Title: Blind Understanding
Production, Text, Voice over: Saskia Holmkvist
Camera: Lars Siltberg
Length of film: 13 min
Year of Production: 2009

If a serious expression is connected with a playful, one starts to question the trustworthiness of what is being presented. This is what happens in the film Eight Martini. During the entire 4 minute film the viewer is put to correlate an image and a story that do not have any evident connection. Not until the end when we are to get the answer it is revealed that it’s three different expressions that have points of contact but no evident connection; a historical documentary, a didactic narration, and a party game.

Eight Martini was an internal expression within the CIA and the coming into being of it is told to us in the film. The expression was synonymous with successful results and external acknowledgment which was something the remote viewers within the CIA did not have. So how did they present their results to those who where sceptical so that they would find them successful in order to get acknowledged? This leaves us with the question, when is a presentation of a result believable to us?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Title: Eight Martini
Concept, Text, Film editing, Production: Saskia Holmkvist
Voice: Lara Horn af Rantzien (english)
Length of film: 4 min.
Production year: 2004

Current Exhibitions

Utopics
in collaboration with Andrea Thal/Les Complices* for Utopics in Biel/Bienne
curator: Simon Lamunière
29 August - 25 October 2009

Momentum
curator: Stina Högkvist, Lina Dzuverovic
29 August - 18 October 2009

Upcoming Exhibitions

Fotografi: nu 2009
CFF – Centrum för Fotografi
Curators: Liv Stoltz, Aura Seikkula
1 October - 8 November 2009

Recent Exhibitions

Voice Over - on staging, activism and performative strategies in contemporary art practices
Published by Sternberg Press i collaboration with Iaspis
Iaspis Launch in Venice 4th of June

In Character & Role Control
Frankfurter Kunstverein
curated by Chus Martínez & Katja Schroeder
26th of March-14th of June

Translation, Paradoxes and Misunderstandings
at Shedhalle in Zurich
curated by Katharina Schlieben and Sönke Gau
22 May-19 July 2009

Addition!
Curated by Komplot
Performance by Saskia Holmkvist called Artist Talk at 4.30 pm 24th May

Manipulation!
MFK at Signal in Malmö
9-29 May

Filmform program at Gävle videokonstfestivalen, 7 May
Filmform program at Cinemateket in Stockholm, 10 May

Soft Manipulation
at 3,14 in Bergen
curated by Enrico Lunghi, Maria Lind and Zoran Eric
20 March-3 May 2009

Oberhausen Filmfestival
International competition
30 April-5th May

Screening at the KRAN by Heidi Ballet, Brussels,
30 April

In Character & Role Control
at 0047 in Oslo
curator Marianne Zamecznic
19 March-19 April

Coming to You LIVE
curated by Sarah Lookofsky (Art in General)
at Bloomberg headquarters,
23 October-17 April 2009

Soft Manipulation
at Casino Luxemburg
curated by Enrico Lunghi, Maria Lind and Zoran Eric
20 December-1 March 2009

Strategies of Confidence
at NICC, Antwerpen
curated by Alan Quireyns
8 January-8March 2009

Artist Talk together with Liv Bugge
in Filmhuis Klappei in Antwerpen 23 October2008 at 8 pm.

In Character & Role Control at Malmö Konsthall
26 September (Nordic Panorama), curated by Johanna Billing

Last Chance to see The Show
curated by Christian Alandete
>at Point Ephemere , Paris-(Hot Desking/RMC-Curatorlab/Manifesta)
20th of September 2008

Performance “Press Conference” at 6pm. 20th of September in the exhibition

LAST CHANCE TO SEE THE SHOW in Paris.

"Press-Conference"

Residency at Air in Antwerpen
September until end of October 2008

Tense Territories
curated by Aura Seikula in Santralistanbul 23 July- 31 October in Istanbul

Good Gangsters in Town
curated by Etsher Lu and Adnan Yildiz at Taipei Fine Art Museum 21 June-3 August

In two different collaborative projects with art institutions I have involved PR companies. The purpose was to alter the roles in the relation between the institution, artist and audience by letting an external party interact in the public relations work.

