Telefongalleriet/The Telephonegallery 1995

Joint projects by Malin Lobell and Maria Bjurestam.

From 24 dec 1994 to 4 of june 1995. Participating; Mats B/ Max Book, Jeremy Welsh, Sössa Jörgensen, Elin Wikström, John- Peter Nilsson, Leif Skoog, Anna-Karin Rynander, Dan Wolgers, Gunilla Hansson, Glenn Sörensen, Geir-Tore Holm, Lotta Antonsson.

Twelve artists, mainly from Scandinavia, each exhibiting a period of two weeks on an answering-machine connected to the calling-number of The TELEPHONEGALLERY. On the outgoing message there was a work with the maximum lenght of two minutes and thirthy seconds. After hearing the work, the listener could leave a message behind and/or listen to other messages left by using a code. Some of the artists had used the possibility of leaving messages as a part of their work by for instance posing a question. One of the ideas behind The TELEPHONEGALLERY was to present something slightly ”difficult” - art consisting of mere sound, in a well-known everyday situation, using the now ”low”technology devices of a telephone and an answering-machine. When choosing exhibitors to the project, we took in consideration artists with differing potential to make something out of this particular space. Another important aspect was the extension or the work through the interaction by the listener as well that the gallery had a 24-hour accessability and no geographical limitations. The reactions differed according to the works. Some directly invited to participation through answering a question, other seemed more difficult to approach and the tendence was to leave messages with emphasis on sound, rather than clear statements. This part of The TELEPHONE-GALLERY functioned similar to the anonymous surfaces where people leave their personal marks by scrawling. The TELEPHONEGALLERY was included in Stockholm SmArt Show, 1995 and in ”Interplace Access - a show about non-commercial artistprojects” Milan dec. 1996.