TONIGHT WE DANCE
Part I: Exhibition, Sculpture — Kungsträdgården
Part II: Exhibition, Glass Print — Galleri Ingela S
Part III: Exhibition, Oil Painting — Miva Fine Art Gallery
Part IV: Exhibition, Art Novel — Sergels torg
Incorrigible,
I continue
to steal.
The ranks of art history flirt and seduce;
I simply cannot keep my hands to myself.
In the project Tonight We Dance, it is Ettore Scola’s film of the same name — released in French as Le Bal — that forms the fertile ground for all these acts of appropriation.
Careful, faltering steps unfold in chronological order across a worn dance floor. Not a single word is spoken, yet from the music and shifting styles emerges a bewildering pattern of associations and sudden impulses.
A sequence of events stretching far beyond the dance hall’s original stage eventually finds a carefully enclosed place beneath the vault of tree canopies.
Coloured lanterns sway lazily overhead. The wind makes its entrance, and carries the invited guests into a whirl of commotion and pirouettes.
WILD HORSES (Vildhästar)
Exhibitions 2013–2014
Stockholm – Brunkebergstorg
Gothenburg – Slottsskogen
Malmö – Gustav Adolfs torg
Today, the existence of the wild horse has all but vanished. Free thought, spontaneous wandering, the act of moving with the wind, has been framed and enclosed. The vast fields—the endless expanses where thoughts once moved unhindered—continue to shrink.
The exhibition consists of a herd of ten wild horses moving freely across open ground: grazing quietly in the shadows, galloping across the meadow, without yoke or halter, guided only by the freedom of the mind.
The horse has always held a central position in art. Its balanced volumes, its movement, its role in human necessity and delight. From The Lost Jockey by René Magritte and The Jockey by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, to The Large Blue Horses by Franz Marc—a work that helped inspire the artistic circle Der Blaue Reiter—with figures such as Pablo Picasso, Wassily Kandinsky, Georges Braque, and Arnold Schoenberg riding alongside in spirit.
The Wild Horses are produced in Corten steel and have acquired a rich reddish-brown patina—a colour they retain throughout the seasons, whether amidst summer pasture or the austerity of winter.
HELSINKI DESIGN CAPITAL – IITTALA
One of the central themes of the World Design Capital year was Open Helsinki—a vision embodied through values such as openness, innovation, functionality, sustainability, and collaboration. With these ideas in mind, Iittala sought its own interpretation of Helsinki and invited Swedish artist Per Josephson to create a personal narrative of Finnishness and urban culture.
The pixel collage of the HEL2012 series brings together elements at the heart of Finnish identity. Heroes and cultural icons, urban landmarks and historical events converge in a dense visual landscape that reveals new connections with every encounter. Like a city itself, the image is in constant motion—layered, shifting, and endlessly open to interpretation.
The HEL2012 series is produced using the forms of the Aika collection, designed by Professor Heikki Orvola. The series consists of a mug, plate, bowl, takeaway mug, and espresso cup with saucer.
Released exclusively during the World Design Capital year 2012, the collection stands as a visual portrait of Helsinki at a particular moment in time—while remaining open to new readings long after the year itself has passed.
Recycling Artist
Per Josephson is a contemporary storyteller whose work moves freely between physical and digital worlds. He borrows, reuses, and recycles visual material, transforming existing fragments into new and unexpected constellations.
”I steal, I sample, I allow myself to be inspired by the great masters. This is the foundation of my art.”
Through this process of appropriation and reinvention, familiar images are granted new lives and new meanings—an artistic practice rooted as much in memory and art history as in the visual culture of the present.
EVERY DAY
Exhibitions 2009–2011
Stockholm – Sergels torg
Malmö – Södergatan
Copenhagen – Strøget
Stockholm – Kungsträdgården
Every day, colour resounds—clear and vivid—every day a new layer. At night, colour still echoes; it covers imperfections and fills every corner. It never falls silent. Colour makes noise!
And so it continues, twenty-four hours a day. At night it may grow slightly dimmer, but it never becomes quiet. I like it. I want more. And one thing is certain: there will be more. Every day the space—the public space—is filled with endless colours calling for attention: messages, offers, choices. I cannot help but be drawn into the rhythm, inspired to add my own voice to the chorus.
Standing amidst all this commotion, small fragments occasionally settle into place and form a story, only to dissolve a moment later, merge with others, disappear, or create something entirely new.
The series Every Day presents twelve variations: a multitude of teeming narratives—my stories, imagined and true. And, as time itself permits, I borrow and sample shamelessly from art history, weaving these threads together.
Look closely, and allow the references within the works to guide you in creating your own stories. Mine are merely one version among infinitely many—just as in reality, in what unfolds every day.
