Pia Sandström
Pia Sandström works with materials such as text, sound and land in interdisciplinary explorations of actual places as well as imaginary inner landscapes. At GIBCA’s invitation, Sandström will work with an exploratory sound installation from 2019–21. The piece is based on the Haga district and the historical and geological layers that are now being unearthed in connection with the excavations for the Västlänken project, a railway tunnel under central Gothenburg. The first part of the work takes the form of an archaeoacoustical core sample that brings us deep down into the earth, the myths, and the people connected with the neighbourhood. Beneath Gothenburg lies a formation of rock types 1.6 billion years old known as “the Gothenburg suite.” The word suite also refers to a form of musical composition, common in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, comprising a series of dance movements.
Pia Sandström (b.1969 in Stockholm, Sweden) is based in Stockholm. Her practice is cross-disciplinary. Sandström received her education from art academies in Stockholm, Helsinki and Trondheim. She has participated in solo and group exhibitions in Sweden and abroad, a.o. at Moderna Museet (2013), Venice Architecture Biennale (2014), Bonniers Konsthall (2008) and Kiasma (1999).
The sound piece Göteborgssviten can be played on GIBCA’s app or website. It is recommended to listen to the work with headphones on site in the Haga neighbourhood, starting from where the street Kaponjärgatan meets the stairs leading to Skansen Kronan. Kaponjär means “hidden passage” in Swedish.
In collaboration with Göteborgs Stad; Trafikkontoret, Kulturförvaltningen – Göteborg Konst, in the frame of Västlänken project.
Artwork
The Gothenburg Suite: Underground
2019
Site-specific sound installation
Courtesy the artist
The soundwork is produced in collaboration with the City of Gothenburg; the Traffic and Public Transport Authority, the Cultural Affairs Administration – Göteborg Konst, within the frame of the West Link Project and is available in Swedish only.
Image: Pia Sandström, Process documentation of Göteborgssviten, 2019. Photo Ola Carlsson