Leif Elggren

NEWS

2010-01-31T21:04:47Z

BANANAFISH #16 "I Pity Inanimate Objects" interview with LE by M.Monroe. Interview Tedium House

DET FRÄMMANDE FÄDERNESLANDET Project curated by Joakim Forsgren in relation to the Peace&Love festival, Borlänge, Sweden. Artists: Dorinel Marc, Sandra Isacsson, Daniel Boyacioglu, Leif Elggren. June 29 - July 1, 2010. More about this here

ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE June 2010, WORM, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. More about this here

FYSIOLOGISKA FREKVENSER Vernissage lördag 29 maj kl 12-17. MARTIN BRYDER GALLERY, Nygatan 12, Lund, Sweden. 29 maj – 20 juni 2010. More about this here

Drawings 2004-2009 A new book released by Niklas Belenius Gallery, Stockholm, April 2010. 372 p. English / Swedish text. Offset printed. Letterpress printed softcover. Size 200 x 340 mm. ISBN 978 91 87066 33 5

INGALILL A new CD in a limited edition on Rumpsti Pumsti, Berlin More about this here

TOCHNIT ALEPH & NK BERLIN PRESENTS: LEIF ELGGREN - EXHIBITION . DVD PRESENTATION . LIVE PERFORMANCE SUNDAY 25 APRIL 2010 . NK . ELSENSTR.52 . BERLIN 10259 More about this here

RUNDGÅNG (Feedback). A Medial Metamorphosis. - A three working days performance by Kristine Scholz, Mats Persson, Leif Elggren, Kent Tankred and Siv Johansson. Fylkingen, Stockholm, Friday 16/4 to Sunday 18/4, 2010 between 18.00–23.00. More about this here

GOD’S NAME IS NOT SPELT CORRECTLY Books and letterpress prints 1981–2010 by LE. April 10 to May 8, 2010. Rönnells antiquarian bookshop, Stockholm. More about this here And here

EXQUISITE CODE Introducing Swedish semla to the people of England! The first Swedish semlas ever seen since the days of Emanuel Swedenborg (or maybe Ture Sventon) were made by the artist Liam Scully on the 19th of February 2010 in conjunction with the project Exquisite_Code at E:vent Gallery, London. The recipe for the semla was taken from the cover of the CD "The Summerhouse" (released 2007 by Michael Esposito, E Swedenborg and LE on Firework Edition Records). More about this here and here

EXQUISITE CODE More about this here

Paper for the conference ”HOLY FACE – FACE OF GOD, FACE OF MAN”

