Björn Larsson and Carl Johan Erikson, Senior Lecturers in Fine Art specialising in photography, participate in the exhibition The New Subject. Mutating Rights and Conditions of Living Bodies at at KINDL – Centre for Contemporary Art in Berlin.
The exhibition, including works by Anna Uddenberg (MFA ’11), Adina Pintilie and Yevgeniy Fiks, among others, is open from the 15.9.24 to 26.1.25 (with Opening: 14.9.24, 18:00 – 21:00).
Björn Larsson and Carl Johan Erikson participate with the installation The Muscle chair – an apparatus for measuring men; a work within the framework of their artistic research project Refuse to kill – stories of the conscientious objectors, which was funded by the Swedish Research Council 2017-2019 in the field of artistic research and is part of the Royal Institute of Art’s research environment.
Read more here (vagradoda.se).
In The Muscle chair – an apparatus for measuring men, the magnifying glass is put on a bureaucratic and mechanical apparatus created to systematically assess the physiology and psychology of young men in order to categorise their potential in the Swedish armed forces. Between 1969 and 1997, ten ‘muscle chairs’ were in operation to measure the muscular strength of young men.
The information collected during these years is now part of one of the world’s largest biometric archives – Enrollment Archive register (INSARK) – which consists of results from all conscripts over 28 years. The ‘chair’ was constructed in 1965 after extensive testing at Varberg Fortress in order to develop the enlistment procedure into the most comprehensive of its time.
Björn Larsson and Carl Johan Erikson
Since 2013, alongside their individual practice, the artists have been collaborating in the project Refuse to Kill – stories of the conscientious objectors. Visit the external website.
Björn Larsson (1966) is Pro Vice-Chancellor at Royal Institute of Art, acting Head of the Department for Research and Further Education and Senior Lecturer in Fine Art with a specialization in Photography
Carl Johan Eriksson (1966) is Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at Royal Institute of Art with a specialization in Digital Photography