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| Bo Haglund |
Short intro
I remember that I was in the middle of nowhere during Covid period and that I didn't knew what to do at all.
Then suddenly a guy popped in and introduced himself to me as being part Swedish, part Finnish.
I was totally confused then because we were talking in English without masks.
Out of a sudden, I took a cigarette from my pocket, light it, started smoking it while I was having a coffee with this man named Bo.
Inside the coffeeshop also was a pretty waitress. She continued working, serving us two more cherry pies and even two port wine glasses.
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| Mascara |
I've looked at a calendar on the coffeeshop wall and it stated that we actually were in 1934 while a silent movie was being projected in a street and human beings were watching it enthusiastically.
After my conversation with Bo, phoned the woman.
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| Me |
She told me that both her and me were inside a fleeting voiding space shuttle where time and space was totally random.
Her hair morphed from red to blonde, to black and to brown depending on the time and the space that we were in.
Below is the transcripted interview/conversation with questions and answers about what both me and Bo talked on that day, being the subject arts or life itself while we were also discussing Swedish movie's director Ingmar Bergman's personality, being himself also a simple cog in a planet blue named Earth inside a vast cosmos.
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| Bergman |
01. Can you tell us a bit about a documentary film directed by Ville Tanttu in 2004 named "I Love to Draw, Some Moments in Bo Haglund´s Life" and how it depicted your life as artist and human being?
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| A documentary from Finnish director Ville Tanttu |
Ville Tanttu is a film director and documentary photograph with whom I have made several collaborations.
The documentary film "I Love to Draw" was about my artistic working with different projects and life in general.
In those days I did comics and created large drawing installations and I was also a father to a new born baby.
The film was broadcasted on Finnish television.
I haven’t seen the film since 2004 and to tell you the truth I’m a little afraid to watch it again. :D
02. Your work is compelling while being emotional at the same time depicting human life and the daily dilemmas that we must face on it while sharing this planet with millions of other living species.
Can you tell us how you actually see this world and if mother nature's an inspiration to your work?
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| Extraordinary artwork/message by Bo Haglund |
I really can’t say if my works are emotional or not. I think a certain strong feeling can start a process but when you are working with the subject it changes on the way, becoming mo there complex and sublime .
There is often a twist in my art with many layers of contractional messages.
Sometimes my works concern questions about being a male and the toxicity in male thinking but I guess it’s more complicated than that. I also tend to change style or genre depending on the themes I’m interested in. For example I was interested in earlier years in classicism landscape paintings I started to combine romantic style with a comic character ( The Stumphead Projects). I liked the combination of something naive compared with ethereality.
Basically, I think nature is an essential inspirer in my works. I was brought up in the country side, as a son to a farmer.
My father worked in the forest cutting trees in the winter and with agriculture the rest of the year.
The Finnish forest became very important to me later.
The forest is for me a place to feel connected to nature and a place to think and solve problems.
I love trees and I don’t lie if I say that I have planted about 50 trees in my garden.
On the other hand I am dealing with subjects like alienation, rootlessness and fear of wild nature in my works.
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| Trees - Mother nature |
03. Can you explain us the duality inside yourself being part Swedish, part Finnish?
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| Ostrobothnia city - Finland Swedes birthplace |
I’m absolutely 100% a Finn in the sense that I’m born here.
Both my parents spoke Swedish as mother language and I speak Swedish with my son and with friends.
Finland is officially bilingual, however the Finnish Swedes are quite few today, around 5% of the population.
There are Swedish speaking schools and still a quite rich culture life though. On the other hand there is no particular difference between Finnish Swedish culture and the Finnish majority.
In recent years certain Finnish political right wing groups are trying to suppress the Finnish Swedish culture as ”foreign” and elitistic,
due to nationalistic movements in Europe. They want to ban the using of Swedish in Finland. Language is a political weapon.
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| Language being a political weapon |
04. Your solo exhibitions are based in Helsinki. How does a city in Finland produces so many talented people? Do you think that there's an explanation for this fact?
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| Bo Haglund's exhibition |
Haha. Do you really think that? I guess every democratic country produces talented people, right?
As long as the so called Nordic welfare system is possible and free education remains in our country,
talents are able to flourish and develop themselves. Can you tell me if I’m right?
05. You started working in arts in the 80's.
Can you make a comparison about arts world then and at present time with help by social media,
where artists are always popping out of the blue like popcorn as Andy Warhol predicted in the previous century?
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| Andy's Campbell soup |
I love your phrase "popping out of the blue like popcorn” because it seems art is very much like that today. Instagram is fascinating in the sense that you can discover interesting painters all over the world, without knowing if they are famous or not. It’s amazing.
I studied stage design in the 80’s and published some comics in left wing magazines. Drawing comics felt also more rebellious back then. Of course I was more interested arty or underground comix.
