Mats Hjelm – The Healer

Cecilia Hillström Gallery is pleased to present Mats Hjelm's second solo show at the gallery, The Healer. The new project consists of four photographic works with luminous signs, two parallel single-channel video installations, and a sound and video sculpture. The exhibition is a continuation of Kap Atlantis, a video-installation from 2003. In this work Hjelm explored existential dimensions of destructive historical legacies in reference to a dystopic vision of the future, inspired by Harry Martinson's novel Aniara. With The Healer, Hjelm explores a similar strand by using narratives of futuristic prophecies that comment on the past as future memory.

The main theme of the exhibition is based on the poem 22nd century by the artist Exuma, a Bahamian visionary, humanistic philosopher and people's poet, that reflect a conception of the future as a false liberation. Whereas Harry Martinson's novel drew on Vedic and Buddhistic traditions, Exuma draws on the more obscure Obeah cults in the Caribbean. Throughout the work, we hear songs of future prophecies that make us confront contemporary realities, as if they were warnings coming from a cautionary tale.

Working conceptually with triangulation as a method, Hjelm develops narratives both in the individual pieces and in the exhibition as a whole. In the new video diptych, Left Eye and Right Eye, the soundtrack intertwines the two image feeds, and brings forth a poetic layering of existential and political narratives. Image, text and sound form a dense story about history and memory that operates as if in a crossroad, against the backdrop of physical and spiritual healing.

Sound Composer: Peter Adolfsson
Voice: Ng'endo Mukii
Consultant: Jesper Johansson