Join us for the launch of As If They Had A Spirit the first comprehensive monograph of artist Pontus Pettersson edited and published by Galerie. On the occasion of the launch Pontus together with Izabella Borzecka and Galerie (Simon Asencio and Adriano Wilfert Jensen) will activate the book through reading, drawing and conversation.

Schedule
14:00-16:00 Launch

About the book
As If They Had A Spirit is the first comprehensive monograph of artist Pontus Pettersson. Using drawing and narration, the book expands on Pettersson’s sculptural, poetic and choreographic practice through the accounts and fabulations of long term collaborators. As If They Had A Spirit centers the acts of re-membering, re-telling and re-tracing as situated  methods for documenting and studying the protracted and evolving nature of process-based artistic practices.

Recounted and drawn by Linnea Hansander, Robert, Malmborg, Diana Orving, Karina Sarkissova, Sandra Lolax, Stina Nyberg, Anna Koch, Peter Mills, Anna Efraimsson and Galerie (Simon Asencio & Adriano Wilfert Jensen)

Edited and redrawn by Galerie (Simon Asencio & Adriano Wilfert Jensen)
Editing assistance Izabella Borzecka
Published by Galerie, Int
Co-publisher & Distibribution: PAM, Stockholm

As If They Had A Spirit was made possible with generous support by the Swedish Arts Council, Weld, MDT and PAM

About the artists
Pontus Pettersson is a Stockholm-based choreographer, performance curator, and artist working at the intersection of choreography, visual art, and contemporary dance. His artistic practice is a blend of various disciplines and genres, where text, objects, sculptures, and choreographic instructions are interconnected. By applying choreography to everything he does, his work ranges from installations, poetry, and fountains to objects, cat practice, and dance. Among his latest works are the choreographic installation Pancor Poetics, the dance performance MOPA - The Last Stand (Sky), as well as his longer research on water—All Departures Are Waves—which includes among many works the choreographic installation Bodies of Water and the autofictional accordion performance A Dog Called Drama. In addition to his own artistic work, he collaborates on the participatory and movement-based platform Delta together with Izabella Borzecka and the dance and performance festival My Wild Flag together with Karina Sarkissova.

Galerie was initiated with a spell in 2014, when Simon Asencio and Adriano Wilfert Jensen announced themselves as Galerie, an immaterial gallery for immaterial artworks. The mission of Galerie is to promote immaterial objecthood: works that cannot be reduced to an object or to the documentation of an action. Simultaneously a commercial entity, a performance and a research project, Galerie has been involved in a wide range of activities since its launch, including Group Show - a performed exhibition, The Booth - an empty artfair booth where the two gallerists represent artworks using their own means and offer the works for sale, The Intensive Curse - a workshop on artist and artwork representation a.o. Since 2020, Galerie has been undergoing renovations and has focused on publishing to reflect on modes of conservation, circulation and inscription of immaterial practices within the format of the artist monograph. This includes Krõõt Juurak - Animal, Family, Bad mood Audience, Sleeping Bad Mood (2020) and As If They Had A Spirit (2024).

PAM is a nomadic, curatorial platform for experimental publishing, art, and movement-based practices operating in different locations, spaces, and constellations – as a library, publisher, and organizer. Through cross-disciplinary projects, publications, workshops, readings and other artistic and discursive program formats, PAM strives to nurture alternative modes of disseminating movement-based art practices. PAM is an independent, non-profit organization based in Stockholm, initiated by Izabella Borzecka. Besides As If They Had A Spirit, PAM has published among other publications The Forest’s Imaginary Trial: Dirt Roads of Mercury’s Journey (2024) by Sara Gebran and This, Fantasies, Art by Litó Walkey, Sara Kaaman and Izabella Borzecka, as well as Delta - An Ocean Call co-edited together with Pontus Pettersson.