Bigert & Bergström is a Swedish artist duo consisting of Mats Bigert and Lars Bergström.
The Bigert & Bergström creative partnership began in 1986 while attending Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in Stockholm. Since then, the duo have created a wide range of art projects that have been internationally recognized and exhibited.Bigert & Bergström, accessed 16 March 2020 Their productions range through large-scale sculptures, installations, public portrayals, performance and film – often combined in multimedia works.
Artistic focus With energetic inquisitiveness, the duo analyses and poses questions regarding current societal issues, often using humor as a tool. They tend to focus on scientific, climate-related and social issues, and the intersection between them.Belenius Gallery, accessed 16 March 2020 These topics define the theme, as well as the practical creation of the works – often through high-tech solutions, scientific foundations and various experimental elements.
Expressions through sculpture and installations
Whether created for an exhibition, a film or a public space, Bigert & Bergström's creations have certain common denominators in their forms of expression. Their works are often intended to be experienced through multiple senses; many sculptures exude warmth, vibrations, light and sound, or can be set in motion and change. Their works encourage, and sometimes require viewer-interaction. They are often constructed on a large scale, many times large enough to step into the work and experience it from inside.
This angle of having the viewer physically step into the work, has been a feature of the duo's creations since the very beginning. In the 1990s, Bigert & Bergström were best known for their climate chamber – a space in which the viewer could enter and be confronted with various types of extreme weather.Hedberg, Hans. “Symboliska gränssnitt, Bigert & Bergström på Axel Mörner.” Svenska Dagbladet, November 30, 1999. Other recurring elements are the funhouse mirrors, molecular, spherical and semi-spherical shapes. For these round forms, Bigert & Bergström have developed their own technique, which they call 'back projection.' It involves filming with a fisheye lens to project inverted images on rounded shapes.Bigert & Bergström, accessed 16 March 2020
Selected works
Tipping Point (2021) The interdisciplinary project was realised in collaboration between Bigert & Bergström and the Institute for Futures Studies (IFFS), Stockholm. The project's main area of inquiry embedded in climate ethics, while aiming to create a visual, physical and poetic experience in a clear and committed manner. The performative installation envisages the complex connection between our decisions today and the living conditions for future generations.Bigert & Bergström, accessed 22 November 2022
Rescue Blanket for Kebnekaise (2015)
Bigert & Bergström's geoengineering performance was an attempt, a futile symbolic gesture to counteract the glacier melting of Kebnekaise, the highest mountain in Sweden, which gradually losing its elevation. In 2015 during the summer solstice, the mountain's southern peak was covered with a five-hundred-square-meter golden climate-shade cloth, to preserve the glacier. The performance documentation and materials collected during the intervention turned into an installation entitled The Freeze.Bigert & Bergström, accessed 2 April 2020
Climate Chambers I (1994) The large-scale installation consists of five chambers, which surround a centrally located incubator. By entering into the chambers, the audience experiences various climate extremes from heat to freeze. The installation intended to "test the boundaries between experience and endurance."Climate Chambers I. In: Bigert & Bergström: Works 1986-2016. Stockholm: Art and Theory Publishing, 2017, 72. The work is not only challenging our perception and senses, but also raises the question of whether perceiving artworks is influenced by the atmospheric or ambient shifts.Bigert & Bergström, accessed 2 April 2020
Biosphere III (1990) Biosphere III was a large-scale performance installation, performed and constructed in collaboration with the Oslo-based Gallery Riis in 1990. Bigert & Bergström's work was inspired by the Biosphere II, an utopian experiment of self-supporting ecosystem, launched in 1984 in the Sonora Desert (Tucson, Arizona, USA). The artist duo's inverted biosphere were a gradually inflating tent. Inside, the audience could follow the artists' actions and relevance of various dioramas (melting ice-monoliths, mechanical greenhouse) through windows. The performance culminated when the artists exited the biosphere.Bigert & Bergström, accessed 1 April 2020
Selected public works Bigert & Bergström have created a number of public works of art and are considered skilled at depicting complex concepts.Stockholm konst, accessed 7 July 2015 Their public works are tactile and often encourage the viewer for interaction. Through digital technology, the works frequently change color and shape – either through human interaction, as in the "Cymatic Pool", or through uncontrollable factors like weather phenomena, as in "Tomorrow’s Weather."
BBQ Meteorite (2022) The social sculpture, BBQ Meteorite is a functioning outdoor grill, made for Kvarteret Ekdungen and commissioned by Tom Radway, Förvaltaren AB. The shape of the three-meter high work was inspired by the Youndegin meteorite found in Western Australia in 1884. The artwork invites the locals to use it for barbecues and as a social space.Bigert & Bergström, accessed 22 March 2020
Solar Egg (2017) Solar Egg, a fully functioning egg-shaped sauna, was commissioned by Riksbyggen and placed in Kiruna, northern Sweden. The work, while conceptually reflecting on the ongoing geographical re-positioning of the city of Kiruna, was also imagined to be a platform for discussion. A place for reflection and contemplation on the most burning social and environmental issues of nowadays.Bigert & Bergström, accessed 22 November 2022
Cymatic Pool (2013) Cymatic Pool created for Ericsson's headquarters in Kista, Stockholm. The work is an interactive pool with its own phone number. By calling it, the spectators is able to talk to the work: the sound waves of their voices affect the water's surface, creating various patterns.
