ART CITIES: Stockholm -Jake & Dinos Chapman, Francisco Goya

With drawing, sculpture and film that often combine scenes of violence with absurd or humorous elements, Jake & Dinos Chapman deliver powerful statements on society, politics and religion. Deeply engaged in contemporary issues of morality, the Chapman brothers are intent on putting the viewer in a state of complete moral panic.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Magasin III Archive

The “Nature of Particles” presents works by the Jake & Dinos Chapman along with 20 etchings of Francisco Goya’s original edition of the “Los Desastres de la Guerra” from 1863. Through a loan from Sweden’s Nationalmuseum, 20 plates from Goya’s original edition of etchings will now enter in direct dialogue with the Chapman brothers’ works. The exhibition showcases two artistic oeuvres: one historic and one contemporary, as a means of underlining the topicality and complexity that the works represent. Though they are separated by 200 years, these artists touch upon the darkest sides of humanity. Presented in the exhibition is a selection of recent works by Jake & Dinos Chapman, as well as a new, site-specific installation with poetry and taxidermied crows. A central work is “The Sum of All Evil” (2012–2013), in which four dioramas depict an intense landscape inhabited by thousands of miniature figures. An inferno of atrocities incessantly rages on a nightmare behind glass, at once both repulsive and fascinating. Positioned here and there throughout the exhibition space are life-sized figures clad in white Ku Klux Klan outfits. They stand contemplating the artworks, wearing smiley badges on their chests and thick rainbow colored socks and Birkenstock sandals on their feet, a strong symbols that stand for very different ideologies. These figures are also feature in the cinema installation “Kino Klub” (2013), where one can see “Fucking Hell”, a montage of films the Chapman brothers have created since the early ’90s. Also a generous loan from the collections of Nationalmuseum forms the hub of the exhibition: 20 plates from Goya’s “Los Desastres de la Guerra” (ca 1810-1823) engage in direct dialogue with the works by the Jake & Dinos Chapman. Goya’s suite of etchings depicts the atrocities inflicted upon the Spanish people by Napoleon’s invading army, but also the subsequent revenge exacted. The images are often described as the first unromanticized depictions of war. Comprised of 80 etchings, the suite was first published in 1863, 35 years after Goya’s death. The series is usually considered in three groups which broadly mirror the order of their creation. The first 47 focus on incidents from the war and show the consequences of the conflict on individual soldiers and civilians. The middle series (plates 48 to 64) record the effects of the famine that hit Madrid in 1811–12, before the city was liberated from the French. The final 17 reflect the bitter disappointment of liberals when the restored Bourbon monarchy, encouraged by the Catholic hierarchy, rejected the Spanish Constitution of 1812 and opposed both state and religious reform. Goya’s scenes of atrocities, starvation, degradation and humiliation have been described as the “Prodigious flowering of rage”. The serial nature in which the plates unfold has led some to see the images as similar in nature to photography. In 1993, Jake & Dinos Chapman created 82 miniature, toy-like sculptures modelled on “The Disasters of War”. The works were widely acclaimed and purchased that year by the Tate gallery. For decades, Goya’s series of etching served as a constant point of reference for the Chapman brothers, in particular, they created a number of variations based on the plate “Grande hazaña! Con muertos!”. In 2003, Jake & Dinos Chapman exhibited an altered version of “The Disasters of War”. They purchased a complete set of prints, over which they drew and pasted demonic clown and puppy heads. Jake & Dinos Chapman described their images as making a connection between Napoleon’s supposed introduction of Enlightenment ideals to early 19th Century Spain and Tony Blair and George W. Bush purporting to bring democracy to Iraq.

Info: Curator: Tessa Praun, Magasin III Museum & Foundation for Contemporary Art, Frihamnsgatan 28, Stockholm, Duration: 26/2-5/6/16, Days & Hours: Thu 11:00-19:00, Fri-Sun 11:00-17:00, www.magasin3.com