• photography Daniel Camerini

    Linea Matei’s First Solo Show Is a Tender Triumph

    Written by Rosel Jackson Stern by Filippa Finn

    When I walk into Linea Matei’s first soloshow Ser Du Mig, I don’t know what I’m looking at. Humanoid polyester sculptures with rounded edges in varying champagne colours sit in a circle with an empty chair among them. Each sculpture is stuffed with wadding and set up as though I’ve just walked in on an otherworldly AA meeting — alien yet somehow familiar.

    It’s opening night on a chilly February evening at the Stockholm based gallery CFHill. The room is buzzing with onlookers gazing at the circle, in turn watched by more textile sculptures lining the walls around us. The sculptures seem to echo the humanity of the onlookers. There’s an affinity to them as if we’re meeting ourselves from a different dimension. On closer inspection, each sculpture possesses a mirror where the face should be.

    This confronting intimacy is no accident. Having graduated from Konstack in 2022, this encounter is the first solo show of textile artist Linea Matei. She has sketched each sculpture and crafted them using the sewing skills she gained as a child. The subtle depth of their postures has been hard-won through hours of interviews across Sweden with subjects of varying ages, sensibilities and locations. “I wanted to set up the sculptes so that they explored what might happen if the interviewees somehow met,” she tells me in the upstairs rooms of the gallery. “What would happen if these people from wildly different backgrounds shared space?” she asks. The result is not just a cheap imitation of human behaviour, but a life given, reflected and cared for. Each of the sculptures is someone we know, forgotten or avert our eyes from. They are someone we console, someone whose shoulder we cry on. Both disturbing and comforting, there is a warmth to Linea's show born of mature and nuanced practice.

    At the opening, the eerie familiarity seems echoed by my fellow spectators. When I asked one buyer what made them purchase one of them, he smiled and said: “It was something about the [sculptures] confidence and attitude of ‘please take care of me’ that spoke to me. It’s both vulnerable and strong. Like life.“ What has started as an unforgivingly chilly night in Stockholm has blossomed into an unusual display of public tenderness. We meet the sculptures with the sensibility of glimpsing a long-lost friend, only to be confronted by our own faces. For cold and cynical hearts, the show is bright and unassuming mediation on connection. It is confounding, delightful and surprises even the most deadened of viewers into a shared moment of humanity. It’s a benevolence so sweet that it poked my eye upon first seeing the show, equivalent to a stranger picking up on an awkward habit I never thought anyone noticed. Once I’d finished flinching, something inside me melted at the lives lived through these sculptures.

    Linea has done what the best art does: transmutes the world around them to reflect something of value back at the viewer. To do so without becoming a cliché, or overly “sugary” as my grandmother would say, you have to be specific. In this case, the angle of an arm, or weight of a knee becomes the difference between being force fed a message and inhaling the sweet scent of your favourite dish as a child. There’s no clearly discernible moral to Ser Du Mig, a credit to the artist. True to its name, it constitutes a wildly successful exploration of what it means to be seen.


    Ser Du Mig runs until 15/03/2024 at CFHill Gallery in Stockholm.

  • The Altersea Opera: a journey of displacement and belonging

    Written by Natalia Muntean

    A poetic story exploring the tensions between the desire to stay and the need to leave, The Altersea Opera will dominate the Nordic Pavilion during this year’s La Biennale di Venezia. The Pavilion will transform into a dragon ship powered by magical sails filled with stories and mythological water creatures trying to find their way back to their places of origin, conceptualised by the Swedish artist Lap-See Lam.

    The imaginary ship is based on the Floating Restaurant Sea Palace, a Chinese dragon ship built in Shanghai and decorated by master craftsmen. The three-storey vessel served as a restaurant in Gothenburg before becoming a ghost ship at Gröna Lund theme park in Stockholm. Lap-See Lam found it dilapidated and moved it to a boatyard in the Stockholm Archipelago. Now the giant dragon’s head prow will travel from the Arctic archipelago to the Venetian lagoon.

    The audio-visual installation is influenced by various sources, such as the Red Boat Opera Company and themes of belonging, mobility, and generational loss, central to Lap-See Lam’s work. The Swedish artist explores the effects of displacement on people and objects across different contexts and times, digging into the depths of generational loss.

    The work on the 2024 edition of the Nordic Pavilion is led by Moderna Museet in Stockholm. In collaboration with Asrin Haidari, curator of Swedish and Nordic Art at the museum, Lam has invited artist Kholod Hawash (Finland) and composer Tze Yeung Ho (Norway), as well as singers, costume designers, filmmakers, and a certified bamboo scaffold engineer, to contribute. 

    The 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia will take place between 20 April and 24 November 2024, with the official inauguration happening on the 18 April 2024.
    Photo: Mattias Lindbäck/Moderna Museet

  • All images courtesy of HUGO

    HUGO Introduces HUGO BLUE

    Written by Fashion Tales

    For Summer 2024, HUGO is excited to launch the global campaign for its two brand lines, the HUGO main line and new arrival HUGO BLUE. As announced in May 2023, HUGO BLUE will make its debut this season with a relaxed offering – with denim at the core, along with streetwear and a variety of genderneutral styles – while the main line will continue to focus on elevated casual wear and contemporary tailoring. The HUGO brand and its #HUGOYourWay campaign platform offer more room to experiment, with the ambition to be the premium brand of choice for the social generation of changemakers who consider creative ways of dressing as expressions of their individuality.

    Talents from across the creative industries – Reezy, Jasmine Jobson, Teezo Touchdown, Rikimaru, Cara Taylor, and Vinnie Hacker – make up the cast of the new campaign, bringing together the two brand lines’ stories while also representing HUGO’s position as a growing global force in fashion and culture.
    In the campaign content, shot by Stuart Winecoff, the brand’s color codes – iconic red and the new blue – visually embody the two sides of HUGO. In a world of red, a door opens to reveal a world of blue, putting forward a new perspective and a fresh space to explore.

    The new HUGO universe delivers more fashion, more attitude – and, with the arrival of HUGO BLUE, more denim. The Summer 2024 collections showcase the depth of the brand’s offering, from tailoring and streetwear with the HUGO main line, to denim and casual wear with HUGO BLUE.

    The HUGO main-line collection is defined by modern takes on suiting, delivered in soft pastel hues and a mix of sharply tailored and more fluid, oversized silhouettes. Metallic pieces, logo-print separates, cropped tops and statement accessories round off the selection in typically trailblazing style. Over at HUGO BLUE, denim is at the heart of the offering, showcased in different ways – in the form of jeans, skirts, jackets, trench coats, shirts, shorts, and more. Slouchy, printed jersey staples and bold logo details amplify the effortless vibe of the new brand line. Its color palette is fittingly themed in various shades of blue, along with black and white.

    The Summer 2024 collections from the HUGO main line and HUGO BLUE will be available to shop in-store and online at hugo.com today.

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