Klara Lidén

Klara Lidén is a Swedish contemporary artist who currently lives and works in Berlin as well as New York City. Lidén is known for her installations and videos that respond to specific architectural environments. Lidén attended the School of Architecture, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm (2000–2004), and has also studied at the Berlin University of the Arts, Berlin (2003) and the University College of Arts, Crafts and Design Konstfack, Stockholm (2004–2007).

Lidén’s practice (based predominantly in video, photography and sculpture) employs found objects, whilst utilising the mundane everyday surroundings of urban life, in order to exemplify themes and issues that the artist wishes to highlight. Lidén has created the illusion of time through mounds of papers and posters, glued onto one another, presenting these reliefs (or wall mounted sculptures) as evidence of history and past; brought forward to our present through her artistry. The artist takes stock, clearly inspired by art historical predecessors, by using found objects in her work. Resulting in a slightly adolescent and playful aesthetic, signified by the artist’s use of trashcans, electrical wiring boxes and other infrastructural material in her work.

Lidén has, in past projects, built a house with discarded materials on the banks of a river, set up an alternative free postal system and fly-posted blank white posters over street advertisements. For her 2005 solo show at Reena Spaulings Fine Art in New York, she built, from scavenged cardboard boxes and thin iron pipes, a small tower with an elevated room in the storefront gallery; a combination playhouse, retreat and gallery within a gallery, the tower was made of the same materials that the neighbourhood’s homeless people used for protection and bedding. In her 2007 exhibition at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, she moved the entire contents of her apartment into the museum. In the Nordic pavilion at the 2009 Venice Biennale, assembled by fellow artists Elmgreen and Dragset, she created a fictional teenager’s bedroom that offered an unusual form of escape – an emergency axe as well as a hole in the wall. For a 2012 exhibition at Reena Spaulings, she erected a blue wall across the gallery space with a door admitting visitors into a room filled with 80 used Christmas trees taken from the streets of the city.

Her Poster Painting series, which she began in the late 2000s, consists of four-inch wads of advertisement posters glued together. These poster sediments come from Berlin, where they are a typical feature in the urban landscape; Lidén’s sole addition is a white top sheet on this, truly,multilayered work.

Her short films capture the improvised performative actions that she undertakes in public urban spaces. In the final year at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, she was asked to give a lecture there about urban planning. Instead, she showed Paralyzed (2003), in which she danced provocatively to a musical soundtrack full of shrieking and hooting on a Stockholm commuter train. In her iconic The Myth of Progress (Moonwalk) from 2008, the artist is seen moonwalking through the streets of Manhattan at night. Techno Battle (2012) is a collaborative video by Klara Lidén and her sister and fellow artist Hanna, in which the two women — one wearing what looks like a fencing uniform, and the other in a ghoulish mask, T-shirt, and jeans — face off and hurl bits of technology at each other, like a laptop computer, which shatters, and whose broken fragments they then stuff into a bonfire. In 2005, both sisters appeared on a new version of The Velvet Underground’s album White Light/White Heat, recorded by artists recruited by artists collective Bernadette Corporation, among them Brian Degraw, Lizzi Bougatsos, Rita Ackermann, Jutta Koether and Seth Price.

Lidén’s photographic works also explore the urban space by placing the artist in direct contact with the fabrics of the city: she climbs down a manhole in Untitled (Down), 2011 and stands nonchalantly on a wooden post in a city port in Untitled (Pier), 2013.

In 2011, Lidén was awarded the German Preis der Nationalgalerie für junge Kunst, as well as receivingaspecial mention at the 54th Venice Biennale.

