Leif Elggren   New Jerusalem including sound and video, objects and photographs 31may – 1 july, 2002 gallery 1     invite card             new jerusalem, 2002 installation view                 new jerusalem, 2002 installation view       press release Pierogi is very pleased to present the first New York show of the work of Swedish artist Leif Elggren. Leif Elggren was born 1950 in Linkoping, Sweden and currently lives in Stockholm, Sweden. He is a visual artist and a recording artist. His work has been shown in Venice (Nordic Pavilion, Biennale di Venezia 2001), Stockholm (Fargfabriken), Berlin (Podevil), Johannesburg (2nd Biennial), Siena (Palazzo delle Papesse), Tokyo, Osaka, Marugame, Gothenburg, Los Angeles etc. His music has been released through labels such as Ash International (London), Firework Records (Stockholm), Anckarstrom (Stockholm), Meeuw (Amsterdam) and Insofar Vapour Bulk (Moscow). For this first show in New York City he will be exhibiting a piece called "New Jerusalem" including sound and video, objects and photographs. Collaboratively, Hausswolff and Elggren have worked on various projects, including the 2001 Venice Biennale Nordic Pavilion, and the on-going Elgaland-Vargaland, a kingdom over which they are kings. Despite the fact that the kingdom exists only in the imagination of the kings and their 500 or so citizens, they have Elgaland-Vargaland passports, national banknotes, stamps, holidays, a flag and other symbols of nationhood. In a time of increasing nationalism, Elgaland-Vargerland [sic] understands itself to be independent of time and space and propagates a notion of agonistic citizenship, which...defin[es] itself outside the horizon of territory... (Jens Hoffmann, Flash Art, May/June 2001) Jens Hoffmann cho[se] to write about Elgaland-Vargerland [sic] because of its encouragement to finally admit that the common beliefs and collective certainties of every day life are just as made up as this country and its two kings. As playful as this project might appear upon first glance, ...it also proposes a serious look upon the organization of reality and moreover human mechanisms within society at large. For the 2001 Nordic Pavilion, Hausswolff and Elggren collaborated with three other artists, Tommi Gršnlund, Petteri Nisunen and Anders Tomren. While each artist made individual contributions to it, the pavilion was conceived as a whole. No part of the exhibition was credited to any individual artist. The pavilion was one of the most precise and manifesto-like reflections on the new position of artists today. ...Instead of combining individual concepts, the pavilion produced a multiplicity of singularities.... (Robert Fleck, Frame news, 2 / 2001)         Pierogi also presents the ever expanding Flat Files, featuring works of 600+ artists
	P   I   E   R   O   G   I 177 north 9th street brooklyn, ny 11211 718.599.2144 noon to 6p thursday through monday and by appointment pierogi is an innovative art gallery in williamsburg, brooklyn, new york