As the meeting point of artists and institutions often centres on discussions about how to present the exhibition to the media and the audience I commissioned a PR company to step into the routines of the institution and to shift the focus of their work from the artist to the work of the institution itself. This shift of focus as a parallel to the fact that the PR communication made by an institution most of the time starts off from the exhibiting artist.

I wanted to investigate how the artist, institution and audience would react to the ideas and strategies proposed by a PR company. The investigation also comprised finding out how far or near these ideas one positions oneself or wants to positions oneself. A situation was thus created were we could meet and discuss but also get more knowledge about communicative strategies and still come to different conclusions. When the project was finished each person that was involved brings an individual opinion with him or her from that experience into ones further work.

Before arriving in London to do a residency period of three months at Gasworks 2006, I already knew that the organisation was going through a transition. The group of six recently employed staff were, to a certain extent, changing the focus of Gasworks. I proposed to bring in a PR company in order to make that process visible to themselves, me and the audience.

We decided upon an arrangement with Cow PR, on a pro bono basis. This in effect meant that Cow PR worked on a consultancy basis with Gasworks for about a year. Alot of the work was to discuss different proposals and how Gasworks wanted to profile themselves. We started putting into place some of the recommendations that Cow PR proposed which Gasworks staff thought of as intersting to try out.

One exercise was to make contact with press, visitors, arts professionals and have a structured conversation in order to hear what they thought and knew of Gasworks. This procedure was filmed and was later presented in the exhibition with two films; Media Friends and General Audit. In the exhibition - Represent - only parts of the process could be seen such as the vidoes; Presenting Nav Haq, Media Friends and General Audit together with a survey for the visitors to fill out.

In the film Presenting Nav Haq, I asked Gasworks curator at the time, to present the institution, his ambitions, introduce my and David Blandys exhibition -Represent- and why he had invited us to exhibit together. It was shown in the entrance of Gasworks, which gave an introduction or background to Nav Haq, Gasworks and the path behind the exhibition.

Title: Media Friends & General Audit
Concept, Film editing, Production: Saskia Holmkvist
Camera: Saskia Holmkvist
Length: 9 min.
PrductionyYear: 2006
Title: Presenting Nav Haq
Concept, Film editing, Production: Saskia Holmkvist
Camera: Saki Satom & Saskia Holmkvist
Length: 9 min.
PrductionyYear: 2006

Artist Talk is a preview talk in disguise.

A person claiming to be Saskia Holmkvist appears and tells us in a theoretic way what her work is about. A few minutes later the same person announces that she would like Saskia Holmkvist to step forward and perform this. This time the  ́real` Saskia Holmkvist comes in and states the exact same two first phrases as the first person did. The  ́fake`Saskia Holmkvist now appears to be a Pr-person and interupts Saskia while she is explaining the exhibition to ask the audience how things that were said came across. This intervention makes the audience take part in the performance and respond to the questions of the Pr-person. Then Saskia Holmkvist is asked over and again to explain or re-state what she has just said.

Press conference is a re-enactment of the press-release text of the exhibition. The performance act alters the roles between the spectator and the exhibition producer and comments on the power dynamics between curator-artist-viewer and the expected exchanges going on between them.

The performance is a rehearsal, memorization and learning process of the press release and treats levels of understanding the communication of an exhibition. To learn a text by heart is to know the exact words but in order to learn the lines the content of the words have to be understood, which in turn will help the process of learning. During the performance the expected roles of the situation itself are altered. Saskia Holmkvist giving the speech needs the audience who has the manuscript in their hands i.e. the press-release to help her perform the text.

The performance Press Conference was held at the opening night 18pm, at the exhibition “Last chance to see the show” at Point Ephemère in Paris curated by Christian Alandete.

Saskia Holmkvist’s recent films In Character and Role Control, both from 2008, are complementary inasmuch as they reciprocally develop a narrative that explores ideas of credibility, social strategies.

