This Autumn, Irish artist Gerard Byrne’s Jielemeguvvie guvvie sjisjnjeli – Film inside an image (2015-16) will be presented at Towner for the first time since it was acquired for the collection through the Art Fund’s Moving Image Fund.
In the film, Byrne slowly documents the 360-degree panoramic display of the famous natural history diorama at Biologiska Museet in Stockholm, Sweden. The museum opened in 1893 with a display composed of taxidermy and scenic painting that imaginatively transported visitors to the Nordic wilderness. Illuminated only by daylight, the illusion of a natural habitat captivated audiences for over a century. For Byrne, the light-filled diorama can be understood as a form of image making technology, an innovative precursor to photography and film.
Jielemeguvvie guvvie sjisjnjeli – Film inside an image is titled in English and the endangered Nordic language of Southern Sámi. No equivalent word exists for ‘film’ in this language, interestingly the closest translation is ‘Life within an image’.
Footage of the museum, combined with field recordings of animal calls and birdsong, speaks to our relationship with animals, the natural environment and ideas of preservation.
A wider selection of works from the Towner Collection exploring these themes will be exhibited in the Ravilious Gallery and Collection Library. This will include Margaret Benecke, Elizabeth Frink, Tom Hammick, Roland Jarvis, Henry Moore and Eric Ravilious amongst others.
Gerard Byrne, Jielemeguvvie guvvie sjisjnjeli – Film inside an image, 21st September 2024 – 21st April 2025, Towner Eastbourne
About the artist
Gerard Byrne (b. 1969 Dublin, Ireland) has established an international reputation for his complex film installations that interrogate how the past is presented to us. Solo exhibitions include Centraal Museum Utrecht (2020); Serlachius Museum Gosta, Finland (2019); Secession, Vienna (2019); Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2017); Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin, Ireland (2018); ACCA, Melbourne, Australia; Mead Gallery, UK (both 2016); Graz Museum, Austria; Kunstmuseum St Gallen, Switzerland (both 2015) and Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland; The Whitechapel Gallery, London (both 2013).
In 2007, Byrne represented Ireland at the 52nd Venice Biennale. He has participated in Busan Biennale (2020); Skulptur Projekte Münster (2017); dOCUMENTA 13 (2012); Performa, New York (2011); the 54th Venice Biennale (2011); Auckland Biennial (2010); Gwangju Biennial (2008); Sydney Biennial (2008); Lyon Biennial (2007); Tate Triennial (2006) and the Istanbul Biennale (2003).