2009-12-17T15:04:51Z

Caroline Levisse The Sudarium of St Veronica by Leif Elggren together with Claude Mellan, 2007 The Acoustic Dimension of the Holy Face Paper for the conference ”Holy Face – face of God, face of Man” [Sainte Face – visage de Dieu, visage de l’homme dans l’art contemporain. 19ème-20ème siècle”], Paris, INHA, 2009, Nov. 30 – Dec 1; organized by P.-L. Rinuy (Université Paris 8) et I. Saint-Martin (EPHE) ➢ The conference was originally in French, this is a short transcript in English of the speech: The Sudarium of St Veronica is a work of sound art created by the Swedish artist Leif Elggren together with the French 17th century engraver, Claude Mellan (1598-1688). Indeed, at the origin of the acoustic performance lies Mellan’s famous engraving, La Sainte Face [The Holy Face], from 1649. It is an exceptional and unique work of art for it is engraved from a unique spiral line. Fascinated by this work, Elggren decided to record the sound of the copper engraving, by playing it. He used a copy of the engraving and a drypoint needle, which rubbed the plate, following the spiral line. This action took place in July 2007 and resulted in three recordings, each one of them being one of the acoustic trace or acoustic imprint of Mellan’s Holy Face. With the CD then produced, each one of us can listen to these recordings . In the CD’s booklet, Elggren explains: « I was really excited by the thought of detecting what was hidden in that spiral line. To hear the image! ». My aim is therefore to explore the significations hold by this acoustic trace in its relation to the source picture, the Holy Face. The bringing-forth of the acoustic dimension of the Holy Face In the same booklet one can read “Leif Elggren and Claude Mellan” as the authors of the work. What is really Elggren’s role here? He is not the author of the sound per se and indeed, Elggren describes himself as a “tool” whose role is to set up the right circumstances for things to happen. What the artist does is to reveal, bring forth, a sound that was always already there, but until the artist’s action it was hidden or rather inaudible. It is interesting here to draw a parallel with the image and the legend of St. Veronica, whose hands did not produce anything but were simply presenting, i.e. bringing to our attention, bringing in our visibility, the miraculous imprint of Christ’s face on her veil. Physical characteristics of sound and acoustic powers Sound is for Elggren “a companion in the enhancement of phenomena and moods” . Sound is therefore used to amplify already existing phenomena, as such as the image in our case. Music and sound in general have for a long time been given a special power on human body, especially due to the physicality of the acoustic vibrations which fill up the space and penetrate the body. […] “Amplified” perception of the Holy Face In The Sudarium of St Veronica, the acoustic presence is added to the usual visual presence of Mellan’s Holy Face. This doubling of the presence is based on a sensorial overstimulation: one does not only look at the picture, but also hears it. The visual and the acoustic, the spatial and the temporal dimensions fuse together through the gesture of the artist playing the copper plate. The acoustic imprint revealed by Elggren is an amplification, an enhancement, of a phenomenon; knowing that a phenomenon is the manifestation of something, is it possible to identify what is this something? Are we simply hearing the sound of the image, the copper plate, or it is possible to go further? An acoustic imprint of the divine? The image represented by Mellan is not any image, it is a Holy Face; this engraving is thus linked to a long tradition of religious images which have their origin in the miraculous acheiropoietos images; images that are more than mere artifacts. If we add to this filiation the fact that Elggren considers himself as a tool; and the miraculous dimension in “hearing an image”; and the strong powers of the sound on body and psyche; is not tempting to interpret the sound of The Sudarium as the acoustic trace or imprint of the divine, of the invisible, present in all its absence beyond the material surface of the image? It would mean that there is a “crossing of glances” , i.e. an exchange of glances between the divinity and the human through the image that happens in presence of this installation; this is indeed the characteristic of religious images such as the icons, which set forth a glance looking back at the religious viewer. For several reasons such a hypothesis does not function. First because Mellan’s work itself rather belongs to the realm of the work of art than to the tradition of religious images (icons). Second, the exchange of glances supposes a “contract” – that is faith, prayer or liturgy – for the divine presence to manifest itself and be acknowledged; but here the context of The Sudarium of St Veronica seems very secular and profane. Finally, if one considers the whole artistic creation of Leif Elggren, the exchange of glances and the manifestation of a remote and unintelligible divinity are very unlikely. Elggren’s strategy: the abolition of boundaries If there were one red thread to identify in Elggren’s work, I would say it is the abolition of boundaries, starting with the one between image and sound. With such an attitude, his work consists in opening new worlds, accessible to all of us. When, along with Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Elggren proclaimed himself king of the Royal Kingdoms of Elgaland-Varlgaland in 1992 (KREV), he abolished the frontier between the king and his subjects, showing that royalty was accessible to each one of us. It’s not all: in KREV, death has been abolished and all the citizens are consequently immortal. Dead and alive become two connected realities, or worlds, because the moment that represented the boundary between the two is erased. Communication is made possible and indeed in pieces such as Talking to a Dead Queen (1994-1996), Elggren tries to contact the other side. By abolishing the boundaries normally considered as impassable, Elggren abolishes the verticality of the world’s structure, i.e. the hierarchies. There are no more worlds placed on top of each others, but worlds equally placed next to each others. The communication between the different spheres of reality is not reserved to some privileged and selected intermediaries anymore, each and every person can move from one world, one reality, to another. Even more interesting in our case is the abolition of the distinction between human and divine. Elggren wrote and said several times: “We are all God” and “We are all, each one of us, Jesus Christ” . What Elggren deletes here – in a will of social justice – is the privilege taken by some who declared to be the “intermediaries” between men and God: the pope and the priests. This will is very clear in the text for the performance The Power is Yours! done with Kent Tankred (Sons of God) at the Vatican in 1996: “For each and every person, we now want to reestablish the direct link with the divine within ourselves. We have shortcircuited the hegemony of the Pope and can now bypass the power of the Catholic Church, in fact of institutionalized religion altogether. We will create a new system and retain contact with the creator of everything […] Our task is simply to return that which for once and all time was given and which belongs to each and everyone in this world […] What we refer to here as the divine power is, in our eyes, the form of energy which perhaps makes up the epicenter of each and every life […]. That which, again perhaps, is the driving force behind everything…” and somewhere else he says: “But there are no God’s representative on earth ! We are all God and equally people with the same unquestionable worth, wherever we might be in the world and on the social ladder. God is not outside us, God is in us all and we can all say : ‘I am God!’ ” » . Connection with the other side – Connection with the psyche “God is in us all”… Elggren brings back God into our own reality and enables us to establish contact with him within our inner existence. The artist erases the possibility of a prototype, an original that would be over us, would be inaccessible and unintelligible for human beings. While looking at the face of Christ as represented by Mellan and listening to its acoustic imprint, the other side that becomes accessible to us is our inner selves. Elggren’s works are, according to the artist himself: “an attempt to gain access to those hard, rare moments when daily life merges with the heroic nature of the inner self” . Such a connection with the inmost depths of the psyche can seem to coincide with Elggren’s gesture when he realized the first recording of the engraving, which is a manual recording: with the drypoint needle he started at the exterior of the plate and then went downwards toward the center of the spiral, the tip of Christ’s noise, in a counter-clockwise movement. It is also interesting to notice that the face is what marks our individuality and identity. This face represented by Mellan and based on a spiral line irresistibly evokes a finger print, which is also a mark of our identity and uniqueness. We are all different and unique, but is there not, at the very same time, something that we all share? We are all God and Jesus-Christ; therefore there is something in the face of Christ to which each one of us can identify. The springing up of the inaudible […] When The Sudarium of St Veronica takes place in a church… We have explored what The Sudarium could mean in a secular context; what happens when it is shown in a religious place? It is interesting since Elggren installed its work in the Evangelical Lutheran church of St Jacob in Stockholm during Easter 2008 (March 21-23). A big reproduction of Mellan’s Holy Face replaced the usual altarpiece and it was possible at some times to hear the sound of the image. One of these moments was during the office on Good Friday. Before the priest’s sermon, churchgoers were invited to listen to the picture. The Holy Face was a perfect image for that day, since it is linked to the Passion, but what about the sound? According to the coordinator of the cultural events for St Jacob’s church, Eva Asp, after listening to the metallic abstract sound, the priest expressed his anger and irritation at the sound; he then flipped around his discourse and said that such negative emotions may actually be proper feelings for Good Friday, the day of Christ’s death on the cross. Eva Asp went on reflecting on that point and considered that it was a really good dimension of Elggren’s visual and sound installation: it allows the presence of negative feelings which are usually left outside of the space of the church. Indeed, in the liturgical space one usually find art that encourages feelings of peace, beauty and harmony, devotion, hope… but such positive feelings are not representing the whole meaning of being human; that is to say that a lot of what is it to be a human being is absent in most of church art. ➢ Conclusion: The Sudarium of Saint Veronica is “une mise à jour” [which in French both means “a setting forth” and “an actualization”] of the Holy Face because it first is “une mise au jour” [a setting forth, a revelation] of the hidden sound of the engraving’s spiral line – outwards spiral/recording; and it is at the same time “une mise à jour” [an actualization] of the Holy Face in the sense that Elggren’s work offers a refection about the meaning of this very famous and old picture for today’s viewers after Nietzsche’s death of God and the inversion of Platonism; that is to say after the suppression of the almighty and unintelligibly remote prototype.

