniversary of the cohabitation in Stockholm of the Goethe Institut-Schweden and Instituto Cervantes.
The exhibition may be visited during the library open hours: Monday – Thursday, 2–5 PM
Felix Vasquez Aguilera (born 1984, Santiago, Chile) lives and works in Stockholm, and is an MFA graduate of the Royal Institute of Art (Class of 2013). In 2020, he was the recipient of the prestigious award “Den tänkande handen”, annually awarded by His Majesty The King of Sweden. This spring Felix Vasquez Aguilera has taken part in Vårsalongen at Liljevalchs Konsthall in Stockholm, and he’s previously taken part in exhibitions at Galleri Thomas Wallner in Simris.
Marta Galindo (born 1993, Cádiz, Spain) lives and works in Madrid and is an MA graduate (Class of 2018) masterexamen (2018) in Artistic research and creation of Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM). In 2023, she was the recipient of the award Ayudas Injuve in Madrid, and she has previously presented solo exhibitions at Iniciarte in Córdoba and Tuesday to Friday in Valencia.
Hannes Michanek (born 1979, Kristianstad, Sweden) lives and works in Frankfurt and is a graduate of Staedelschule in Frankfurt (Class Michael Krebber, Class of 2012). He’s presented solo exhibitions at Galerie Parisa Kind and Galerie Anita Beckers in Frankfurt, at Kunstverein Assenheim, and has taken part in group exhibitions at Alexander Levy Gallery in Berlin and Galerie Hartwich in Rügen.
Ashik Zaman is the founder of the international art platform C-print, which turned 10 years last year in 2023. He holds position as curator at Konstnärshuset in Stockholm and is a board member of Konstnärsnämnden (The Swedish Arts Grants Committee). In 2023 he presented as curator Vincent Haynes’ solo exhibition “Bankett” with the Goethe Institut-Schweden.