The two works originate in four kinds of ‘conversation situations’ with diametrically opposite aims, dealing with interpersonal and political positions: the job interview, the interrogation, couple therapy and political arbitration. These situations where relationships are worked on and negotiated and which require strategies for productive dialogue and conflict management are woven together in Saskia Holmkvist’s work into an investigation of the factors that define and control power relations and how these relations can be negotiated.

In the films Saskia Holmkvist has made use of staged situations and actors who, in the course of the films, gradually swap positions and force the conversation over a boundary where the dialogue changes meaning and forces the viewer towards a new interpretation of the situation.

Title: In Character, Role Control
Manuscript, Direction, Production: Saskia Holmkvist
Actors: Eva Millberg, Lars Mellfors, Alexandra Zetterberg
Camera: Fredrik Redelius, Lars Siltberg
Light: Tobias Hagström Ståhl
Sound: Calle Wachtmeister
Length of films: 9+8 minutes
Production Year: 2008

Thanks to: Nav Haq, Helena Holmberg, Ulrika Larsson, Magnus Liistamo, Mats Stjernstedt

Produced with support from: Index, Arnolfini, Iaspis and Frankfurter Kunstverein

In the project, Senior high school classes will come, I commissioned Prime, one of Sweden’s leading public relations agencies, to focus media attention on the pedagogical activities pursued by Göteborgs Konsthall. I was invited to exhibit and I started to investigate how using the services of a PR agency could shift media focus temporarily from the individual artist to the gallery itself, and in this way cast light on the background factors determining how a work of art is observed. The aim was to reveal some of the mechanisms behind the attention an artwork can generate.

Among the strategies devised for this purpose was the conducting of a poll in collaboration with Göteborgs Konsthall, of senior high school teachers in Gothenburg. The hope was to learn about teachers’ knowledge of art and how they viewed the possibility of incorporating contemporary art in their teaching, a wish that Göteborgs Konsthall had. Sections of the results from this survey were then sent to the local media in hope that they would write about the Konsthall’s pedagogical activity. Visitors to the exhibition were able to see the media coverage which the campaign stimulated.

The work was presented in the entrance hall of Göteborgs Konsthall and the overall stages of the process were written on the wall. To deepen the question of PR an interview film, Interview with Carl Fredrik Sammeli-MD Prime PR, was also presented. In the film I and Carl Fredrik Sammeli discuss PR strategies within the cultural field. A folder containing the survey, that had been conducted amongst all senior high school teachers in Gothenburg was attached to the wall. Enclosed in the folder was the survey with the statistics put together of the answers and the two different press releases written from the information that we had produced from the survey. During the exhibition period two articles appeared. One in DN and one in Svenska Dagbladet regarding the art project.
On the wall:

I commissioned a public relations agency to

* increase the knowledge about the pedagogical activity of Göteborg’s Konsthall

* highlight contemporary art in a broader sense

* arouse attention around my project and the exhibition Deep Search

The public relations agency

* did a survey in collaboration with Göteborg’s Konsthall amongst all senior high school teachers in Gothenburg.

* wrote press releases to local media in collaboration with Göteborg’s Konsthall based on the statistics from the survey

* informed journalists that cover culture at, DN, Svenska Dagbladet and Kulturnytt about the work going on

What makes us believe in something? Make believe deals with this question. The credibility of a system and what we choose to rely on or understand within a framework, with a magician as example. Magic is without doubt a manipulative situation. But also a practice based on an agreement on entertainment between the magician and his audience. An entertainment that sums up in questions on illusion and trustworthiness. -What is illusion and what is reality? says the magician.

The magician or illusionist fools our reason and juggles with understanding and logics. He deliberately puts our rational sorting out of order. One thing is said and another done. Poses to have honest intentions and turns to our logics in words, but does the opposite in practice. The collision between them becomes a mental somersault for the viewer.

Concept, Film editing, Production: Saskia Holmkvist
Magician: Mr.Dannyman
Camera: Magnus Liistamo and Saskia Holmkvist
Graphic design: Eva Falk
Installation/film: 6 min.
Production year: 2004

In the film System, we confront what happens when apparently rational decisions prove to have devastating results in real life. How deeds can hit back on themselves if multiplicity isn’t respected. A dilemma that one has to deal with as every act can’t be foreseen and we don’t want to stop development.

