Magpies, Stockholm 1998/2017 by Björn Larsson

Björn Larsson (born 1966) graduated from University of Gothenburg in 1992. Today he lives and works in Stockholm. In his projects Björn Larsson mixes art, photography, politics and social history. For the last thirty years his work has been exhibited all over the world.

About the project

In the Midst of Nature is a photographic examination of nature representation in a Swedish museum project from the late 19th and early 20th century – the biological museum. Björn Larsson's photographs (1998-2000) are based on a collection of naturalistic dioramas exhibited in four museums in Sweden and Finland. Curious, dreamlike and artificial, the photographs play with illusion and perception and hyperreality. The dioramas were created by Gustaf Kolthoff in order to observe an artificially constructed “nature” and located in a purpose designed museum.

”My interest has been the ideological background of the museums. There are four museums remaining today, Stockholm (founded in 1893), Åbo (1907), Uppsala (1910) and Södertälje (1913). In the museums landscapes are represented in habitat diorama. A diorama is an arrangement of three dimensional object and a painted background made to give a lifelike impression. In these museums you find Scandinavian biotopes reconstructed in detail; stuffed mammals, birds, reptiles, insects, bushes, plants, stones, lichen, etc”

In the Midst of Nature has been presented in exhibition format with framed images since 1999. But also as an artist book (Journal, 2006) and as a video and sound piece.

For more of Björn Larsson's work, visit bjornlarsson.org

Magpies Compilation