PHYSIOLOGICAL FREQUENCIES

2009-11-24T22:49:27Z

Solo exhibition by Leif Elggren at Passagen, Linköpings Konsthall, Sweden, 16.1. – 27.2.10

Solo exhibition by Leif Elggren at Gallery Niklas Belenius, Stockholm 3.12.09 – 7.1.10 more info here

TOP SECRET

TOP SECRET (HEMLIGSTÄMPLAT) with Leif Elggren and Thomas Liljenberg will now be released. TOP SECRET (HEMLIGSTÄMPLAT) is a new box on satumaa*kustantamo in collaboration with the Moderna Museet, Stockholm. The release will take place at the Moderna Museet at a top secret point of time on December 20th, 2009. Curated by Marja-leena Sillanpää www.myspace.com/marjaleenasillanpaa www.myspace.com/satumaakustantamo

SKULL DEFEKTS & THE SONS OF GOD

BELOW THE RADAR 02 This CD compilation © 2009 The Wire thewire.co.uk Skull Defekts & The Sons Of God “Received & Transmitted” (Previously unreleased) Recorded by Joachim Nordwall, Kent Tankred, Henrik Rylander and Leif Elggren in Gothenburg 2008 at Studio Dental, which is located in the city’s Sahlgrenska hospital. The piece will eventually be released on LP on Important Records, while a second piece recorded at the same session will be released on CD by Utech Records in January 2010. More information here

Sons of God Live in USA | November 2009

2009-10-30T11:05:24Z

THE SONS OF GOD and Joachim Nordwall + Gen Ken Montgomery in Boston 6/11, New York 8/11 and Philadelphia 9/11 www.nonevent.org/ phillysoundforum.org/ Photo: Conny Fornbäck

Leif Elggren | Live in London 19th & 20th November

2009-10-25T11:29:05Z

The Tapeworm, England's new cassette-only label, is pleased to announce Leif Elggren will be performing "Life of the Plants" at The Night of the Long Worms at Café Oto, London, on 19.xi.09 More information can be found here
and the next day Leif Elggren, presented by Sound Threshold, performs in celebration of the DVD release of Death Travels Backwards (Errant Bodies Records) Performances with Leif Elggren Brandon LaBelle Friday, November 20th, 6:30pm The Showroom, London 63 Penfold Street www.theshowroom.org/ and you can read a full press release here

The Ghost Orchid

2008-09-02T14:15:55Z

Leif Elggren narrated the spoken word passages for PARC's "The Ghost Orchid - An Introduction to EVP". The ParaPsychic Acoustic Research Cooperative [PARC], in association with Ash International, is proud to present the first ever fully comprehensive investigation into the paranormal phenomenon of EVP, otherwise known as Electronic Voice Phenomenon. Without doubt EVP falls into the category of the paranormal alongside other unexplained mysteries such as ufology, life after death & poltergeist activity. The listener is guided through a collection of strange and mysterious voices that have appeared without explanation onto the tapes of EVP researchers. Included with the CD is a 24 page booklet containing commissioned articles which cover the conflicting views surrounding the EVP. Actual voice samples are reproduced here for the first time on compact disc: Polyglot Voices, Public Service Broadcasting, Interruptions across the airwaves, Singing Voices, Instant Response Voices, and the extraordinary Alien Voices. The CD also includes a commentary by the artist Leif Elggren (in English), and recordings of the work of Raymond Cass, England’s leading EVP researcher, and original member of the Fortean Group, and the Latvian EVP researcher, Dr. Konstanin Raudive. This CD is available from the TouchShop here.