On the screen an insect is seen. It keeps flying seemingly tireless on its path. At the same time we hear three stories, based on reality. They are gathered from China, Libya and Australia. Different kinds of problems emerge and to solve them, efficient systems are created.

Title: System
Concept, Text, Film editing, Production: Saskia Holmkvist
Voice over: Josette Bushell-Mingo
Length of film: 5 min.
Production year: 2001

Upcoming exhibitions

2009

• Oberhausen Filmfestival, International competition, 4 May
• Filmform program at Gävle videokonstfestivalen, 7 May
• Filmform program at Cinemateket in Stockholm, 10 May
• Utopics-Biel/Beinne, Switzerland, 29th Aug
• Momentum in Moss, Norway 27th Aug
• Umeå Bildmuseu

Exhibitions

2009

• In Character/Role Control, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt/Germany
• In Character/Role Control, 0047, Oslo/Norway

2008

• Role Control, Arnolfini, Bristol, UK
• Role Control, Index Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden

2005

• IASPIS, Stockholm, 2005

Group Exhibitions

2009

• Soft Manipulation, 3,14, Bergen, Norway
• Strategies of Confidence, NICC, Antwerpen

2008

• Soft Manipulation, Casino Luxemburg, Luxembourg
• Coming to you LIVE, Bloomberg Headquarters, Art in General, New York
• Last Chanse to see the Show, Point Ephemère, Paris-(Hot Desking/RMC-Curatorlab/Manifesta)
• Tense Territories, Santralistanbul, Istanbul, Turkey
• Good Gangsters in Town, Taipei Fine Art Museum, Taiwan
• Decoder, CAC, Vilnius, Lithuania

2007

• Work to do, Shedhalle, Zurich, Switzerland
• Decoder - Contour Biennial, Mechelen, Belgium
• Äkta Vara, Röda Steen, Göteborg, Sweden

2006

• I/Ich Performative Ontology, Secession, Vienna, Austria
• Jump into Cold Water, Shedhalle, Zurich, Switzerland
• I, Gallery Futura, Prague, Czech Republic
• Represent, David Blandy/Saskia Holmkvist, Gasworks, London,UK, (2 person show)
• The moderna exhibition, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
• Deep Search, Göteborgs Konsthall, Göteborg, Sweden

2005

• Seven Little Samurais+1, Apontan, Tokyo, Japan
• Narrow focus, Tranzit workshop, Bratislava, Slovakia Republic
• Vid regnbågens slut, Tumba Bruksmuseum, Tumba, Sweden
• Printing matters, Witte de With Museum, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
• Mörklagd 1+2, Signal, Malmö, Sweden

2004

• Memento, Bror Hjorths Hus, Uppsala, Sweden
• Balancing Acts, Centre Culturel Suédois, Paris, France

2003

• Greyscale/CMYK, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, Irland
• Arghh, Edsvik Konst och Kultur, Stockholm, Sweden
• Stockholm Art Fair, Edsvik Konst och Kultur/The Modern Museum, Stockholm, Sweden

2002

• Greyscale/CMYK, Tramway, Glasgow, UK
• www.ionic.nifca.org, webgallery, Nifca, 2002-2003
• Vårsalongen, Liljevalchs Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden

Screenings and filmfestivals

2008

• General Public, http://www.generalpublic.de, Berlin, Germany

2007

• Go, Think, Prepare, CAC TV, 28 feb 2007, Vilnius, Lithuania
• Kingdome come, Images Festival, Toronto, Canada
• VIEW 2007, Culture Factory Korjaamo, Av- arkki, Finland
• NOASS/Cinema K-suns, Riga, Lettland
• Konst/Film Gävleborg, Förvaltningshuset i Ljusdal, Gävle slott, Gävle sjukhus, Biblioteket i Bollnäs

