David Molander Beckers Art Award 2014

Scholarship exhibition
Main hall, Färgfabriken

Curator Emilia Rosenqvist

The 26th Beckers Art Award – a grant of 150,000 SEK – will this year be awarded to David Molander.

Jury statement

The work of David Molander is characterized by a will to understand the city surroundings, how it functions and why it looks like it does. Already in his early photo studies Molander began to investigate the urban surroundings on the basis of specifically selected perspectives. It seems that his aspiration is to encircle the core of the urban society, where every part in a specific environment is depicted and merged in new constellations which boosts conspicuousness and with that comprehension. The daily propinquity to the surroundings may cause blindness and that is why Molander wants us to rediscover their original functions, paradoxical characters and concealed structures. Molander uses photography, film collage and animations to collect a variety of information which subsequently becomes a pervasive interpretation, marked with both fragmentation and density. In the encounter between architecture, bridges, streets and people occures both resplendent surroundings and extreme misery. With contrasts, as a ruling principle, Molander confronts the different parts of the urban life which in photography, animations and collage brings almost a sculptural-like presentation. David Molander is awarded the Beckers Art Award 2104 because he, with innovative new techniques, succeeds to interfuse a historical analysis which highlights both the poetic stillness and the brutal reality that reflects the callous rationality and the complex chaos of the modern urban society. 

On behalf of the jury/Magnus Jensner

About the artist

The Award winner 2014, David Molander (born 1983) took his bachelor of arts the year of 2010 at the School of Photography in Gothenburg after studying film and photography at Harvard University in Boston.

The following years offered numerous exhibitions, both national and international. The year of 2011 Molander was awarded the Victor fellowship, which rendered a six months residency at Location One, New York.

During his years as a photographer, Molander has unified digital photo- and film collages and animation interactively. Different elements of city life overlap, architecture meets man and creates new urban perspectives.

Related

Beckers Art Award was established in 1987 and has since then proven to have a remarkable ability to identify young talents on the brink of a breakthrough in their careers. The winner is awarded a grant, which from this year has been raised from 150,000 to 200,000 SEK, and a solo exhibition that has, since 2001, been arranged and held in collaboration with Färgfabriken.

Jury: Jenny Lindén Urnes, Mårten Castenfors och Magnus Jensner

Key partners