Recent Live Events, Projects & Activities

2008-09-02T09:21:00Z

COLOUR OUT OF SPACE Brighton's fourth annual festival 30th of October - 1st of November 2009 Three days of unstructured, experimental sound and art drawn from an international subculture of musicians, artists and filmmakers.
A LECTURE ENGULFED : MUSSEL, MUSE, MEDUSA Jean-Philippe Antoine, Leif Elggren Centre Pompidou, Paris PETITE SALLE MONDAY 26 OCTOBER, 7 PM "(Moule, muse, méduse)2" pays tribute to Marcel Broodthaers (1921-1976) on the 33rd anniversary of his death. Jean-Philippe Antoine and Leif Elggren start out from the gesture whereby, in 1964, the Belgian poet sold out to the plastic arts by turning into a Pop artist, and reinstated the Mallarméan genealogy: the Throw of the Dice inventing “the modern and contemporary space of art”, versus a kitsch glorification of the song hailing from Romanticism. But this exercise in demystification through space, relentlessly subject to the bourgeois commodification that it was meant to counter, continues to be inhabited by invisible Muses and Sirens. Broodthaers strove to reinstate their presence, through novel “literary” methods borrowed from Nerval, Baudelaire, Banville, Mallarmé, and Heine. Thus comes forth, in the form of exhibitions and publications, the pre-history in the 19th century of the society of the spectacle, its survival, and its effectiveness in our present day, and lastly the modules of resistance which nestle therein. Started in the initially stable form of a lecture, "(Mussel, muse, medusa)2" will end as a spiritual concert. JEAN-PHILIPPE ANTOINE Lives and works in Paris (France) LEIF ELGGREN Lives and works in Stockholm (Sweden)

CONCERT FOR A LOST QUEEN

Rescue action in 6 movements for two performers, thousands of voices, ghost ship, spinning wheel, big bow and bulky objects. Premiere at the Swedish Concert House, Stockholm 17 Oct 2009, 1930h 18 Oct 2009, 1600h Sweden’s most international performance star Charlotte Engelkes and the world-around-travelling composer and cellar-keeper Leif Elggren are meeting in a specially composed hybrid-concert for the Grünewaldsalen in Stockholm. The Collaboration started in the fall 06 when Engelkes and Elggren were invited by the Swedish Radio to create a new performance/concert for the Arts Birthday at the Modern Museum in Stockholm 2007. The piece “A Tin-can Crown” consisted of eight new written songs that were performed live together with a slide-show/video. The piece was broadcasted by radio in 13 European countries and was very successfully received. "Concert for a lost Queen" is their new collaboration and a performative concert piece for two performers, thousands of voices and musical objects. The performance is created from own texts and dream stories. The human dream cycle is used as a tool for to go through different worlds and levels of consciousness. Pre-recorded sounds are the basic source for the electronic composition and the arrangements for stories and songs. Different new invented and built sounding objects, instruments and video material are reinforcing this. The concert is a choreographed visual performance, inspired by string quartet, mass and mechanical workshop. Executed of course with most Royal grace. Charlotte Engelkes

the Swedish Concert House

DAS DREIDIMENSIONELLE SCHRIFTSPRACHE Lecture: Das Dreidimensionelle Schriftsprache. A journey through the impossible dimensions that is said to be closed for humans. About prophets, seers, saints and other people with the exceptional gift to be able to communicate with other worlds. Dedicated to Dr Konstantin Raudive. Organised by Kim and Sound Forest. 16th of July 2009 at 19:00. Spikeri, 12/1 Maskavas Street, RIGA, Latvia. www.kim.lv www.skanumezs.lv EVP

BREAKTHROUGH The image from a collaborative experiment (using the classic Dr. Konstantin Raudive technique with a Germanium diode to contact the other side) inside the Breakthrough project between Alejo Duque, Baruch Gottlieb, Leif Elggren and (at the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, in Chicago) Michael Esposito at General Public, Berlin 27th of June, 2009. Photo: Alejo Duque. 1010.co.uk 1010.co.uk/org scrying.org

Many Voices Report from aleij on Vimeo.

Leif Elggren live at Strand Sthlm from Andreas K on Vimeo.

CELEBRATION OF A REVOLUTION

Solo show by Leif Elggren 4/4 - 3/5 2009 Live performance: Leif Elggren och Pär Thörn Photo: Jonatan Jacobson KRETS Gallery, Malmö, Sweden

ROMA - THE ROAD TO CONTEMPORARY ART, 2009 WILLEM ANDERSSON,  CM VON HAUSSWOLFF,  LEIF ELGGREN  ROMA - The Road to Contemporary Art  2nd – 5th April, 2009. Gallery Niklas Belenius. Location: Complesso Monumentale di Santo Spirito in Sassia, Borgo Santo Spirito 2.  Curated by Daniela Cascella.

