Statement of candidacy
Artist, producer, curator and organiser, born 1957 in Stockholm, living and working in Copenhagen since 1982. He is educated at The Royal Danish Art Academy 1982-88 and has has exhibited regularly in the Nordic countries, Europe and North America since 1982.
His practice covers both painting, photography, printing, sculpture, installation art, video, electronic art, multimedia, sound art and performance art. As a painter he is represented in several museums and collections, including the Modern Museum of Art in Stockholm. He also works as an organiser and producer of many events and festivals, ranging from sound art to early music, such as Overgaden Sound Art Festival (2004) and Copenhagen Renaissance Music Festival (annually since 2006).
In 2008 he made the videographic setting for the dance performance Closer, in collaboration with composer Simon Christensen and the dance company Åben Dans. Together with Magnus Tessing Schneider & Nordic Network for Early Opera he has done several baroque opera productions and stage settings, such as of Monteverdi’s L'Orfeo (2007), Monteverdi’s Poppea (2011) and Cavalli’s Gli Amore di Apollo et di Dafne (2014). Together with Deda Cristina Colonna from Italy he staged Cavalieri’s Rappresentatione di Anima et di Corpo (1600) in 2010.
His latest stage project is a performance installation together with swedish PhD researcher and baroque vocal performer Elisabeth Belgrano. The project - Glories to Nothingness - was presented in June 2017 at the Finnish Research Pavillion in Giudecca, Venice, Italy and lately at Inter Arts Center in Malmö, Sweden (January 2019). Björn is since 2014 working full time as Artistic Director of KoncertKirken, a community based local concert venue in the former Blågårds church in Nørrebro, Copenhagen. The venue is extremely active and hosts over 200 concerts of all sorts every year.
Björn is furthermore engaged as administrator and board member of several early music networks such as Nordic Network for Early Opera, NORDEM - Nordic Federation For Early Music, and REMA - European Early Music Network.
Nominated by: Lars Strandh
Seconded by: Knut Aspegren, Agnete Christensen