Vevlira (or Hurdy Gurdy) is strongly associated with the kind of Swedish folk music positively promoted as ‘swedish culture’ by groups such as Sverigedemokraterna. This image appears on the cover of a new vinyl recording containing slowed-down versions of a Dissection instrumental called Into Infinite Obscurity performed on vevlira and oud.
In Leach and Wåhlin’s view, we also see the more recent addition of Göteborgs Mosque, symbolising the pluralisation of beliefs and backgrounds of people in Sweden over recent decades. Leach collaborated with the artist Kristian Wåhlin (Necrolord), who produced a suite of album cover artwork for Dissection, asking him to create an image depicting Keillers Park, and its water tower. The title of Leach’s project, The Grief Prophesy, refers to Dissection’s first demo tape The Grief Prophecy released in 1991. Nödtveidt was released in 2004 and briefly reformed Dissection, with a new line-up, before committing suicide in 2006. Registered as a homophobic hate crime, both men eventually confessed and were imprisoned for the murder. Meddour was found dead near a stone water tower, having been shot with a gun through the heart and the head. On the evening of 22 July 1997, the band’s lead singer Jon Nödtveidt together with his friend Vlad murdered Josef Ben Meddour, a homosexual and Algerian national, in Keillers Park at Ramberget in Gothenburg.
As typical within black metal culture, the group’s identity adopted images and symbols of darkness associated with the occult and the satanic, such as the inverse pentagram or inverse crucifix. In particular, Leach looked at the story of renowned band Dissection who formed in Strömstad before moving to Gothenburg, becoming recognised as black metal pioneers in the 1990s. Mapping and interpreting the historical specificity of a particular site, Maddie Leach’s project for the Göteborg International Biennial concentrated on places in Gothenburg and the town of Strömstad, delving into the phenomenon of black metal subculture in Sweden and the wider Nordic region. Ola Carlsson, Anders Björnsson, Jorge Alcaide, Peter Uhr, Adrian McCleland, Dr Thomas Bossius, Kristina Meiton, Julian McKinney. The Culture Foundation of the Postcode Lottery Pressed at Disc Manufacturing Services Ltd, UK Recorded at Kulturtemplet, Göteborg, Sweden Photography: Hendrik Zeitler, Maddie Leach Unrealised proposal (pentagram engraving) for Keillers Park water tower.Photographic image of graffiti on Keillers Park water tower.Page-work for PARSE Journal, issue 6: Secularity.Album cover image by Kristian Wåhlin (aka Necrolord).04:17 audio recording (vevlira, Anders Ådin).04:17 audio recording (oud, Filip Bagewitz).Unreleased 12" LP pressed on 180 gram black vinyl (416 copies).Project commission for Gothenburg International Biennial for Contemporary Art (GIBCA)
0 kommentar(er)
