Torbjörn Lime – The worker's suite
March 7 – April 12
Opening March 7, 13-16 pm
Images of people at work are difficult to find in archives due to the low economic value of the subject. The worker is at the bottom of the class hierarchy and has been marginalized in image archives and historiography because of this fact. In the project The worker's suite artist Torbjörn Limé delves into how his own identity can be portrayed in relation to the postcolonial expressions of contemporary art. Poorly lit workplaces give the paintings and drawings of the Workers' Suite a kinship with historical chiaroscuro painting, for example with the paintings of Caravaggio or Georges de la Tour, but in a contemporary context.
The Workers' Suite consists of portraits, often full-length, that depict people at work in grayscale. The portraits are factual, empathetic, and carefully executed in oil paint, watercolor, and pencil to emphasize the worker's craftsmanship in terms of materials and tools. A central recurring image content in Limé's paintings and drawings is the depicted person's concentrated gaze on the work of his own hands. The reference material for the Workers' Suite consists of archival studies and emotionally charged personal remains. For Limé, archival studies are a method of highlighting forgotten, or from the perspective of historiography, discarded images related to his background. Through artistic action and painterly practice, he gives these images a new and elevated dignity. In this process, the grayscale reinforces the documentary effect.
Key thematic concepts in the exhibition are work, class, gender and nature in a post-industrial context. The project's starting point is Torbjörn Limé's upbringing in Trollhättan, formerly one of Sweden's largest industrial cities. Today its industrial era is a thing of the past. The reference material comes from places related to Limé's own life story – Trollhättan, Malmö, Gotland and the Ruhr area in Germany.
With an emphasis on color, form, illusion, and perception, Limé seeks, at the intersection of realism and abstraction, a critical realism that reaches beyond the direct representation and has its starting point in the concept of materiality. Central problem formulations in his studio work – which initiates process and method with regard to design and presentation – are economic, ecological, and social perspectives that are related to the individual and the environment. His choice of materials and expression is influenced by place, environment, and context, which means that painting, drawing, photography, video, objects, and installation are included in his artistic practice.
Torbjörn Limé was born and raised in Trollhättan. His artistic education includes KV Art School in Gothenburg, Malmö Art School Forum and the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm. He has regularly had solo exhibitions and participated in group exhibitions regionally, nationally and internationally, for example at Malmö Konsthall, Louisiana, Tjörnedala Art Hall, Tomelilla Art Hall, Overgaden in Copenhagen, Gotlands Art Museum, Künstlerhaus Dortmund, Kunstmuseum Gelsenkirchen and Galleri Roger Björkholmen in Stockholm. Limé has founded the artist-driven and relational exhibition spaces The Pineapple in Malmö and Sparwasser in Berlin. He has received, among other things, the City of Malmö Cultural Scholarship, a scholarship from the Ellen Trotzig Fund, the Dynamo Scholarship from the Swedish Arts Council and on several occasions received the Swedish Arts Council's work scholarship.
In the artist duo Limé and Värelä, Torbjörn Limé creates site-specific art in collaboration with Jukka Värelä. Limé has been a member of Aura's artist group since 2003 and had his first exhibition in Krognoshuset in 2006. In parallel with his artistic career, he is currently studying German studies at Stockholm University. Limé has studios in Lund and Visby.
Accessibility: Krognoshuset is a listed medieval building dating back to around 1300. Out of consideration for the building's cultural and historical value and preserved architecture, including narrow and steep stairs, the possibilities for physical adaptation are limited. Full accessibility cannot therefore be offered, which may affect accessibility for some visitors. For more information about accessibility, you are welcome to contact us.
Krognoshuset is run with the support of Lund Municipality and the Culture Council