Ylva Snöfrid is one of the leading Swedish artists of her generation. For over thirty years she has been developing a coherent body of work focusing on figurative painting and sculptural objects, which she uses in her performances. She has presented exhibitions, rituals and performances in major galleries and institutions in Europe, the USA and Asia. Cosmos et Vanitas is her first solo show in Paris.
As a child, Ylva shared her life with Snöfrid, her mirror-double. When she became an artist, she brought Snöfrid into the real world via rituals and ceremonies, objects and publications, food and elixirs, and by painting her over and over again… until they ended up forming a single entity. The ritual of transmutation took place as part of the exhibition titled Retour sur Mulholland Drive curated by Nicolas Bourriaud at La Panacée in Montpellier in 2017. This is when the artist became Ylva Snöfrid (snö = snow, frid = peace).
“For Ylva Snöfrid, daily life and art are not two distinct domains; they cohabit and depend on one another.” – Sara Arrhenius, director of the Institut suédois and curator of the exhibition*.
This integrated approach to art and life takes its fullest form in the holistic artwork The Painter’s Studio in the Shadow World made between 2016 and 2021 in Athens. This living space comprised over 100 paintings, a range of objects, a home school, drawings and furniture, among which Ylva, her husband and her children ate, slept and moved around.
“I believe that nothing is necessary if it’s not art; I try to turn everything into art – receipts, family, the economy – everything must form part of my art.” – Ylva Snöfrid
Cosmos et Vanitas forms part of a philosophical and existential investigation focusing on the universe and the place humans occupy within it. It includes a logbook written by the artist between the winter solstices of 2022 and 2023, combining thoughts, observations, scientific knowledge, daily life and dreams. 1,200 drawings are presented in three volumes devoted to birth, life and death respectively.
The show also features 24 oil paintings – one for each hour of the day – resulting from two trips to Jungfraujoch in the Swiss Alps, home to the highest-altitude research station in Europe and the highest in the world accessible by train. Ylva chose this as a place of metaphysical pilgrimage between mass and atmosphere, with the idea of carrying out two rituals: first painting, then exhibiting her paintings to the universe. “It was both an ending and the beginning of a new stage in my art. Connecting the Cosmos with Vanity, the Earth with Space, the atmosphere with mass, the small and the large”, she explains. Suffering from acute altitude sickness, she produces works that reflect her visions and hallucinations. “The atmosphere started to shimmer, almost writhing like millions of snakes among the stars, and the stars vanished and I could only see the moving texture of the atmosphere and the mountains.”
In addition to the exhibition itself, there will be a space set aside for interactions with visitors and a series of events, rituals and performances.
Curated by Sara Arrhenius, director of the Institut suédois.
*In “She in four acts”, a text from the book She, an Introduction (Silvana Editoriale & Bonniers Konsthall, 2015)
Ylva Snöfrid (née Ogland) was born in 1974 in Umeå, northern Sweden. She lives and works in Stockholm.
In 1998, she graduated with a masters in Fine Arts from the Royal University College of Fine Arts, Stockholm.
Since then she has presented many solo shows, rituals and performances in Europe and the USA and taken part in group shows all over the world. Several monographs, catalogues and books have been published on her work.
Useful information
- Admission free.
- Tuesday to Sunday, 12 noon to 7 pm. Late opening until 9 pm on Thursdays.