Tomorrow’s Weather (2012) The art work Tomorrow's Weather at Stockholm Central Station was commissioned by Public Art Agency Sweden. It consists of atmospheric molecules suspended from the ceiling, which are connected to a weather service. Depending on the following day's weather forecast, the molecules change colour between pink, green, blue and yellow.Statens konstråd , accessed 7 July 2015 Den som passerar verket vid upprepade tillfällen kan lära sig att läsa av färgerna och få en föraning om morgondagens väder.
Co2 Lock-in (2012)
Co2 Lock-in is a performance work and a sculptural installation in Stockholm on 16–31 March 2012. A series of leg-irons in the shape of carbon dioxide molecules were placed out in several central locations. In one of these locations, the artists themselves were shackled for a day. The sculptures, moulded out of recycled iron and weighing 300 kg each, represent the amount of carbon dioxide an average Swede emits over a 10-day period. The project was a collaboration between Bigert & Bergström and WWF to call attention to the worldwide climate action Earth Hour.
More public works Wave Pillar, 2022, Helsingborg harbour Painters Mussel, 2021, Stångåbro, Linköping Apple of Knowledge, 2021, Boo Gård School, Nacka Cumulus Humilis (The Humble Cloud), 2021, Sunderby Hospital, Luleå Tree Time, 2021, Växjö Railway Station and Commune House Heat Shimmer Wall (Fata Morgana), 2020, St. Erik Eye Hospital, Stockholm Space Seed, 2020, Biskopsudden, Stockholm Sunshell, 2019, Sjötullstorget, Norrtälje Tip of an Iceberg, 2019, Karolinska Hospital, Stockholm Face au Temps, 2017, Hopital Saint Denis, Paris Mirror Dewdrops and Mother-of-Pearl Clouds, 2016, Psychiatric Center, Trelleborg Tomorrow's Weather Lexington, 2015, 21c Museum Hotel, Kentucky Cloud Portico, Falling Apple, Rainbow Family, 2014, Lugnet School, Hammarby Sjöstad, Stockholm Tornado Touch Down, 2010, outside the central station, Borås Sun Passage, 2010, Hammarby sjöstad, Stockholm Peptalk 2, 2005, Älta indoor ice rink, Stockholm Ecco Humor, 2003, in the multi-storey carpark at the Dunker Culture House, Helsingborg Flash of Genius, 2002, Nacka Kulturhus, Stockholm Thought Incognita, 2001, Linköping University Koma/Amok, 1997, Umedalen skulpturpark, UmeåUmedalen skulpturpark, accessed 20 March 2020
Selected films Bigert & Bergström produced their first film, The Big Feed, in 1999. Since its debut, they have increasingly developed their characteristic forms of expression, combining facts and anecdotes with experiments, animations, sculptural installations and objects in what may be described as contemporary art documentaries. The Big Feed and several other films in the artists’ repertoire were commissioned by the Swedish Television, Sveriges Television. They have been aired in several cultural programmes, including Kobra (television programme) and K-special, and at many international film festivals.
The Climate Experiment (2018, 58 min. HD) A film about Bigert & Bergström's climate-related art, which for three decades has been inspired by research on the effects of climate on humanity and vice versa. The Climate Experiment tells the story of the growing realization of our own role in the changing climate. Our interference in the atmospheric cocktail could be described as the greatest experiment in human history. An experiment whose outcome is highly uncertain.Bigert & Bergström, accessed 22 March 2020
Moments of Silence (2014, 14 min. HD) Moments of Silence consists of sampled archival materials from all sorts of occasions in which people have come together in a moment of silence to honor and mourn the victims of natural disasters and other tragedies, or to take a stand against terrorism and other acts of violence. The film reflects on how this worldwide ritual is one of the few activities in which all people, regardless of religion, ideology or cultural background, can come together in fellowship.Bigert & Bergström , accessed 7 July 2015
The Weather War (2012, 57 min. HD) The film provides a historical and contemporary sketch of human attempts to tame the forces of weather. Many different weapons are used worldwide – Bangladesh builds barrier walls to protect against flooding, China aims rockets at threatening clouds, and Italy fires cannons at hail to protect the year's wine harvest. Given this background, the film focuses on the question of how to deal with the ongoing climatic change – by adapting, or by waging war on the weather? In a quirky blend of land-art performance and old-fashioned road movie, Bigert & Bergström traveled to the tornado belt of the American Midwest with their mechanical sculpture, Tornado Diverter, to see if they can stop a tornado. This visionary machine is the brainchild of Russian scientist Vladimir Pudov. Newly retired when the duo contacted him, Pudov was no longer able to build his invention, but Bigert & Bergström were so fascinated by his machine that they decided to build it for him.
The Last Supper (2005, 57 min. 16 mm and DVD)