Lidén has participated in an impressive number of group exhibitions like: Concrete and Imagination, Urban Art Gallery, Berlin (2003); Performance: Hår och Systerskap, Wicked games, Konstakuten, Stockholm (2004); LTTR Explosion, Art In General, New York, U.S.A. (2004); I/U/WE Färgfabriken, Stockholm (2004); Stockholm Art-Fair, Hjärnstorm gallery, Stockholm (2004); various performances in Stockholm (2005); Outfest, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. (2005); MIX NYC, Anthology Film Archives, New York, U.S.A. (2005); When Humor Becomes Painful, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich, Switzerland (2005); Spring show, Fotogalleriet, Oslo (2005);LTTR Screening, New York, U.S.A. (2005); Reena Spaulings-– The One and Only, Haswellediger Gallery, New York, U.S.A. (2005); various performances with Malin Arnell in Stockholm (2006); Nuevo Estocolmo, Södertälje Konsthall, Södertälje, Sweden (2006); Berlin Biennale, Berlin (2006); Street Behind the Cliché, Witte de With, Rotterdam, the Netherlands (2006); Subito Sera, Galleria Zero, Milan, Italy (2006); MUSIC IS A BETTER NOISE, P.S.1, MOMA, Long Island, NY, U.S.A. (2006); Looking Back, White Columns, New York, U.S.A. (2006); The Perfect Man Show, White Columns, New York, U.S.A. (2007); Massive Analogue Academy, Galerie Christian Nagel, Cologne, Germany (2007); Nothing Else Matters, De Hallen, Harleem, the Netherlands (2007); PL 2. Moscow Bienniale. 2007, Moscow (2007); Uncertain States of America, Center for Contemporary Art, Warsaw (2007); Beneath the Underdog, Gagosian Gallery Madison Ave, New York, U.S.A. (2007); UM-KERHUNGEN / INTERAKTION I, Kunstverein Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany (2007); MD 72, Berlin (2007); The Sydney Biennale, Sydney, Australia (2008); Meet Me Around the Corner, Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo (2008); Tarantula, Trussardi Foundation, Milan, Italy (2008); After Nature, New Museum, New York, U.S.A. (2008); Momentum 2009 The Fifth Nordic Biennial of Contemporary Art, Moss, Norway (2009); Political Minimal, KW, Berlin (2009); Artists from Berlin and Los Angeles, Massimo de Carlo, Milan, Italy (2009); Non-Solo, Non-Group Show, Kunsthalle Zurich,Zurich, Switzerland (2009); ÜBER WUT / ON RAGE, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2010); Fischgrätenmelkstand, Temporäre Kunsthalle, Berlin (2010); Barbaric Freedom, Simon Lee Gallery, London (2010); Home and Origin, Bukowskis, Stockholm (2010); Displaced Fractures. On the Break Lines of Architecture and its Bodies, Migros Museum, Zürich, Switzerland (2010); Light Camera Action, ABC (Art Berlin Contemporary), Berlin (2010); BEFORE AND AFTER, Balicehertling, Paris (2010); 54th International Art Exhibition ILLUMInations, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (2011); Based in Berlin, Berlin (2011); Preis der Nationalgalerie für junge Kunst 2011, Nationalgalerie, Berlin (2011); Akademie der Künste, Berlin (2011); A Doll’s House, curated by Fani Zguro, Liberia Isola Libri, Milan, Italy (2012); Heart to Hand, curated by Pati Hertling, Swiss Institute, New York, U.S.A. (2012); Relocated, MD72, Berlin (2012); To the Moon via the Beach, Amphitheatre Arles, Arles, France (2012); Hools, Zachęta Narodowa Galeria Sztuki, Warsaw (2012); The New Public, Museion Bolzano, Italy (2012); Marie Høeg meets Klara Lidén, SKMU Sørlandets Kunstmuseum, Kristiansand, Norway (2013); Freedom!, Kunstpalais, Erlangen, Germany (2013); Standard Escape Routes, Standard, Oslo (2013); Possessions, Uks Galleri, Oslo (2013); Lies about painting, Moderna Museet, Malmo, Sweden (2013); Virtuosity, Berliner Philharmonie, Berlin (2013); In the Heart of the Country, The Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Warsaw (2013); AWAITING IMMANENCE, Carl Kostyal, Stockholm (2013); Rhythm in it, Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau, Switzerland (2013); Les Nouvelles Babylones, Parc Saint Léger, Pougues-Les-Eaux, France (2013); Expanding the Field of Painting, ICA Collection, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. (2013); KölnSkulptur #6, Skulpturenpark Köln, Cologne, Germany (2013); Silent, Avlskarl Gallery, Copenhagen (2013); For the Time Being. Wall Paintings - Painted Walls, Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Germany (2013); Der Feine Unterschied, Kunstverein Langenhagen, Langenhagen, Germany (2013); Entropy of a City, Mucsarnok Kunsthalle, Budapest (2013); 8 Ways To Overcome Time and Space, Künstlerhaus Bremen, Germany / Museum of Modern Art Belgrade (2013); Utopian days – Freedom, Total Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul (2014); AND LIFE GOES ON..., Between Bridges, Berlin (2014); UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS, Galerie Neu, Berlin (2014); The Kitchen, Whitney Independent Study Program, New York, U.S.A. (2014); Manifesta 10, Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia (2014); Marie Høeg meets Klara Lidén, ONE Archives, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. (2014); Forty and Forty…, Galerie NEU, Berlin (2014); Galerie NEU at Gladstone Gallery, Gladstone Gallery, New York, U.S.A. (2014); Galerie NEU á la Douane, Galerie Chantal Crousel La Douane, Paris (2014); High Performance. The Julia Stoschek Collection, ZKM Center for Arts and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany (2014); KölnSkulptur #7, Skulpturenpark Köln, Cologne, Germany (2014); Aggroculture, Taaffe Place, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A. (2015); Adventures