WE ARE ALL BORN TO BECOME ANGELS

(First published in Paletten #275, 1/2009)

FIVE FANS FOR SONIC PROTEST AND KAFFE

Concert at the Centre Culturel Suedois in conjunction with the Sonic Protest festival, Paris, December 9, 2008. Centre culturel suédois

KAFFE MATTHEWS & LEIF ELGGREN Five Fans For Fylkingen. Thursday, November 27, 2008. Fylkingen 75 years anniversary, Stockholm. www.fylkingen.se

Photo: Robert R Marsters www.krevlostandfoundministry.com

CHOP SHOP & LEIF ELGGREN Saturday, November 1, 2008, 8pm. ISSUE PROJECT ROOM  At the Old American Can Factory  232 3rd Street, 3rd Floor  Brooklyn, NY 11215, USA here

Photo: Fabio Roberti

BY COLLUSION Audio-visual performance as a part of the eARTS festival in Shanghai, China, October 18, 2008

YELLOW & BLACK Exhibition at Jr. Konsthallen, Linköping, Sweden 16 Aug - 5 Oct 2008

Something Must Break in the framework of the alternative music festival OFF in Myslowice, Poland. 7th - 11th of August 2008

ETT STRÄCK I RÄKNINGEN LOTTA MELIN - LEIF ELGGREN - KRISTINE SLETTEVOLD. Exhibition and performance at Gallery Niklas Belenius, Stockholm. April 24-27, 2008.

ILIOS Curating: "SDR Muestra de Arte Sonoro de Santander" with: Olivia Block, Leif Elggren, ILIOS, Zbigniew Karkowski/Tetsuo Furudate, Carl Michael Von Hausswolff, Francisco Lopez, Elgaland-Vargaland. 5,6 April 2008: Santander, Spain.

The Church of St Jacob, Stockholm, March 21-23, 2008. The Sudarium of St Veronica. Installation and first performance.

MOVING FOREST Berlin, transmediale.08 - CONSPIRE - Festival 30 Jan - 3 Feb 2008 - Opening 29 Jan 2008. Haus der Kulturen der Welt, John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10, 10557 Berlin, Germany. www.transmediale.de A durational sonica with citywide wifi transmission, February 1, 11:00 - 23:00 curated by Shu Lea Cheang + Martin Howse. Moving Forest is a 12 hour 5 act sonic performance to be intervened by an expandable citywide operatic manoeuver with public wifi and mobile technology. Derived from Kurosawa's film version of Macbeth, Spider Web Castle (aka Throne of Blood, 1957), Moving Forest renders the film's final sequences (12 minutes in length) into a 12 hour sonica of grand scale. Moving Forest presented by AKA THE CASTLE AKA the castle is a temporal performance troop brought together to produce the 12 hour extravangaza Moving Forest. Conceived by Shu Lea Cheang and Martin Howse, AKA the castle pushes the network performance genre by gathering soundists, silk threaders, writers, visual artists, software artists, wifi fielders for a durational performance fueled with remorse, betrayal and a grand act of insurgency from people/s front. The players: Castle (HKW):; omen [Mattin]; remorse [Leif Elggren] - concept/setup; betrayal [Kaffe Matthews]; overthrow [Joachim Montessuis] - details; return [Phill Niblock with Natalia Pschenitschnikova], and many others.

GALLERI KRONAN

Solo show at Galleri Kronan, Norrköping, Sweden February 23 - March 9, 2008 more info here

FLYING SICKNESS IN THE SKY Choreographed by Lotta Melin. Moderna Dansteatern, Stockholm, October 17-18, 20-21, 24-28, 2007. Music by Leif Elggren. Set design by Leif Elggren and Lotta Melin. Dancer: Kristine Slettevold.

LAMPO #95 Chicago, February 24, 2007. Performance by Leif Elggren & Kevin Drumm. Photo: Angeline Evans

SOMETHING LIKE SEEING IN THE DARK 2007, 25 January 22:30. Concert with John Duncan. Netmage 07. Also included: Aki Onda/Oren Ambarchi/Alan Licht, Emiliano Montanari w/David Lynch, Angelo Badalamenti, Enrico Ghezzi, Asja Bettin, shortcircuits with Thomas Pynchon, Paul Virilio, Hideo Kojima. Palazzo Re Enzo, Bologna, Italia. Organized by xing. Photo by Luca Ghedo. Netmage07 John Duncan

CELEBRATION OF A REVOLUTION Leif Elggren's "Celebration of a Revolution" screened at Sixth Annual Activating the Medium Festival 2006, San Francisco Art Institute.

