The Listener

Ongoing climate change, threatened biodiversity and a comprehensive need for global transition demand new methods for observing and understanding the ecological contexts we are all part of. The artists we have invited to Laholm all engage in dia­logues with nature: watercourses, plants, mosses and ecosystems. By doing so, the artists form a bridge between non-human communication and our own existential questioning. What does it mean to really listen to nature’s own voices? What sounds, choruses, tones, agencies and stories emerge then? Through inter­ disciplinary and locally anchored artistic methods, the artists listen, sketch and shape new ideas about an existence in open dialogue and harmony. Christine Ödlund’s work spans the fields of art, meta­ physics, and science. This spring she has investigated the moss’s own ecological language and communication systems. The varied marshland landscape of swamp forest and mainland islets that sprawl high up on Hallandsås forms the basis for a new series of drawings and sketches presented in the exhibition.

Pia Rönicke and Johan Tirén present an extensive project developed over three years with the river Lagan as both geographical and symbolic vein. Their journey follows the water’s path from its mouth at Kattegatt to its source south of Jönköping— through landscapes characterized by the slow rhythms of nature and human intervention.

In addition to the exhibition at Teckningsmuseet, Art Inside Out presents a new sculptural work by artists-in-residence Anja and Tomas Örn. The piece is located near the lower hydroelectric power station in Knäred, on a small island in the river Lagan. In collaboration with scientific researchers, the artists have studied the movements of the water as it flows through the power station’s turbines and have transformed these into a large-­scale sculpture, embodying an element of the water’s own bodily memory.

Art Inside Out is a nomadic art institution in Halland that works with contemporary art in new and unexpected locations; both in the city and in the countryside. Art Inside Out invites artists to art residencies and to create new site-specific art works, exhibitions and public programs anchored in local environments. Art Inside Out is run by Region Halland together with Halland’s six municipalities.