Meta Isæus Berlin | Double Gaze

Barcelona’s L&B contemporary art gallery (Àlaba, 58) presents Double Gaze, an exhibition by Meta Isæus-Berlin.

Considered one of the most important installation artists in Sweden, she has represented her country in various biennials such as Venice, Johannesburg and Istanbul. She has partnered up with curators and critics like Rosa Martinez, Niclas Östlind, Bo Nilsson or Torsten Weimarck and her work can be found in different museum collections such as Magasin 3, Stockholm Konsthall; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Konstmuseeum, Gothenburg; Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland, etc.

Double Gaze is a site-specific project, which includes the latest works from Isæus -Berlin: paintings, bronze and fabric sculptures and one installation defined by its characteristic closed water circuit. A very intimate narration where home is a concept understood as a thoughts container, a place to admire the outdoors. With Double Gaze the artist comes up with a metaphorical reflection about time and the way we experience it; for this, in a more narrative level, she uses the Greek myth of Persephone.

(...) Persefone är dömd att tillbringa tre månader i Hades och nio på Jorden. När hon är på Jorden vet hon att hon snart ska ner i Underjorden och när hon är i Hades vet hon att hon snart ska upp. Hon exemplifierar den ständiga dubbelblicken att aldrig vara riktigt närvarande.

(...)Persephone is condemned to spend three months in Hades and nine months on Earth. When she is on Earth she knows that she will soon have to descend to her subterranean existence. And when she is in Hades she knows that she will soon ascend again. She exemplifies the constant double gaze; of never being truly present.

Double Gaze, Meta Isæus-Berlin, 2017

After producing a great solo exhibition at the Liljevalchs Konsthall in Stockholm in 2006, Isæus-Berlin stated that painting would then become her main channel of expression. Critic Katarina Wadstein MacLeod defines her work as “the consequence from a net of meanings coming from her personal and family environment and various art history’s references. A world reflecting abstractions, myths and symbols” in which the Scandinavian imaginary can be easily recognized. The installations, or the current bronze statue, are languages the artist still uses and integrates in her projects.