Erik Berglin(Stockholm)
Artist and Photographer
CONTRIBUTION The Bird Project 2006–2017
Erik Berglin is the Stockholm based artist behind ‘The Bird Project 2006–2017‘, which was published by LL’Editions in the Spring of 2020.
Erik Berglin (b. 1980), received an MFA 2010 from Akademi Valand, Gothenburg, and now lives and works in Stockholm. Berglin’s works range from interventions in public space to examination and appropriation of social phenomena and material found online and in books. Erik Berglin takes an investigative approach to the medium of photography, examining both its technical possibilities and limitations as well as the boundaries between fact and fiction.
Erik Berglin’s works are often humorous and usually have an unexpected twist. They range from interventions in public space, fact/fictional storytelling and appropriation of material found in old books or online. His practice is based around text and photographs but he rarely uses a camera, instead he generates imagery using customized computer algorithms or scissors.
His works stem from a conceptual tradition but feature coincidental, accidental and unexpected connections. Found images are altered or detached from their natural function with references to documentaries, art history and popular culture.
Erik Berglin is represented by Galleri Thomassen in Gothenburg. His work has been exhibited worldwide and is held in both museums and private collections. Over the last 14 years, Berglin has received a number of considerable grants, including double two year working grants from the Swedish Arts Grants Committee.
In 2020, LL’Editions released Erik Berglin’s The Bird Project 2006-2017. Spanning over a period of twelve years, Stockholm based artist Erik Berglin wheat-pasted 4982 hand cut images of birds in natural scale, in twelve cities around the world. Each bird was placed in a carefully selected location, and subsequently documented by the artist, who works with photography as his primary medium. The project was presented in a luscious volume, designed by renowned Swedish design studio Lundgren+Lindqvist. The book was been awarded the Swedish Book Art Award in 2021 and the prestigious Swedish Photo Book Price in 2022.
