"Johanna Billing: You Don't Love Me Yet"
2003-10-08 until 2003-11-09
Index - Swedish Contemporary Art Foundation
Stockholm, , SE

In her projects, Johanna Billing often works with people who participate as themselves and contribute their experiences in a mixture of scenes, both staged and documentary in form. Here too, the viewer plays a role, as the works often originate in a social environment where co-operation and participation are part of the total experience. In the artist's film and art project "You Don't Love Me Yet", concepts about the individual and the collective are unified into a positive opportunity. The catalyst for this interaction is an 80s pop song, "You Don't Love Me Yet" by American singer-songwriter Roky Erickson where - despite the disillusioned tone - a feeling of trust and hope is discernible between the lines. The project commenced in October 2002 with live performances at Index, including more than twenty participating singers, soloists and a wide variety of bands. Roky Ericksson's song was covered again and again, reflecting the participants' own personal style.

The project's second part, Johanna Billing's film "You Don't Love Me Yet", produced in June 2003, reunited the participants only this time the individual performance is replaced by a common effort at Atlantis recording studios in Stockholm, where both a film and audio recording took place. The film, now showing at Index, lies somewhere between a music video and a documentary, with emphasis on the common performance. In autumn 2003, the film is being exhibited at six locations in Sweden, in collaboration with art institutions who, like Index, have also acted as co-producers. By themselves, or together with local music managers and youth organisations, they too will host concerts, based on the theme of the local situation for art and music. Despite a relatively fixed structure, in other words, repetition and personal interpretation as a strategy, each participant - private individuals as well as organised institutions - has the opportunity to determine their own part of the project from the point of view of their possibilities. The project also includes an audio CD containing the recorded song, which will be distributed free of charge. The film will furthermore be screened at Frieze Art Fair, London 17 – 20 October.

Film and concept by Johanna Billing. Curated by Helena Holmberg and Mats Stjernstedt. The film "You Don't Love Me Yet" is produced by Index in collaboration with Nifca, Helsinki. Co-producers and collaborative partners for the film and tour are Eskilstuna's Konstmuseum (with Balsta Musikslott), Norrköpings Konstmuseum (with Allmän Kultur, Norrköping), Konstkonsulenten in Jämtlandslän (with Mångkulturkonsulenten and UKM), Konstkonsulenten in Östra Götalandsregionen (with Vara Kommun), Gävle Konstcentrum (with Musikhuset and Kultur och Fritid) and Ystad Konstmuseum. The book is published in a collaboration with Index and Milch Gallery, London, with support from IASPIS.

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