2006

• Tank-tv, www.tank.tv/, November/December
• Videokonstbiennalen06, Gävle, Sweden
• Vera filmfestival, Åland, Finland

2005

• Tempo documentary filmfestival, Zita, Stockholm, Sweden
• Analog Fictions, Swedish Research Institute, Istanbul, Turkey
• Real Fiction, Cinema Svetozor, Tranzit, Prague, Czech Republic

2004

• Blick, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
• National shortfilm, Uppsala International Shortfilmfestival, Uppsala, Sweden
• International Art Film Festival, Galleri Valfisken, Simrishamn, Sweden
• The fourth Thanet Contemporary Arts Festival, Margate Rocks, Kent, UK
• Festival@prenelle, Island Film and Video, London, UK
• Commotion, Picture this moving image- Arnolfini, Bristol, UK

2003

• Winner of documentary filmaward, Swedish Film Institute, Stockholm, Sweden
• Nordic Panorama, Documentary Film Festival, Malmö, Sweden
• International Art Film Festival, Galleri Valfisken, Simrishamn, Sweden

2001

• Blick, The Modern Museum/Nifca, Sweden, 2001

Printed matters

• Self-reflexive history, WMAOYW, www.whomakesandownsyourwork.org, 2007
• How do you communicate as an artist?, Untitled Magazine, www.untitledmagazine.com, 2006
• How I became an artist, Squid, www.squid-net.com, 2005
• Man-i-pul-ate, Fabrik, www.tidskriftenfabrik.nu, 2005
• System, Texst- Anthology of textbased art, www.text-texst.com, 2004
• System, Metronome 7, 2001

Represented

Represented

• Moderna Muséet in Stockholm, Sweden, with the video works;
• -System
• -Interview with Saskia Holmkvist

Distribution

Distribution

• Filmform, www.filmform.com, Stockholm, Sweden

Archives

Archives

• Pilot, www.pilotlondon.org
• Timeline archive, Konstfack, Stockholm, Sweden

Grants, Fellowships and Residencies

• Air Antwerpen 2008
• Konstnärsnämndens 2-åriga arbetsstipendium 2006
• Sleipnir 2006
• Nifca, residency/Vilnius 2006
• Gasworks, residency/London, 2006
• IASPIS, residency/Stockholm, 2004/2005
• Swedish Film Institute, Documentary film award, 2003
• Scholarship from University College of Arts and Crafts/Konstfack, 2003

Education

• 2000-2004 University Collage of Arts, Crafts&Design (Konstfack), Stockholm, Sweden
• 1999-2000 Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• 1992-1995 BA; Art History, History of Ideas, Anthropology, University of Stockholm, Sweden

Saskia Holmkvist initiated a ‘therapy’ which led to conversations between a psychoanalyst, former interns from recent years and the current curators of the art institution Shedhalle. The relation investigated in the work, Internship in Private, is how today’s internships affect the work climate at work and, in extension, the interns’ as well as the employers’ private domain. In the sessions and the video of the meetings produced parallel, the discussion participants describe how they personally deal with symbolic rewards, ambitions, fears, their understanding of collective work, and the implicit hierarchical structures in teamwork. The film is a site-specific downbeat in the institutions Shedhalle that, like many other of today’s work places, partly run their enterprise with the help of highly educated interns.

Placed in a broader context, the project highlights the issue of renumerating interns in small art institutions and spaces which can only afford to pay meagre amounts or often enough nothing at all, although the input of these interns is indispensable for carrying out challenging and discerning programs. There are practically no opportunities available to small- and medium-sized institutions to apply for temporary intern salaries; these have to be paid from the institutions basic financial resources, which given budgetary constraints are limited in scope or not even possible, although an internship in many institutions is tantamount to gaining qualified training in the area of contemporary art.

For more information about the term Generation Praktikum.

