Märta Thisner & Åsa Jungnelius: Mussels

On September 12, Spazio Nobile Gallery opens its fall season with an extended presentation of Desire Utensil Container, Åsa Jungnelius’s first solo exhibition with the gallery, which opened in March and features site-specific sculptures in glass, marble and metal, as well as iterations of recurring objects in her artistic practice. In addition, Spazio Nobile will feature a new selection of photographs and prints on silk by Märta Thisner, who recently collaborated with Jungnelius on a new artist publication titled, Mussels. The joint-exhibition will move between the main Spazio Nobile Gallery and the studiolo and is part of the Rendez Vous Brussels Art Week events, Brussels Design September and NECA.

For several years, (2018-2024), Märta Thisner followed the normal, everyday life of Åsa Jungnelius – in and around her home, garden, the region where she lives, the workshop and more. Thisner proposed the idea of a book, and together they began the process of creating Mussels. Jungnelius notes, “Marta adds something to my work – a mix between us adds something else; she is looking close to the world that is to me my everyday world”.

Märta Thisner is one of Sweden’s most prominent photographers. Image-search her name and you’ll find a cross-section of recent cultural figures from the worlds of dance, music and literature. Her portraits have an immediate readability, a refined contrast between a careful gaze and the brutal contours of her flash, which seems equally suited to rock and poetry as it does to still-lifes with glass sculptures. This is how she first came into contact with Åsa Jungnelius — at a photo shoot for the Public Luxury exhibition at ArkDes in 2018.

Mussels is not a book about beauty or the mythology of an artist’s life. Thisner’s photographs are not refined, perfectly cropped or considered, but reflect the messy bits of life that together create a story and lead something magical. There are many layers to the book, which looks at process, materiality, spontaneity and ideas rather than final artworks. Images of smoky, industrial workshops are intermixed with pastoral scenes of the Swedish landscape, hyper saturated, discolored imagery is interspersed with closeups of artworks or a patch of melting snow, a dirty plate, a coiled rope creating a running, moving story about art, life and creativity. The title, which is a play on words, also links to some of Jungnelius’s forms, which can take a curvy, layered, feminine shape suggestive of an oyster or mussel shell and also female sexuality.

Jungnelius and Thisner invited Tone Schunnesson, an important Swedish author and playwright and activist, to contribute a poem, which serves also as the introduction to the book. Mussels is published by Null & Void Books. Graphic design is by Jonas Williamsson. Offset printing: Narayana Press

There will be a book signing and artists’ talk with Åsa Jungnelius and Märta Thisner on Sunday, September 15th, at 3pm at Spazio Nobile Gallery. For more information visitL

www.spazionobile.com

@spazionobilegallery

www.asajungnelius.se

@asajungnelius