Studies for a Monument, 2022. Views from Släpljus at Carl Eldh Ateljémuseum, Sweden.
CURATED BY JOANNA NORDIN
Study for a Monument IV, Brita Eldh. Levitating replica of a garden stone, gilded. 2022.
Chiara Bugatti’s installations in the garden of Carl Eldhs Ateljémusem recall material conditions for the work carried out in the studio and its garden, as well as relationships with other places and deeper horizons of time. By taking interest in Brita Eldh, Carl Eldh’s daughter, Bugatti approaches previously overlooked stories within the site. Brita’s work for the museum cannot be overstated: she led the transformation of the studio into a museum and looked after the site for over 40 years after the artist’s death. The design of the garden is largely Brita’s work.
In Study for a Monument IV, Brita Eldh, a gilded garden stone slowly rotates mid-air. It is a reference to Eldh’s sculpture Girl with Halo, which was gilded by Brita after the artist’s death. Later placed in the garden, it was stolen and never found again. When the sculpture was to be recast, the gilding was omitted and Carl Eldh’s patination of the bronze surface was recreated instead, a design considered to be closer to the original.
In Study for a Monument V, formed by its own memory, Bugatti uses limestone dust and soil from Yxhult’s abandoned quarry and stone works. Here the history of the studio is intertwined with these sites where, from 1879, both limestone and marble were quarried to produce a significant part of the emerging Stockholm’s façade decoration. At the turn of the last century, while Swedish limestone became a symbol of the era’s pride for the nation, Brita used the same material to enrich the soil, a common gardening practice that counteracts acidification and moss growth on the lawn. Bugatti’s sculptures in the garden, entirely made of pressed leftover material from the 1800s and 1900s façades, are porous and allow water to seep through. Shaped by the weather, they feed the earth and slowly disappear into it.
Study for a Monument V, shaped by its own memory. Limestone dust from Yxhult ex-stonemasonry, soil from Yxhult quarry, condensed water. 2022.