The world felt much bigger in those days and Finland was quite a closed country.
Working with contemporary art felt very academic and hierarchical in those days. Very few had the possibility to show their works in an art gallery.
I had my first private exhibition in Helsinki in 1994.
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| Another Bo Haglund's exhibition |
06. How was it for you to curate an exhibition with Finnish comic book legend Matti Hagelberg in 2011?
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| Matti Hagelberg's artwork |
Matti and I studied in the same University of Industrial Arts ( Aalto University) in the 90’s. We took some painting classes together and did later some collaborations and exhibitions together.
In those days I draw comics as well but I was more focused on contemporary art and experimental theatre projects. In 2011 I was asked to curate a comic art exhibition for Salo Art Museum presenting Finnish comic art. I asked Matti to join me because he knew the field very well.
The group exhibition developed into a mix of original comic works, sculpture and painting installations.
07. You have several group exhibitions in several cities and countries in the world.
Do you prefer to see your artworks solo or group exhibited like the group exhibitions that you participated in below list mentioned?
2014 BY Exhibition, Finnish Pavilion, Frankfurt Book Fair, Germany
2010 Arctic Hysteria, FRAME/Finnish Artists Association, curators: Alanna Heiss (N.Y.), Marketta Seppälä, DA2 Museo, Salamanca, Spain
2008 Kunst zum Sammeln und Schenken, Synart Art Gallery, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
2008 Kunst 08 Zürich Internationelle Messe für Gegenwartskunst, Switzerland,represented by Synart Art Gallery
2008 Copenhagen Art Fair, represented by Galleria Heino, Denmark
2008 Nordic Drawing, Skellefteå Art Hall, Rackstad Museum, Sweden
2008 Tease Art Fair in Cologne, represented by Synart Art Gallery, Germany
2007 Kunst 07 Zürich, Internationelle Messe für Gegenwartskunst, Switzerland
2007 OPEN DOORS WEEKEND, installation, IAAB, Basel, Switzerland
1988 The Prague Quadrennial, European Stage design, Czechoslovakia
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| Entrance to a Bo Haglund's exhibition |
A Group exhibition is a wonderful way of meeting other artists and let your art communicate with other art. Some group shows can really become interesting artistically.
Nowadays art curators, with art historian background, more often select the artists for curated shows. This results in that exhibitions tend to become very boring and ”politically correct” and only the same artists seem to be chosen to participate. Often I am too old for the curators who are much younger than myself. But I have managed to present my works abroad now and then. As a painter I think I’m a bit of a strange bird on the art scene and not easy to put an etiquette on. I can live with that.
08 - You also worked in animation that's an art form in movement, can you tell us a bit of your references and favorite animation directors?
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| Frame to frame animation |
I guess ”animation” is a misleading definition of the projects I’ve done. I did quite many commissions called "Drawing in front of a camera” projects during the years.
Film photographer Ville Tanttu used the animation method "frame by frame" to document my drawing sessions and then edited them, speeding them up to watchable movies.
It was absolutely fantastic to work with the camera and we got commissions from different kind of press agencies and institutions. And we got even paid!
The whole concept is not mine of course. TED TALK videos used the same method so I guess there was a commercial demand for these kind of animations.
09 - As an artist you also created set designs for theater productions inspired in several literature classical masterpieces as can be read below in a list.
1998 "Hamlet" by W. Shakespeare, set design, director Ritva Siikala, Theatre Furious Roses, Helsinki
1992 "The Madmans Speech for Defense" by A. Strindberg, set design and costumes, director: Joakim Groth, The Swedish Theatre, Helsinki
1989 "The Seagull" by A. Chekhov, set design and costumes, director: Joakim Groth, Mars Theatre, Helsinki
1988 "Medea" by Euripides, set design, director: Martin Kurtén, TEAK Theatre Academy of Finland, Helsinki
1987 "Der Gute Mensch von Sezuan" by B. Brecht, director: Joakim Groth, Gothenburg Theatre School, Sweden
1986 "The Inspector-General" by N. Gogol, costumes, director: Ritva Holmberg, Turku Swedish Theatre
1985 "Carmen" by G. Bizet, assistant set designer, director: Kaisa Korhonen, Finnish National Opera
1984 "Prometheus" by Aeschylus, assistant set designer, director: Jotaarkka Pennanen, Helsinki City Theatre
How was it for you as an artist to work with company theaters that created another kind of art movement based on men and women that created visionary worlds with static words?
I was fascinated by theatre since childhood and did a MA in Scenography Design in the 90’s in Aalto University.
Working with theatre and film productions was exciting and intense.
I designed sets and costumes for different kind of plays, classical dramas, musicals and contemporary theatre and film productions.
