MALIN BULOW

I develop my works through two main components – elasticity and fluidity – which relate specifically to the inherent potential for movement within my chosen materials. Always site-specific, the installations are made with flexible materials that are stretched into monumental sculptures which create tension between the venue’s architecture and setting and traditional representations of bodies in classical sculpture. The installations are ‘activated’ by dancers who perform inside textile membranes that both conceal and hinder them and act as extensions of their skin. These ‘elastic sculptures’ sometimes become performative still lifes – compositions that change almost imperceptibly, so slow are their movements. Like giant umbilical cords or foetal membranes, the large sculptures extend the limits of the dancers’ bodies until they melt into their host architecture, and vice versa. This equivocality around the body, its borders and norms, is at the heart of my work. By using the body as a material in its own right, I explore our evolving relationships with ourselves, with each other and in relation to our environment.  

Malin Bülow (b. 1979 in Jönköping, Sweden) lives and works in Oslo. She studied at Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam and Oslo National Academy of the Arts (master’s degree, 2016) She also holds a master’s degree in neuroscience from Vrije University in Amsterdam. Her latest works, Elastic Bonding, Fluid Tensions and Strained Resilience, have been installed at Lyon Contemporary Art Biennale, the Oslo Opera House and Malmö Art Museum, respectively. Her works are included in the collections of MAC – Modern Art Museum in Lyon, France, and Malmö Art Museum in Sweden.