The Maria Bonnier Dahlin Foundation was established by Jeanette Bonnier in 1985 in memory of her daughter, Maria, who lost her life in a car accident at the age of 20. Since then, the Foundation has always sought out the new and innovative, and several of those who have received the grant are now some of Sweden’s most renowned contemporary artists.
This year’s guest jury includes the artist and former grant recipient Jacob Dahlgren, and Chief Curator, Moderna Museet, Fredrik Liew. The jury is presided over by Christel Engelbert, who has been the Foundation’s chairman since 2016 and manages the fund.
THE JURY’S STATEMENT
Anastasia Savinova
Geosmin is a molecule produced by bacteria that gives of the characteristic but difficult-to-describe odour associated with moist soil. It is also the name of a series of sculptures and drawings by Anastasia Savinova, which share a similar balance between the dark, the unfamiliar and the irresistibly attractive. Savinova’s art has one foot clearly anchored in the world around her. Not least in the earth and ecology that we are resolutely destroying. But what comes out of her hands are not images, but hybrids. Her forms, materials, assemblages of found objects and creations have passed through human experience and are neither created for their surroundings nor to speak about them, but to interact with them. Undeterred by monumentality and with a sculptural display in scale, Savinova has hung the old fishing boats from the Barents Sea as cocoons, ominous or hopeful, holding the promise of some sort of life.
Erik Thörnqvist
In Erik Thörnqvist’s work, surfaces arc, both literally and figuratively. Functional furniture made with the intention of supporting human bodies gets up and walks, a convincing proof that the absurd is inherent in the rational and only needs to be set free by a creative and open force that recognises the gravity of play. For some, the modern was the perfect form of the logical, edifying and normative order that would help and support man. But by whom, for whose body and on whose terms? With a particular attention to detail, Törnqvist displays a mastery of material and form that he combines with a conceptual rigour that stands firm in artistic expression, regardless of descriptive or explanatory text.
About Anastasia Savinova
Anastasia Savinova graduated with a Master’s degree in Fine Arts from the Academy of Fine Arts at Umeå University in 2022. Her artistic practice revolves around places, ecologies and the relationship of humans to the more-than-human world. She explores how everything is intertwined and how we humans constantly appear as part of something bigger. Her installations often consist of different elements: sculpture, video, sound, found objects, drawing – and recall multi-species habitats. She conjures up images of both earthly and otherworldly creatures, weaving together natural and industrial materials, from household objects to large boats, plants, feathers and shells. Her works address the beauty and sublimity of the world, intimate connections between organisms and the fragility of ecosystems in the age of mass extinction. Anastasia Savinova is represented in the collections of Moderna Museet and KIN – Museum of Contemporary Art, several regional and municipal collections in Sweden and in the collection of Skrei Museum in Norway. She is currently based in Umeå.
About Erik Thörnqvist
Erik Thörnqvist grew up in Luleå and graduated from the Royal Institute of Art in 2023 with a Master’s degree in Fine Arts. Through sculpture, Thörnqvist explores how abstract ideas become concrete forms in our world. One aspect of Thörnqvist’s artistic practice is to redefine the modernist view of ornamentation within designed environments. He explores how this aesthetic ideal has reshaped our relationship to the body, and how it can provide a site for subversion and queer identity. By appropriating and re-evaluating the ornamental, he explores its potential as a vehicle for other narratives. Thörnqvist has previously exhibited at the Luleå Biennial 2020 – Time on Earth, SOMA (Mexico City), Lunds Konsthall, Final Hot Desert (Salt Lake City), KIN Museum of Contemporary Art (Kiruna), Konstnärshuset and Luleå Konsthall. He lives and works in Stockholm.
Image: Erik Thörnqvist & Anastasia Savinova. Photo: Christofer Dracke
