Per Hüttner (born 11 February 1967) is a Swedish visual artist who lives and works in Paris. He is mostly known for his photographic work"A Western Runner," Laurent Devèze, Mare Articum 1, pp. 58–63, 2002, Poland and for his interactive, changing and travelling exhibition projects.Per Hüttner and Gavin Wade interviewed by Barnaby Drabble, Marianne Eigenheer (Hg.) Curating Critique, ICE Reader 1, 2008, A number of monographs about his practice has been published including Per HüttnerPer Hüttner. Stockholm: Föreningen Curatorial Mutiny, 2004. . With a text by Duncan McLaren, 2003; I am a CuratorPer Hüttner: I am a Curator, 2005, 138 pages including 13 fold out colour pages, texts by Per Hüttner, Hannah Rickards, Celine Condorelli, Gavin Wade, Veronique Wiesinger, Duncan McLaren, Lisa LeFeuvre and Scott Rigby, language: English. Published by Chisenhale Gallery. , 2004; Repetitive TimePer Hüttner: Repetitive Time, 2006, 116 pages including 30 colour plates, texts by Lena Boëthius, Laurent Devèze, Per Hüttner, Claire Canning and Stéphanie Nava, language: English, design by Henrik Gistvall. Published by Göteborgs Konstmuseum. 2006, Xiao Yao YouPer Hüttner: Xiao Yao You, 2006, 96 pages including 10 fold out colour pictures and multi-foldout cover, texts by Bo Nilsson and Zhang Wei, languages: English, Swedish and Chinese, design by byboth. Published by Guangdong Museum of Art. 2006, Democracy and DesirePer Hüttner: Democracy and Desire, 2007, 158 pages (A3) including 10 colour fold out pages. Languages: English, Swedish, Spanish and Rumanian. Design by Åbäke. Published by Vacio 9 and The Rumanian Cultural Institute. 2007.List of publications by Hüttner at the Royal Library in Stockholm. The Imminent Interviews 2010 and The Quantum Police 2011.The Quantum Police, with texts by Anne Klontz; Johnny Ross and Willie Hansen (1969) and a short story by Wang Xiao Ping (in Chinese and English). Design by Erik Månsson, 96 pages in full colour + 5 fold-out sheets. Published by Lambert Gallery and Vision Forum 2011, .
Biography
Hüttner was born in Oskarshamn, Småland on 11 February 1967. His father Bengt, who was Jewish, died in a car accident in 1971 and he was brought up by his Protestant mother with his sister. He moved around Sweden until the age of 24 when he moved to Berlin to study. He studied at Hochschule der Künste in Berlin 1991 to 1992. He graduated from Konsthögskolan in Stockholm 1993.
His life has since been marked by nomadism and constant movement where travel and international dialogues are core to his life and practice."Med världen som arbetsplats," Anders Olofsson, Konstperspektiv pp. 24–27; April 2002; Malmö, Sweden He lived in London and Los Angeles until he created his base in Paris in 2002. Hüttner was one of the founders of the non-profit galleries Konstakuten in Stockholm (1996–2001) and The Hood Gallery in Los Angeles (2001–2003),Springhill Institute Report on Activities, p. 110, The Springhill Institute, Birmingham, UK, 2007 the former was one of the first artist initiated galleries in the country and was important in creating a culture of self-organisation of artists in Sweden."How do we Keep on Meeting?," 9-10 Ottobre 1999, Oreste at The Venice Biennale, Italy, 1999 He is also one of the founders of the residency programs Norrköping AIR http://norrkopingair.blogspot.ch/ and initiator of the experimental research group Vision Forum.The Invisible Generation ed. Gerrie van Noord, Published by Vision Forum, Stockholm, Sweden.
Works
Hüttner's work investigates impermanence as a global principle, especially how ideas of permanence and purity are used to perpetuate social, political and economical structuresInterview with the artist on David Roberts Art Foundation blog and how that influences human communication and interaction. The work often deals with transformation, change or various forms of transgressions of boundaries or borders.Intrude ART VS Per Hüttner, pp. 54–55, Intrude Art, Issue 04, 2008, published by Shanghai Zendai Museum of Modern Art The artist is inspired by French philosopher Gilles Deleuze and particularly interested in how the relationship between larger political, economical and social structures affect the individual and vice versa.Nick Muzyczka, Shanghai Global Times, Monday December 27, 2010 His work dialogues with the history of performance"Filling the City with Dreams", errors, deceits, mistakes no 3, 2008, pp. 72–82, Cneai, Chatou, France and explores the genre in innovative ways by provoking the curiosity and imagination of the visitor as well as by reflecting on notions about time, knowledge and the human body.