of the Black Square- Abstract Art and Society 1915-2015, Whitechapel Gallery, London (2015); Sammeln für Morgen: neue Werke im Museion, Museion, Bozen, Italy (2015); Borrowed Alibis, Freymond-Guth Ltd. Fine Arts, Zurich, Switzerland (2015); Complex Bodies, Alte Fabrik, Rapperswil-Jona, Switzerland (2015); Playing Pool with Eggs, Galerie Bernhard, Zurich, Switzerland (2015); Powerful Babies: Keith Haring‘s Impact on Artists Today, Spritmuseum, Stockholm (2015); SWEDISH ART:NOW!, Sven-Harry’s Art Museum, Stockholm (2016); STOSUNKI PRACY, LABOR RELATIONS, Wroclaw Contemporary Museum, Wroclaw, Poland (2016); Detail is alles, Kunsthalle Mainz, Mainz, Germany (2016); Behind The Man, Museum de Fundatie, Zwolle, the Netherlands (2016); La Collection Thea Westreich Wagner et Ethan Wagner, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2016); Anne Collier, Cerith Wyn Evans, Yngve Holen, Sergej Jensen, Klara Lidén, Albert Oehlen, Andreas Slominski, Reena Spaulings grabt tiefer, ihr Schönen, Galerie Neu, Berlin (2016); Room, Sadie Coles HQ, London (2017); READYMADE, Eva Presenhuber, Vnà, Switzerland (2017); Inside Intensity – The Anniversary Show, Museum Kurhaus Kleve, Kleve, Germany (2017); EUROVISIONS: Contemporary art from the Goldberg collection, National Art School Gallery, Sydney, Australia (2017); 15th Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey (2017); In Search of Characters…, Galerie Neu, Berlin (2017); Germany is not an Island, Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, Germany (2018); Portfolio Berlin 03, Kunsthalle Rostock, Rostock, Germany (2018); “Deutschland ist keine Insel” Sammlung zeitgenössischer Kunst der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Ankäufe von 2012 bis 2016, Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn, Germany (2018); Optik Schröder II, Mumok – Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna (2018); Stories of Almost Everyone, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. (2018); BT13 Tallinn Baltic Biennial, Tallinn Art Hall, Tallin (2018); Sitting Bone, MAVRA, Berlin (2018); MOVE, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2018); Michael Jackson: On the Wall, National Portrait Gallery, London, touring to The Grand Palais, Paris; The Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, Germany & Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Espoo, Finland (2018); READYMADES BELONG TO EVERYONE, Swiss Institute Architecture and Design Series: 3rd Edition, New York, U.S.A. (2018); Lampen, Francesca Pia, Zürich, Switzerland (2018); Straying from the Line, Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin (2019); Letzte Lockerung, Kunsthalle Bern, Bern (2019); Maskulinitäten, A cooperation between Bonner Kunstverein, Kölnischer Kunstverein and Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany (2019); Surface and Custom, Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo (2019); In the Spotlight of the Night – Cities never Sleep, KAI 10 | ARTHENA FOUNDATION, Düsseldorf, Germany (2019); RISENTIMENTO / RESSENTIMENT, Kunst Meran, Meran, Italy (2020); My Cartography: The Erling Kagge Collection, Fundación Banco Santander Madrid, travelling to Fondation Vincent van Gogh, Arles, France (2020); Walking. Movements North of Bolzano, Museion, Bolzano, Italy (2020); Studio Berlin, Berghain, Berlin (2020); Small World Real World, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (2020); Fuckers, Galerie der Stadt Schwaz, Schwaz, Austria (2020); Wild Frictions: The Politics and Poetics of Interruption, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.A., travelling to Kunstraum Kreuzberg, Berlin (2021); Fire in My Belly, Julia Stoschek Collection, Berlin (2021); JSC on View III: Mythologists, Julia Stoschek Collection, Düsseldorf, Germany (2021); Anne Imhof, Natures Mortes, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2021); Stop Painting, curated by Peter Fischli, Fondazione Prada, Venice, Italy (2021); Say Less, Herald St, London (2022); Found Cities, Lost Objects: Women in the City, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, Birmingham, UK (2022); Je suis la chaise, Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris (2022); Mentors, CFHILL, Stockholm (2022); Before Tomorrow – Astrup Fearnley Museet 30 Years, Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo (2023); WORLD CLASSROOM: Contemporary Art through School Subjects, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2023); Found Refined Refound, Galerie Eva Presenhuber / Weiss Falk, New York, U.S.A. (2023); reboot: responsiveness, Ludwig Forum, Aachen, Germany (2023); Out of the Box, 20 Years Schaulager, Schaulager (Laurenz Foundation) Münchenstein/Basel, Switzerland (2023); Nationalgalerie. Eine Sammlung für das 21. Jahrhundert, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2023); UNBOUND: PERFORMANCE AS RUPTURE, Julia Stoschek Foundation, Berlin (2023); Ridykeulous, Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham, UK (2023); Step x Step, Coreana Museum of Art, Seoul (2023); Seven Rooms and a Garden, Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2023); SHINE ON, Sadie Coles HQ, London (2024); 15th Baltic Triennial: Same Day, Vilnius (2024); Form Matters, Matter Forms – Vom Readymade zum Warenfetisch, Kunst Museum Winterthur, Winterthur, Switzerland (2024); The Gatherers, MoMa PS1, New York, U.S.A. (2025); On the Street, Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein (2025) and Graffiti, Museion, Bolzano, Italy (2025).