The most inspiring thing was in the way I could change the visual language depending on the play and genre.
What I didn’t like was the hierarchy in the theatre where the director had the power to interfere in every decision.
A stage designers status wasn’t particularly desirable in the old days. Primarily theatre art is a team work. It’s like a ship that turns very slow depending of the group dynamics.
I also realised that drawing comics and painting in my studio gave me more freedom to explore my own ideas.
In the end of the 90’s I started to collaborate with a Finnish
design company MARIMEKKO and designed textile fabrics and bags for them. It was a wonderful experience.
10. in my humble opinion, to be an artist is to be a sort of vampire that observes how the world behaves while he or she in movement is as a human being.
What was your experience in artist residencies in the below listed
2017 Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France
2016 Circolo Scandinavo, Rome, Italy
2013 Finnish Cultural Institute in New York, USA
2007 iaab, Internationales Austausch Ateliers Region Basel, Switzerland
2006 Nygrén’s Foundation, Artproject in Frankfurt am Main, Germany
2005 Uusimaa Art Foundation, Berlin Recidency Program, Germany
2002 Oskar Öflund Foundation, Art project on Greenland, Qaqortoq
and how did them influenced you as the extraordinary artist that you're and as an human being while absorbing other countries culture?
There are many kind of artist residencies. I have had the opportunity to visit some very nice residencies during the years. It depends if it’s possible to get a working grant for the period .
Being abroad gives you possibilities to make connections with other artists, to absorb and ”vampire" different cultures and cultural crossroads.
The feeling of having endless time to work and enjoy your stay is indescribable.
From a Finnish perspective, as the country is isolated in the north corner of Europe, it’s crucial to live for some while in big metropolis, see as much art exhibitions and go to concerts as possible.
11. You also published some books and catalogues, that can be read in the list below:
Title: "Bo Haglund"
Published in conjunction with the exhibition ”The Stumphead Project #4” in Galleria Heino, Helsinki, 2009
Text by Rauli Heino
72 pages, Text in English and Finnish
Title: "Kodaren och andra skumma berättelser"
Bo Haglund
Comic book published by Schildts Ab, 2006
108 pages, Text in Swedish
Title: "Bertil Gata går hem"
Comic book published by Schildts Ab, 1999
88 pages, Text in Swedish
Title: "Bertil Gata går på stan"
Comic book, 1996
Available by the artist
64 pages, Text in Swedish
and that portray the before mentioned duality in this same conversation as an artist having two merged souls part Swedish, part Finnish.
Can you tell us your favorite artists in this art form and the ones that inspired you to create books?
The list of favourite comic artists is long but I mention only some precious ones I have in my book shelf.
Most of the names are from a time before I started to draw comics myself:
As a child I loved comics and novels by Finnish Swedish artist Tove Jansson’s Moomin books.
I was very much inspired by Swedish comics in the 80’s like comic artists Joakim Pirinen,
Gunnar Lundqvist
Lena Ackebo.
Later I discovered Swedish feminist comics by Liv Strömstedt and also Henrik Bromander, because they are dealing with political and social matters in a welfare state.
USA: Mark Beyer (Amy and Jordan),
Edward Gorey illustrations,
Canada: Julie Doucet
Alison Bechdel
Chester Brown (Ed, the happy Clown)
Italy: Liberatore / Tamburini (Ranx Xerox)
12. As the splendid artist that you're, can you unravel a bit of the ideas that merge inside yourself and also how the artistical tools that you use to create your own different art styles, help you to transport to any kind of audience into either dreamish or nightmarish worlds while you're depicting and sharing human history with them?
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| Astonishing artwork by Bo |
I guess my artistic style is influenced by comic & illustration art and theatre art and by current contemporary painting.
Most often I work with gouache on paper to keep the working flow light and let myself to do rapid changes in the working process.
Painting with gouache on paper is also a bit low brow and not so much connected to the prestigious oil painting on canvas.
I feel more free to experiment that way and therefore more able to work intuitively.
I try to find new ways of expressing myself through contemporary art than working with stage design or illustrations.
The border between them is of course diffuse.
Some years ago I was interested in combining text and painting.
I started to combine text and landscape painting, or text and abstract painting. After a while it got too messy and aesthetic and I lost interest but it was fun anyway. In recent years I have been working more with figurative art because I feel I have a need to tell stories. Abstract art is also interesting but I need to find a twisted way of doing it. If it’s not fun, I quit.
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| Phenomenal artwork by Bo |
Many thanks to Bo for this coffeeshop interview and to several other magnificent international artists who have shown me a bit of his inner world in other coffeeshop interviews that can be read in previous posts in this same blogue.
Special thanks to my beautiful friend and Finnish artist Terhi Ekebom who sometimes give me some ideas when I'm in between art projects with some of the best international artists that I know of.
M.