Dear Olaf,
I was delighted to recieve the information that you want to participate. I appreciate it enormously. (—)The general debate about the ‘generation praktikum’ is a starting point for my project. A defined group within labour in today’s society working under precarious working conditions. (—) I wanted to make a self-reflexive project about Shedhalle and bring in the situation of the interns of the Kunsthalle. (—) My aim is to represent other voices within the structure of Shedhalle saying other things than the official ones. It’s about finding or re-enacting a situation that is not in the frontline of the institution. My intension is to find personal reflections upon a shared situation in which different roles are played and therefore these persons confront different dilemmas. (—)

Dear saskia,
I find your thoughts and the questions, you want to ask, very interesting. (—)Translated in my terms - I’m a psychoanalyst - I would say, that you are focussing on the unconscious conflicts of the institution “Shedhalle” as a concrete example of a place in which the “generation praktikum” is at work. Perhaps you could say, that it is a work of deconstructing the understanding of an institution or a person or - as the linguistics and in other way Derrida probably would say - a text about itself. And from my point of view I would add to the dilemma of the conflict between the private and the political, which is and would be a conflict between inside and outside, that there are also conflicts - in the same matter - between different aspects of the private, different aspects in the inside and - in the same way - different conflicts in the political or social or normative sphere, that means different conflicts in the outside itself. And there are relations between these conflicts inside and those between inside and outside. (—) Your informations and explications made me imagine why you don’t pose the questions, you want to ask, yourself. This could be, because you want to have or want to get a “therapy session” with the interns of Shedhalle to get not only the official statements and representations. And for such a “therapy session” you want to have a therapist, because he would perhaps be able not only to ask questions but further on to get the conflicts and dilemmas on the point.(—)

Dear Olaf,
(—)I think you analyzed the idea of involving a psychoanalyst very well. To involve a psychonalyst in an artproject is on a symbolical level already a sign that the issue is about a private conflict. Then ofcourse you can contextualize the questions being a psychoanalyst in a much better and much more interesting way than I could being an artist. Also in art everything doesn’t have to be 100% realist which is also something I’m trying to take advantage of in this situation. I believe that the ´missmatch´ of a psychoanalyst together with a political question gives an extra dimension to the thinking about the question. I hope you get me right here.(—)

Title: Internship in Private
Production: Saskia Holmkvist
Participant in project: Soenke Gau, Katharina Schlieben, Christoph Schneider, Valerie Thurner, Lisa Mazza and Olaf Knellessen
Cameras: Magnus Liistamo, Saskia Holmkvists
Light and Sound: Magnus Liistamo, Saskia Holmkvist
Year of Production: 2007
Length of film: 90 min

When we see the title Interview with Saskia Holmkvist we expect to see an interview with the artist Saskia Holmkvist but few minutes into the film it is revield to us that the situation is another. Saskia Holmkvist has hired a media relations expert to train her to deliver a short statement about her work with apparent sincerity and authority. The short statement that Saskia Holmkvist repeats in their training describes her practice with direct reference to this process.

It’s about how we comprehend something as being honest and true, states Saskia Holmkvist. Over the eight minute film, Holmkvist is instructed in body language, posture, voice timbre, eye contact, in a process more associated with political careerism than artistic development. The interruptions, visible microphones, and self-conscious pauses make it clear that even the most stereotypically ‘authentic’ figure – the artist – is capable of, and possibly is always engaged in – a performance. However, the revelation of the performance is itself carefully constructed. Shot in the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, from several angles using hand-held and fixed cameras, the film’s visual language of authenticity is itself a construction, a language created by media such as reality television. So, our supposed access to reality never quite resolves itself.

Title: Interview with Saskia Holmvist
Concept, Film editing, Production: Saskia Holmkvist
Reporter/mediatrainer: Josephine Selander
Cameras: Magnus Liistamo, Ivan Mathias Pettersson, Ulrika Larsson
Light: Ulrika Larsson
Length of film: 8,40 min
Production year: 2005

Role Control & In Character 2008

Internship in Private 2007

Represent 2006

Senior High School Classes Will Come 2006

Interview with Saskia Holmkvist 2005

Eight Martini 2004

Make Believe 2004

System 2001

saskia (remove this) @saskiaholmkvist.com
+46.70 24 00 394