Moa Gustafsson Söndergaard

Statement

Moa Gustafsson Söndergaards work is situated around materials and places we surround ourselves with. She is interested in the memories these places and objects carry with them and how they shape us and our society. Her practice is a combination of studio and field work. Where she collects materials, images and objects from different places and uses them as a starting point in her work. Söndergaard is interested in the idea of translation, the possibility to translate emotional experiences, landscape patterns or places into art. To translate is to reshape something, to make sense of it and to tell a different story. The work then becomes installations where she explores different sculptural techniques and combines them in the space she is exhibiting in. Working with architectural features of a space in relation to her work is an important part of her practice.

Söndergaard has a degree in fine art photography and what is still visible of her photographic past in her work today is her interest in movement and transformation. To capture something and translate it into a material. Her interest in movement both exists in the process of making but also in selection of materials that she works with. Materials that are reoccurring in her work are clay, metal, hemp thread and textile. She is drawn to materials that have a sense of resistance and are easily altered or cast into a shape. Materials that are connected to nature in some way or carry a narrative of its own. She also slowly has been returning to analog photography in her work as a way of mapping landscapes in change and documenting traces of time passing.

GlogauAIR Project

Recently in my practice I have been exploring walking as an artistic method. Both as a way of mapping and understanding the outer landscape you are slowly traveling through but also as a way to look deeper within yourself. To manage ideas and thoughts through walking is a common idea and has been used as a tool in generations of thinkers and artists. At GlogauAIR I want to walk to understand the environment and to research the cityscape of Berlin. To explore the topography and the architectural heritage of the city and observe the changes of it due to socioeconomic and geographical aspects. To use the performative walk as a starting point for drawing, photographs and eventually sculptures.

Perfomance, Photography, and Sculpture

CV Summary

Education

• 2019 Umeå Academy of Fine Arts Master of Fine Arts
• 2019 Making Rituals, Express course, Iceland Academy of Fine Art, Reykjavik
• 2017 Valand Academy of Fine Art BFA Photography
• 2015 Iceland Academy of Fine Arts

Selected Exhibitions

• 2022 Platforms Projects, Athens, Greece – Interdisciplinary collaboration (Duo with Gitte Eidslott)
• 2022 Biosphere festival 2022, Lund, Sweden – Soft shapes in harsh terrain
• 2022 Gallery SILK, Gothenburg, Sweden – From the beginning
• 2022 Korpúlfsstaðir, Reykjavik, Island – Undone (Duo with Elaine Grainer)
• 2022 Casino THX, Malmö – Temporary movement on permanent ground
• 2021 Prenzlauer Studio, Berlin, Germany – Caressing Ocean
• 2020 Studio K prosjektrom, Kvernaland, Norway – Yttring /Outcrop
• 2019 Galleri Andersson Sandström, Stockholm, Sweden – Meanwhile (Group show)
• 2019 Bildmuseet, Umeå, Sweden – Meanwhile (Group show)

Grants and awards

• 2022 Swedish Art Council travel grant
• 2021 Working grant Malmö City
• 2021 Swedish Art Council travel grant
• 2021 One year working grant Swedish Art Council
• 2021 Malmö Stad Studio Grant

Gallery