When Magritte meets Beuys...

Typically, I forgot to mention one the installation I liked the most when visiting “Walking in my Mind” at the Hayward Gallery yesterday.

"The first cut is the deepest and the division of seven", 2009

Bo Christian Larsson's themes are mysterious and esoteric and he first stroke me as being the Magritte of walk-through mindscapes. All his works – drawings, installations, performances and objects – interrelate; environments and objects are created for a spontaneous performance and, after this action has taken place, continue to inhabit the space, like archaeological remains.
I would actually go even further by placing Larsson as a cross between Magritte and Beuys althought as far as I am aware Larsoon has yet to work with coyotes!

The Worldhaters Homesick Blues Original, 2009

“La Lunette d'Approche", René Magritte, 1963

"Information has to enter your mind and become part of you before you can process it and use it in a creative way, so naturally everything comes from inside. I would say that my work shows my creative process in its naked truth. I see no difference between the finished work and the process."

The Worldhater's Sculpture Garden

Almost all of Larsson's installations are the results of a performance or happening. The essential elements and structures in the installations are prepared and specified, and the performance is an act of spontaneous action within this controlled space. A recurring component is a black wig hiding Larsson's face, creating a sort of artificial blindness and darkness guiding the view to the inside, to the essential.

"The Worldhater's Sculpture Garden" during the performance.

For Larsson everything has its origin in the darkness, where the human spirit develops - and in this case, free from the apparent reality because of the reduced visual perception: "I think this [the wig] is the only costume you can wear at all, it makes so little and so much with your body at the same time.[...]. You put on the wig and you are a different person. This has always fascinated me. I have the wig in front of my eyes. I turn it around, so I can't see anything. This is a very important point in my performances, that I blind myself and have to take a look inside. I become a different person and disappear in this role."

"The Golden Cage A.K.A. Dieisland" during the performance...


...and after the performance, with Larsson's white shirt hanging in the middle and a speaker to narrate the story.