‘FFPP’(Färg Fabriken to Porto Pi) is a project displayed at Färgfabriken in Stockholm which takes on the site's specific background, the artist's approach and his general interest in lighthouses. The project aims to transform the exhibition site (Färgfabriken ) as a lighthouse, so it emphasizes its own existence to the neighborhood but also reminds the society about the functionality of the lighthouse which is slowly disappearing.
The site of the exhibition was considered for this work, since it was originally designed for the manufacturing of the machine gun and later soap. The machine gun, sewing machine and film as moving images are representatives of the industrial era which brought significant changes to our modern history. These three inventions share some resemblances, as they operate in a discrete but repetitive mechanical movement and work in a continuous sequence. This modular sequence brings a completely different impact in human history: massive death in war, automatized production system and the moving image which features that create an illusive or abstract composition.
In this context, the artist investigated lighthouses and combined them with analogue mediums. The work manifests the transition from the life of the lighthouse keeper's experiences in their profession to the audience's experience in the exhibition through 16mm film, photochemistry and various media installations. Considering the lighthouse as a construction which is situated in the boundary between sea and land, this character became symbolic in this multidisciplinary project, in which the artist investigated the crossing over of its history and function, mechanical movements, film and photographic techniques. If the lighthouse and its keeper were seen by people as a stationed light for a long time in the past, the artist’s navigational aid at the exhibition reverses the process and propagates its own structure and the lighthouse keepers’ experience to the world.
Lighthouses have a long history as they originated for different purposes : military, religion, trade, navigational aids. As pieces of architecture situated in particular environments, its construction and maintenance has been a crossing point in a variety of fields; which in the end led to the establishment of civil engineering. The artwork pieces were developed through a reverse engineering process. The dismantling of things to understand them through their patterns to its core values and find a new “value” or view usually through the medium of technology. On a formal level, making use of simple mechanical devices, and exploring in detail the creative possibilities of the technology. Often the use of non-traditional media, such as contemporary technical equipment and skills were incorporated to achieve the artist’s idea and to enhance it in contemporary contexts.
The centerpiece of the exhibition is Navigational Aid which embodies the structure of a lighthouse entirely built by the artist which will guide the audience to navigate through the site and the pictures result from his optical and film chemistry research.
Project Manager: Elsa Iaksson / Emilia Rosenqvist
Poster/Catalog Designer : Lina Josefina Lindqvist
Video Documentation : Lina Josefina Lindqvist
Exhibition Documentation Photographer: Johan Österholm
This project was kindly supported by
Färgfabriken, Stockholm, Sweden
Höganäs Museum, Höganäs, Sweden
Porto Pí Lighthouse, Mallorca, Spain
Port Authority of the Balearic Islands, Spain
Former lighthouse keepers (Javier and Francisco)
FFPP [Färg Fabriken , Porto Pí] Project, 2020-2021
PACOJAVI, 2020
installation, flasher, 2 kW light bulb.
from the outside as it is activated by the dark.
Navigational Aids, 2020, installation
16mm film(unique edition), hacked projector, micro-circuit, speaker, artist made lenses, 3D printed objects, mixed media
CHECKMATE, 2020, installation
3D printed objects, found object, front coated mirror, podium, carpet
Intermittent Images, 2020, black and white silver gelatin print by artist invented method
Day and Night, 2020, black and white silver gelatin print by artist invented method
Optics, 2020,
black and white silver gelatin print by artist invented method
Layers, Contrasts No.1-6, 2020
black and white silver gelatin print by artist invented method
Double Sun No.1-6, 2020, 108 cm x 175 cm
black and white silver gelatin print by artist invented method