RESEARCHING THE VISIBILITY OF INVISIBLE MATTER

Liberty Park Art Center, Athens, Greece. Poster with text, performative actions in Athens and Attica. Group exhibition curated by Åsa's professor Vassil Simiettchiev.

We are researching the visibility of the invisible matter and scouting. We look upon our projects as public intimacy. From this follows that we don't announce any sites or hours, and that no mediation or documentation occurs. The work goes on from 12th to 26th of May 1990 in Athens and Attica. Written 25 / 03 / 1990. Stockholm. Åsa Lie. Jadran Sturm.
 
The poster was printed in the center spread of the exhibition catalogue, and hung on the wall representing their participation in the group exhibition 'New Swedish Artists’. During the two-week residency connected to this event, Åsa and Jadran did exactly what was described in the text.

MERZEDES STURM-LIE (ARTIST, DAUGHTER) TALKING WITH ÅSA LIE. BRUSSELS, FEBRUARY 12th 2025
 

Merzedes Sturm-Lie: When you say invisible matter, what do you mean? Is it something that includes you, the both of you, or is it more about things happening in the city?

Åsa Lie: Researching the Visibility of Invisible Matter is about trying to catch something beyond the immediate or known.

MSL: Do you think this interest in invisible matter, or in making the invisible visible, also connects to your background? Or to how the two of you felt at that time?

ÅL: Perhaps. We wanted to indicate that artists don’t necessarily need to be so concrete, physical and object-based in their work and actions. So, I guess we were expressing a need that we had. It meant we wanted to focus on the more transitory, impermanent. Scouting added a bit of playfulness, you know, always prepared, he he. We used that word because it means you’re searching, looking for things. In a way, it stands for living, especially if you want to go your own way, or contradict, or… get out of an echo chamber.

Being a teenager in the 70s, has influenced our art and lives, a period with many politically critical ideas around consumption, how to use fewer things, not have a car, but bicycle. Alternatives. Do it yourself. Share. Also the 70s art scene was quite radical in comparison to the 80s with the arrival of HIV and AIDS and yuppies, which created a more conservative environment.
 

Åsa Lie with Merzedes Sturm-Lie in the Jadran Sturm & Åsa Lie Private Foundation archive, February 2025