Illusion is a Natural Condition

CD packaging design for Dave Phillips + R. H.Y. Yau collaboration "Illusion is a Natural Condition." Features a series of ten original drawings by Leif Elggren lithographed on individual cards. Released 2005 on Auscultare Research/Ground Fault Recordings. Artwork: Leif Elggren. Layout: R. Yau. www.groundfault.net/ www.artnotcrime.net/dp www.23five.org/rhy

WORKING DAY Mats Gustafsson and LE “Working day” (Creating free sounds for to eliminate the horrible injustice in the world). Three working days (full day concerts) at three different antiquariats in Stockholm 2003. Hundörat, Sankt Paulsgatan 15. May 14, 1200 – 1800. Andra Böcker & Skivor, Rörstrandsgatan 25, May 21. 1400 – 1830. Rönnells Antikvariat, Birger Jarlsgatan 32. May 28, 1000 – 1800. Mats Gustafsson here.

ARRANGING FOR AN OPENING OF A TELEPORT TO SHANGRI-LA Leif Elggren performing "Arranging for an Opening of a Teleport to Shangri-La" at the sixth annual Activating the Medium festival, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. February 7, 2003. Photo by Joe Johnston

FLOWN OVER BY AN OLD KING Leif Elggren solo exhibition at Färgfabriken, Stockholm, October 14 - November 26, 2000. Curator: CM von Hausswolff. Co-curator: Jan Åman. More info here.

Find God's Name!

2008-08-26T12:03:33Z

Find God's Name!

Touch Music & TouchRadio | Publishing & Licensing

2007-08-21T16:33:36Z

Leif Elggren is exclusively published by Touch Music [MCPS]. He has also contributed a piece to TouchRadio.]]> Leif Elggren is exclusively published by Touch Music [MCPS]. He has also contributed a piece to TouchRadio.
Touch Radio Live in London - 20:11 Live concert as a part of the xxxxx23, Limehouse Town Hall, London, March 23rd, 2006. "This basic sound material was recorded in my biological mother's uterus with my not-yet developed teeth used as a fundamental and simple recording device a few days before my birth. This sound material was kept recorded and hidden until recently inside one of my wisdom teeth, but has now been brought to daylight and exposure."

The Kingdoms of Elgaland-Vargaland

2007-08-20T17:28:07Z

King Leif l is one of the Kings of Elgaland-Vargaland, along with Carl Michael l. More information about the Kingdoms can be found here]]> King Leif l is one of the Kings of Elgaland-Vargaland, along with Carl Michael l. More information about the Kingdoms can be found here The Kingdoms of Elgaland-Vargaland [KREV] were proclaimed in 1992 and consist of all Border Territories: Geographical, Mental & Digital. You are currently visiting the KREV digital territory as a citizen or as a tourist. You are encouraged to browse the digital territory of the Kingdoms - follow the links on the right. Elgaland-Vargaland is the largest – and most populous realm on Earth, incorporating all boundaries between other nations as well as Digital Territory and other states of existence. Every time you travel somewhere, and every time you enter another form, such as the dream state, you visit Elgaland-Vargaland.