Lidén’s array of solo exhibitions is equally impressive, as the following list makes clear: Dr. 3000, Reena Spaulings Fine Art, New York, U.S.A. (2005); Economy Class, Reena Spaulings Fine Art, New York, U.S.A. (2006); Unheimlich Maneuver, Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2007); Klara Liden, The Hayward Gallery, London (2007);Elda för kråkorna, Reena Spaulings Fine Art, New York, U.S.A. (2008); The Teenage Room, Nordic Pavillion, Biennale of Venice, Venice, Italy (2009); Projects 89, MoMA, New York, U.S.A. (2009); Never Come Back, Kunsthalle Friedricanum, Kassel, Germany (2009); Klara Lidén, Reena Spaulings Fine Art, New York, U.S.A. (2010); Always be Elsewhere, Jeu De Paume, Paris (2010); Klara Lidén, Art Pace, San Antonio, Texas, U.S.A. (2010); Rumpfflächen und Plündererbanden, Kunstverein Bonn, Bonn, Germany (2010); Klara Lidén, Serpentine Gallery, London (2010); Klara Lidén, Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2011); Klara Lidén, Galerie Neu, Berlin (2011); Pretty Vacant, Reena Spaulings Fine Art, New York, U.S.A. (2012); Bodies of Society, New Museum, New York, U.S.A. (2012); The Myth of Progress, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2013); Invalidenstrasse, Museion, Bolzano, Italy (2013); POST, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen (2014); It´s Complicated, Reena Spaulings Fine Art, New York, U.S.A. (2014); Klara Lidén, Le Consortium, Dijon, France (2015); Klara Lidén, Galerie Neu, Berlin (2015); Battement battu, WIELS, Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels (2015); ICHBRAUCHEMASSPACE, with Karl Holmqvist, House of Gaga, Mexico (2015); Tinker’s Damn, curated by Tobias Spichtig, LambdaLambdaLambda, Prishtina, RKS (2016); Werk, with Karl Holmqvist, Kunstverein Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany (2016); The Great Indoors, Reena Gaga, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. (2017); LAVORO, with Karl Holmqvist, INDIPENDENZA, Rome (2017); Warm-up, Piece Unique, Cologne, Germany (2018); Strange Days: Memories of the Future, Store X, London (2018); Grounding, Reena Spaulings Fine Art, New York, U.S.A. (2018); Auf jeden Fall, Secession, Vienna (2019); Now Two Three, Weiss Falk, Basel, Switzerland (2019); Berlin Fall, Galerie Neu, Berlin (2019); Turn Me On, Sadie Coles HQ, London (2020); BABARUE, OCTO Productions, Marseille, France (2022); 3 (0,0,0), Galerie Neu, Berlin (2023); VERDEBELVEDERE, Reena Spaulings Fine Art, New York, U.S.A. (2024); Klara Lidén: Paralyzed, Projektbüro DFI e.V. and Julia Stoschek Foundation, Düsseldorf, Germany (2024) and Klara Lidén – Square Moon, Sadie Coles HQ, London (2024).

Lidén is represented in the following (selected) collections: Hamburger Bahnhof (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin), Berlin; Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Amsterdam; The Astrup Fearnley Museet for Moderne Kunst, Oslo; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Frac Grand Large - Hauts-de-France, Dunkerque, France; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles California, U.S.A.; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), New York, NY, U.S.A.; Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.; Sammlung zeitgenössischer Kunst der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn, Germany and Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany.

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