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.
“I refuse to be that lonely scared, vulnerable and tragic transperson. I refuse to be a victim.”
The need to resist the expectations of family and society is addressed in the film and installation I Am Other (Candy & Me), a powerful statement about the labeling of transpeople created by the visual artist Conny Karlsson Lundgren in close collaboration with the writer and activist Andy Candy.
I Am Other (Candy & Me) underlines the restrictiveness of prescribed roles in any given society. A spoken manifesto articulates the regulatory powers of words and names, but also that we can resist being told who and what we are by choosing our own name—like Candy. The work is based on the diaries of the Warhol crowd actress Candy Darling (1944–1974) and Andy Candy’s own medical records.
The entire work is a paraphrase and restaging of the iconic photograph by Peter Hujar, Candy Darling on Her Death Bed (1974). The work thus extends across time, between the experiences of Candy Darling and Andy Candy, and urges transpeople to political empowerment through the act of naming and claiming difference as a source of strength.
Conny Karlsson Lundgren (b. Västervik) is a visual artist based in Stockholm and Hoby Mosse, Sweden.
With the help of film, text, image, and archival documents, his work traverses the boundaries between social, political, and private identities. Turning to interdisciplinary methods, alternative realities and social agreements are reimagined through experiences, contrapositions, desires, and secret codes. The ephemeral, accidental traces and moments that challenge existing narratives are a reoccurring fascination, with attention to the archive as both carrier of information and a mechanism of control. Karlsson Lundgren holds an MFA from Valand Academy of Fine Arts in Gothenburg, Sweden and participated in the Studio Research Program at Van Eyck Academie in Maastricht, The Netherlands (2014–2015). In recent years his work has been exhibited at Moderna Museet Malmö, Extra City Kunsthal Antwerp, Gothenburg Art Museum, Kunsthal Nikolaj Copenhagen, with solo presentations at Neue Galerie Innsbruck, Haninge Konsthall, and Kalmar Art Museum (both Sweden). Karlsson Lundgren is the Swedish Arts Grants Committee’s International Program (IASPIS) studio grant holder at ISCP in New York City for 2020–2021.
Andy Candy Tsolakidis
Andy Candy (born in Stockholm) is a writer who publishes in feminist and queer media. Zie has an activist past as an expert on trans issues, has written in numerous anthologies and is passionate about feminist and identity politics issues.
Andy has studied Gender Studies at Stockholm University and journalism at Poppius, in Stockholm Art has a special place in Andy’s heart and zie has a passion for candy.
