Filmform (est. 1950) is dedicated to preservation, promotion and worldwide distribution of experimental film and video art. Constantly expanding, the distribution catalogue spans from 1924 to the present, including works by Sweden’s most prominent artists and filmmakers, available to rent for public screenings and exhibitions as well as for educational purposes.
Bodies sway, black silhouettes against a white background, blurred movements in dreamlike slow-motion. In their collaborative piece, Driven, Monika Larsen Dennis and Maria Friberg act out a brutal push-and-pull choreography, a dance macabre of equal amounts desire and violence. But despite its directness, the work carefully balances between polarities, visualizing a state of ambiguity in-between reciprocity and repulsion. The two protagonists are carefully cropped at the neck and at the thighs, their elegant two-piece suits effectively concealing all apparent gender attributes, leaving the viewer in an uneasy state, a limbo between knowing, feeling, and guessing.
Born in 1966 in Malmö, Sweden. Lives and works in Stockholm.
Maria Fribergs’ education includes the Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm, Myndlista- og Handidaskoli, Reykjavik, Iceland, and Nordic Art School, Kokkola, Finland, among others. Previous exhibitions include Résistance, The silent voice, Bendana-Pinel Art Contemporain, Paris, Commoncause, Nationalmuseum at Kulturhuset, Project Container, Stockholm, Time Trace at LMNO, Brussels, Belgium, Goals and Dreams at Västerås Konstmuseum, Västerås, and Vaksam at Bror Hjorts Hus, Uppsala, among many others.
“Most of my work revolves about themes of power, masculinity and man’s relationship to nature. In my images, I create ambiguous tableaus that challenge preconceived notions about identity, gender, and social hierarchies. My most recent pieces look both outwards, to the challenges in contemporary society, and inwards, to a meditative state of mind. In these photographs and videos, the isolation and solitude of the individuals reflect issues in society at large. The men in my images are signs for men, trying to find their place in times of turmoil.”
Monika Larsen Dennis
Born in 1963. Lives in the Turning torso building in Malmö, Sweden.
Monika Larsen Dennis has been a project manager at the Swedish National Public Art Council. Her performances/videos include DreamOn, video, Handling, video, Driven, video, with Maria Friberg, Next Step, video, Through You, performance, Endurance, Culture House Stockholm, Sweden, with Maria Friberg, Inbetween, video on ice, Lipsick, performance, Living Art Museum, Reykjavík, Iceland, and The dilemma of female taste, video.