Discography

2007-07-21T16:36:20Z

Leif Elggren product can be found in the TouchShop here
A full list of Firework Edition Records releases can be found here]]> Talking to a Dead Queen Fylkingen Records FYCD 1008, 1996 CD - 1 track - 63:17 Dedicated to my aunt who had the gift of being able to fall asleep anywhere and anytime. Recorded live on November 2, 1994 at Finnboda, Stockholm. Mixed and adapted at Studio Nybygget. The sound source is a Cu-pipe (3.760x12 mm) conected to an amplifier. The aim is to get a message through to the other side. The CD is dedicated to Elggren's aunt who had the gift of being able to fall asleep anywhere and anytime. Paul Pignon - voice
The Cobblestone Is The Weapon Of The Proletariat Firework Edition Records FER 1051, 2004 CD - 13 tracks The basic sound material for the ten cobblestone songs on this CD is from one recording made while throwing a cobblestone (once!) on the street outside Firework Edition, Stockholm June 15, 2001. The title refers to a bronze sculpture by the Russian artist Ivan Shadr (1887-1941) called The Cobblestone Is The Weapon Of The Proletariat (1927). In the booklet: a part of a conversation between Jim Haynes and Leif Elggren in relation to the Activating the Medium at SFMOMA, San Francisco February 2003.
Is There A Smell On The Other Side? Firework Edition Records FER 1062, 2007 CD - 1 track - 65:25 "Oh yes, this eternal materialisation, this chance of a body, an opportunity. As I write this they report in the media that the population in Sweden has just become nine million bodies. Nine million bodies that come from where? From where? ? I remember that when my kids were big enough we could, in one way or another, communicate verbally. I used to ask them where they came from. ? Where do you come from? Do you know? Do you remember? I was wondering if they had some small reminiscences left, some small memories or so. They were still so close. So close to that incomprehensible. So close to that threshold just recently passed."
Discography: Cu (7” with prints in a box, Phauss/Firework Edition, 1982) Phauss & Firework (7”, Radium 226.05, 1984) The Light/Dark Room (7”, Radium 226.05, 1984) UGN The Sons of God (LP, Radium 226.05, 1986) Small Vehicle (stolen) The Sons of God (cassette, Firework Records, 1988) Flown over by an old King (LP, Radium 226.05, 1988) Ventilation, The Homecoming (track on ”Testament”, box with 5x7”, RRRecords, USA, 1991) Warszawa 1 The Sons of God (track on ”Apo Mikhanis Music”, LP, Ano Kato Records, Greece, 1991) Mission The Sons of God (CD, Anckarström, 1991) The New Immortality (7”, Firework Edition/Anckarström, 1992) Resurrection The Sons of God & The Hafler Trio (CD, Touch, UK, 1993) Beograd The Sons of God (track on Textures, CD, LIMUR, Sweden 1993) Talking to a Dead Queen (CD, Fylkingen Records, 1996) Proclamation The Sons of God (CD, Firework Edition Records, 1996) Zzz... together with Thomas Liljenberg (CD, Firework Edition Records, 1996) KREV National Anthem No. 1 together with CM von Hausswolff (CD, Ash International, UK, 1996) The Internationale (7", Firework Edition Records, 1996) Stockholm/Oslo 39, 40, 41, 42 (track on "siksi cd 4 96 promo", CD, siksi, Finland, 1996) The Codfish Suit together with Thomas Liljenberg (CD, Firework Edition Records, 1997) Ebola/Swedish Dreamers together with Thomas Liljenberg (7", Firework Edition Records, 1997) Elohim (basic electric version) (track on "Links Outta Here", CD, Generator Sound Archive, USA, 1997) The New Immortality #2 (7", Firework Edition Records 1998) Kapotte Muziek by L.E. (7", Korm Plastics, Holland 1998) In Sleep the Knives are Sharpened (10", some, Iceland 1998) RGB (CD, siRcom, Scotland 1998) Introduction on The Ghost Orchid (CD, Ash International, UK, 1999) 9.11 together with Thomas Liljenberg (CD, Firework Edition Records, 1999) The Object The Sons of God (CD, Firework Edition Records, 1999) Pluralis majestatis (CD, Firework Edition Records, 1999) Mother!!? (track on Antitrade, an Ash International compilation CD, UK 1999) The Party together with Thomas Liljenberg (CD, Firework Edition Records,1999) A Whole in the Palisade (track on Nature is Perverse, CD, Fylkingen Records, 2000) Detecting HDT (track on ElektNoiz#4, CD, Japan, 2000) 45 minutes from underneath the beds (CD, Absurd #6, Greece 2000) Two Thin Eating One Fat together with Thomas Liljenberg (CD, Firework Edition Records, 2000) UGN/MAT (CD, Ash International, UK 2000) FEAR (the scuffle of angels) (track on the CD emre [dark matter], siRcom, Scotland, 2000) 60 sec From Underneath the Beds (cassette, 10x10 compilation, Banned Prod. LA, USA, 2000) Cutting Crowns (7”, Meeuw Muzak, Amsterdam, 2001) Latrine (CD, Firework Edition Records, 2001) The Soya Bean (track on Insofar Vapor Bulk, Russia, CD, 2001) Othello as Noise Opera by Tetsuo Furudate (voice of Othello, CD, Les Disques du Soleil et de l´Acier, France 2001) Excerpt from Latrine (track on Sample Minds, CD, Austria 2001) The Sons of God Drive Chairs (7", Firework Edition Records, 2001) In Every Seem There Is A Hidden Message (track on The North Is Protected, 10", Helsinki/Venezia, 2001) SOYA (track on compilation CD for Bananafish No 16/2002, San Francisco) J.H. (track on compilation CD for John Hudak, Alluvial Recordings, Minnesota, USA, 2001) Sleepwalking (track on International Compilation CDR3, Japan 2002) The Sons of God Refurnish (CD, Firework Edition Records, 2002) EXTRACTION (CD, Firework Edition Records, 2002) As if I never had existed (track on the CD International Art Exhibition, BOXmedia/Heaven Gallery, USA, 2002) The Paving Stone is the Weapon of the Proletariat No. 3 (track on the CD Friends of the Bumblebee, Sweden 2002) The Cobblestone is the Weapon of the Proletariat (track on the CD Geologists and Professional Tourists, N&B Research Digest, Russia, 2002) The Paving Stone is the Weapon of the Proletariat No. 5 (track on the CD Das Dreidimensionale Möbiusband, Flying Swimming, Japan, 2003) Virulent Images Virulent Sound (CD, Firework Edition Records, 2003) The Cobblestone is the Weapon of the Proletariat No. 8 (track on the 7” “Untitled”, Die Stadt, Germany, 2003) My Mothers Hair (detail) (track on the CD Avantoscore 2003, Avanto, Finland, 2003) Royal Organ (track on the CD Spire, Touch, UK, 2003) COLY I (revisited) (track on the CD Ilios-Encyclopedia-RW, Antifrost, Spain, 2004) M (track on the CD The Hidden City, Sweden 2004) The Cobblestone is the Weapon of the Proletariat (CD, Firework Edition Records, 2004) Connecting the Cross The Sons of God (CD, Firework Edition Records, 2004) The Most Powerful Woman In The World (8” lathe cut, Kning Disk/iDEAL, Sweden, 2005) FOR FEAR (track on the CD Fear Drop 12, France 2005) We are all born to become angels (3", Kning Disk, Sweden, 2006) Gottesdienst together with Henrik Rylander (CD, iDEAL recordings, Sweden, 2006) 45 minutes from underneath the beds (CD, utan titel, Greece 2006) Is there a smell on the other side? (CD, Firework Edition Records, 2006) Zzz... (excerpt) together with Thomas Liljenberg (track on the double CD Music Overheard, ICA Boston, USA, 2006) NAMIBIA (a straight line from the North) together with Pär Thörn (MC, namenlos, Sweden, 2007) Sixth Day (track on the CD Destroy Athens, 1st Athens Biennial, Greece, 2007) Hiv (track on the CD Merge #18, Merge, Sweden, 2007) CUNT 69 together with Thomas Liljenberg (CD, Firework Edition Records, 2007) The Sudarium of St Veronica together with Claude Mellan (CD, Firework Edition Records, 2007) The Summerhouse together with Michael Esposito and Emanuel Swedenborg (CD, Firework Edition Records, 2007) KREV National Anthem #2 (Mariachi version) (7", Ash International, UK, 2007) KREV National Anthem #3 and #4 (Klezmer, Kabukabu) (7", Ash International, UK, 2007) Live in LA together with CM von Hausswolff and Per Svensson (CD, Firework Edition Records, 2007) The Invoice together with Peter Cederblom and Per Svensson (7", Firework Edition Records, 2008) THEA I The Sons of God (CD, Firework Edition Records/Ars & Modus, 2008)