In the late 1980s and 1990s much of Hüttner's installations used computers, videoSpringhill Institute Report on Activities, pp. 32–39, The Springhill Institute, Birmingham, UK, 2007 and other new media."Labyrinthen i Gdansk," Daniel Birnbaum, MAMA, p.30-31, September 1994, Stockholm, Sweden He was one of the first artists to create installations that used computers as a sculptural element and at the same time allowing them to present vast and complex information.Reflektionen und Reaktionen, p. 42, published by Karl Hofer Gesellschaft, Berlin 1991 The artist also used contemporary medical science to develop work based on research on the human brain at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, England - looking at how the brain remains in a constant state of change and regeneration. He also created exhibitions, publications and lectures with biochemist Elias Arnér that dealt with the relationship between art, science and the human body in Stockholm. In Begrepp - En Samling (Concepts a Collection) they brought together artists and scientists to dialogue about metaphysical questions."Elias Arnér and Per Hüttner," Tom Sandqvist, Siksi, January 1993, Helsinki, Finland
In the late 1990s Hüttner took his interdisciplinary experiences and implemented these into a series of exhibitions investigating the relationship between the art object and the exhibition.Per Hüttner "It's good to Be an Artist Again" p. 211 Yugoslav Biennial of Young artists Vrsac 2004, Published by Centre for Contemporary Arts - Belgrade The book on WorldCat In 2001 he co-curated an exhibition at Nylon with Goshka Macuga and Gavin Wade.Neal Brown, 3 in 1 Curatorial Mutiny, Part 4, Frieze, Issue 60, June - August 2001. Other noteworthy exhibitions that dealt with these issues and that engaged the audienceDavid Gauntlett, "Creative Explorations New Approaches to Identities and Audiences", pp. 119–20. Routledge, London, 2007 in continuously reshaping the exhibition"O'Neill, Paul, Art Monthly; Apr2004, Issue 275, p7-10 include: I am a CuratorC: International Contemporary Art, Wntr, 2004 by Fergal Stapleton at Chisenhale Gallery in London,pp. 111–164, pp. 263–279, Barnaby Drabble, Stop making Sense: The Ends of Curating and the Beginnings of the Exhibition, Thesis submitted to the Edinburgh College of Art in fulfilment Of the requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2010 Repetitive Time at The Art Museum in Gothenburg and Participate? at CEAC in Xiamen, China, and at Basekamp in Philadelphia.A Tasty Treat, James Westcott, Zingmagazine 18; p.270-272; 2003; New York, USA
Parallel to this activity Hüttner created a photography project entitled "Jogging in Exotic Cities" where the artist went jogging repeatedly in far away cities that remain exotic to a western audience.Tank Book, Thames & Hudson; 2002; London, UK In the photographs we see the artist dressed in white clothes"TalePiece," Caroline Smith, Creative Camera, p.50-51, April–May 1999, London, UK as he makes his way through bustling cities like Chennai, Mexico City and Lusaka."Artists on the Move," Duncan McLaren, Contemporary (magazine), p.56-61; June–August 2002, London, UK The project remains one of Hüttner's most well known to date. It has been shown in museums in the US,Yuerba Buena’s exhibition archive Spain"Pleasure and Pain all Rolled into One," BIDA 2003 - Exhibition catalogue from the exhibition at Centro de Arte de Salamanca, Spain, pp. 110–113 Poland,Magdalena Lewoc, p. 5, City Matrix of Life, Exhibition catalogue - Metropolis, Contemporary Art Gallery, National Museum, Szczecin, Poland, 2005. Romania,Simona Nastac, "The Sublime overcoming of the UltimateFrontier of Art: Its Rediscovery" p. 111, Absent Without Leave (AWOL), Biennial of Young Artists, Bucharest 2006, Published by Meta and Goethe Institut Bukarest Austria,Realitäten, Fotogalerie Wien, Fotobuch nr. 35/2005 p. 34-35 China"Gongzhen - Sport in Art" pp. 88–91 Catalogue published by, Museum of Contemporary Art MoCA Shanghai . The exhibition travelled to Museum of Guangzhou Art Academy; RCM Gallery, Nanjing; Shenyang, Museum of Lu Xun Art Academy; Sichuan Fine Arts Museum, Chengdu and Today Art Museum, Beijing. and Sweden.Introduction to Hüttner's solo exhibition at Blå Porten at Liljevalchs Konsthall
In 2004 he developed the performative aspects in the above-mentioned project and tied it back to a research about the limits of reality and documentary photography. He developed a series of photographs where he created shrines of commemoration in busy street corners of urban centres around the world."Per Hüttner", Francesca Pagliuca, Tema Celeste 117, p. 102, 2006, Milano, Italy These impromptu sculptures suggested that an accident or act of violence had been committed in that specific place (while in fact they were fabricated by the artist). The work provoked complex discussions about differences and similarities between documentary traditions and the fictional.Xiao yao you, Catalogue de 15e Biennale d'image, April 2008, Nancy, France - published by Gérard Louis This investigation into the very fabric of reality has moved to the forefront in the artist's mature work about impermanence and change. In the catalogue text to his 2006 exhibition Xiao Yao You that displayed a large body of the work at the Guangdong Museum of Art in Guangzhou the curator, Zhang Wei, writes:
Ceaseless movement is not a way of gaining ever more exotic knowledge of the world; it is rather a way of cleaning out and rediscovering the self. This is what I see in Per’s work. When I face his images, the reality presented in them seems less a true physical reality than an invisible psychological one. I see a negotiation and dialogue between the artist’s inner and outer worlds. In this psychological landscape, he describes his worries, his pursuit of human sentiment, and his insistent rejection of a stylized or superficial life. It makes me think of the Chinese philosopher Zhuang Zi's idea of xiao yao you or "moving carelessly". This philosophy does not only detail how to move freely across physical space, but is also a metaphor for how humans can transcend different kinds of obstacles and achieve a freedom of the spirit.Zhang Wei, Xiao Yao You, Xiao Yao You, p. 33, Guangdong Museum of Art, 2006.
The journey into the human soul was further developed in another photographic series from 2006 to 2007 entitled Democracy and Desire. The images were primarily shot at night with very long exposure times."Tundro, znaczy wolnosc" Marta Eloy Cichocka, Fotograficzny Biuletyn 09/2006 (58), p.48-50, Poland The relationship between the individual and its search for personal liberty from social conventions again comes to the forefront in the dreamlike photography."Joggaren har tagit en vilopaus", Anna Brodow, Svenska Dagbladet, Kultur s.9, May 12, 2007, Sweden. Online link (in Swedish) here In the catalogue text to the exhibition the work is discussed. In a typical style of the artist, it is hard to decipher who the author of the give text is and it even appears that the texts in different languages are written by different authors: