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Stockholm art gallery guide: May 9 – 15

Weekend art exhibition tips from Kalendarium (Click links for more information)

Published: 8 May 2008 17:46 CEST

To the tones of Wagner in combination with Japanese rhythms the falling world in Last Riot is populated by androgynous well-trained teenagers. Without one drop of blood or sign of pain, they take each other’s lives with a sword, baseball bats or golf clubs. All around the beautiful, surreal bodies, the world goes under, windmills burn, and missiles rain from the sky. Last Riot is a commentary about the contemporary age, ethics, ideology and history which are just as much about hope as hopelessness. 

Åsa Cederqvist’s work is on display now at three places in town. She is taking part in exhibitions at both Bonniers Konsthall and the Modern Museum. But if you want to learn to know Cederqvist’s art, you should definitely visit ak28. In the project, Throw

Up, she has decided not to censure anything which results in a cocktail full of desire, abundance, and fear. 

Toward the light: 

Pontus Lindvall’s artwork often has it’s starting point at the meeting between human and object. So he even worked with lamps in the exhibition Transitional light fittings- Towards a brighter future.There is nothing industrial about Lindvall’s light fixtures.

Instead they have a clear feeling of handicraft because of their winding structure. With their known form and nice colours the lamps have more meanings than we can believe at first.

Networking Lights: 

By focusing on our time period’s constant networking and linking, Bonniers art gallery has built an entire exhibition. Not just the selection has been done in an un-hierarchical and untraditional way. The display has been as well. Each work is connected to the other as if they were on a walking path. Johan Strandahl, Anna Lundh, Patrick Kretscheck, and Bravehat all have contributed to the exhibition.

Meet the Spanish rapper bringing flamenco and bossa nova into hip-hop

Spanish rapper Anton Alvarez known as 'C. Tangana' poses in Madrid on April 29, 2021. Photo: Javier Soriano/AFP

The 30-year-old has emerged as one of the world’s biggest Spanish-language stars since his third album “El Madrileno” — the Madrilenian — came out in February. That ranks him alongside his superstar ex-girlfriend Rosalia, the Grammy-winning Catalan singer with whom he has co-written several hits.

C. Tangana, whose real name is Anton Alvarez Alfaro, has come a long way since a decade ago when he became known as a voice of disillusioned Spanish youth in the wake of the financial crisis.These days his rap is infused with everything from reggaeton and rumba to deeply traditional styles from Spain and Latin America, with a voice often digitised by autotune.

“It’s incredible that just when my music is at its most popular is exactly when I’m doing something a bit more complex, more experimental and less
trendy,” he told AFP in an interview.

And he is unashamed to be appealing to a wider audience than previously: his dream is now to make music “that a young person can enjoy in a club or someone older can enjoy at home while cooking”.

‘People are tired’

The rapper, who sports a severe semi-shaved haircut and a pencil moustache, has worked with Spanish flamenco greats including Nino De Elche, Antonio Carmona, Kiko Veneno, La Hungara and the Gipsy Kings.

In April he brought some of them together for a performance on NPR’s popular “Tiny Desk Concert” series, which has already drawn nearly six million
views on YouTube.

Shifting away from trap, one of rap’s most popular sub-genres, and venturing into a more traditional repertoire was a dangerous move — especially for someone with a young fanbase to whom rumba, bossa nova and bolero sound old-fashioned.

“I think people are tired. They’ve had enough of the predominant aesthetic values that have previously defined pop and urban music,” he said.

Parts of his latest album were recorded in Latin America with Cuban guitarist Eliades Ochoa of Buena Vista Social Club, Uruguayan
singer-songwriter Jorge Drexler, Mexican folk artist Ed Maverick and Brazil’s Toquinho, one of the bossa nova greats.

“What struck me most everywhere I went was the sense of tradition and the way people experienced the most popular music, and I don’t mean pop,” he said.

A new direction

C. Tangana started out in 2006 rapping under the name Crema. When the global economic crisis swept Spain a few years later, hard-hitting trap was
the perfect way to voice the angst of his generation. But after more than a decade of rapping, things changed.

“When I was heading for my 30s, I hit this crisis, I was a bit fed up with what I was doing… and decided to give voice to all these influences that I
never dared express as a rapper,” he said.

The shift began in 2018 with “Un veneno” (“A poison”) which came out a year after his big hit “Mala mujer” (“Bad woman”).

And there was a return to the sounds of his childhood when he used to listen to Spanish folk songs at home, raised by a mother who worked in
education and a journalist father who liked to play the guitar. The Latin American influences came later.

“It started when I was a teenager with reggaeton and with bachata which were played in the first clubs I went to, which were mostly Latin,” he said.

Studying philosophy at the time, he wrote his first raps between stints working in call centres or fast-food restaurants.

As to what comes next, he doesn’t know. But one thing he hopes to do is collaborate with Natalia Lafourcade, a Mexican singer who dabbles in folk, rock and pop — another jack of all musical trades.

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