Biography & Photos

2007-06-21T16:36:44Z

Leif Elggren (born 1950, Linköping, Sweden), is a Swedish artist who lives and works in Stockholm.]]> Leif Elggren (born 1950, Linköping, Sweden), is a Swedish artist who lives and works in Stockholm. Active since the late 1970s, Leif Elggren has become one of the most constantly surprising conceptual artists to work in the combined worlds of audio and visual. A writer, visual artist, stage performer and composer, he has many albums to his credits, solo and with the Sons of God, on labels such as Ash International, Touch, Radium and his own Firework Edition. His music, often conceived as the soundtrack to a visual installation or experimental stage performance, usually presents carefully selected sound sources over a long stretch of time and can range from mesmerizingly quiet electronics to harsh noise. His wide-ranging and prolific body of art often involves dreams and subtle absurdities, social hierarchies turned upside-down, hidden actions and events taking on the quality of icons. Together with artist Carl Michael von Hausswolff, he is a founder of the Kingdoms of Elgaland-Vargaland (KREV) where he enjoys the title of King. Elggren spent five years at the Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm, specializing in drawing, design and bookprinting. In the late ‘70s he began to associate with performance groups, meeting people like Hausswolff and Thomas Liljenberg. With the latter he formed Firework in 1978, a duo that put up exhibitions and performances. Around the same time he purchased a press and started to publish art books. In 1988 he formed the duo Guds Söner (The Sons of God) with Kent Tankred, whom he had met four years earlier. The duo excels in creating long, puzzling stage performances that give equal roles to physical action (or inaction) and soundtrack (live or taped) with themes such as violence, love, the quotidian, food and royalty. Elggren released his first 7" records in 1982 and 1984 on Hausswolff's label Radium. A first solo LP, Flown Over by an Old King, came out in 1988. The inception of Firework Edition in 1996 allowed Elggren to release more of his music and the growing popularity of installation art in avant-garde music circles (thanks to its ties with experimental electronica) has given his work more international exposure since the late ‘90s. Other key solo works include Talking to a Dead Queen (1996) and Pluralis Majestatis (2000). Together with Hausswolff, Elggren represented Sweden in the Nordic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2001 (with Tommi Grönlund and Petteri Nisunen from Finland and Anders Tomren from Norway). In 2007 he appeared (with John Duncan) at the Netmage festival in Bologna organized by xing and executed "Something Like Seeing in the Dark". Leif Elggen is also a member of Guds Soner (or The Sons of God) with Kent Tankred.

Features & Press Coverage

2007-05-21T16:37:01Z

An interview with Leif Elggren in Bananafish (USA) can be found here An interview with Leif Elggren in Dusted (USA) can be found here An interview with Leif Elggren in Perfect Sound Forever (USA) can be found here

Yellow & Black | Permanent Installation

2005-09-06T08:27:03Z

Yellow & Black Permanent installation 13 Osward Road London SW17

Yellow & Black

2003-09-15T09:08:44Z

CLAIM I hereby lay claim to this symbol, sign, icon, the combination of black and yellow, wherever it may appear, in this or any other world, in whatever shape, form, pattern or composition, be it civil or military. I hereby claim to be its originator and owner. (Leif Elggren 1977) Photos, from 1978 to the present.