Per Hüttner

From 2007, Hüttner has returned both to a dialogue with science and to working with video. In a sequel to Begrepp - En Samling from 1992, Hüttner and Arnér created a project entitled (In)Visible Dialogues which focused on a series of conversations between artists and scientists at Konstakademien in Stockholm, Sweden. He also returned to these issues in a less direct way in solo exhibitions in France, China, England and Sweden. Installations such as "Do not Go Gentle", "The Quantum Police" and "Imminent" all depict eccentric people engaged in obsessive research. The work compels the visitor to reflect on whether it is meaningful to draw a line between reality and fiction. In her long text about the latter exhibition, the curator Cecilia Canziani shows how both the problematic of the singular and the collective, as well as myth and its ability influence reality, is highlighted in the artist's work:

The journey into the human soul was further developed in another photographic series from 2006 to 2007 entitled Democracy and Desire. The images were primarily shot at night with very long exposure times. The relationship between the individual and its search for personal liberty from social conventions again comes to the forefront in the dreamlike photography. In the catalogue text to the exhibition the work is discussed. In a typical style of the artist, it is hard to decipher who the author of the give text is and it even appears that the texts in different languages are written by different authors:

In 2004 he developed the performative aspects in the above-mentioned project and tied it back to a research about the limits of reality and documentary photography. He developed a series of photographs where he created shrines of commemoration in busy street corners of urban centres around the world. These impromptu sculptures suggested that an accident or act of violence had been committed in that specific place (while in fact they were fabricated by the artist). The work provoked complex discussions about differences and similarities between documentary traditions and the fictional. This investigation into the very fabric of reality has moved to the forefront in the artist's mature work about impermanence and change. In the catalogue text to his 2006 exhibition Xiao Yao You that displayed a large body of the work at the Guangdong Museum of Art in Guangzhou the curator, Zhang Wei, writes:

His life has since been marked by nomadism and constant movement where travel and international dialogues are core to his life and practice. He lived in London and Los Angeles until he created his base in Paris in 2002. Hüttner was one of the founders of the non-profit galleries Konstakuten in Stockholm (1996–2001) and The Hood Gallery in Los Angeles (2001–2003), the former was one of the first artist initiated galleries in the country and was important in creating a culture of self-organisation of artists in Sweden. He is also one of the founders of the residency programs Norrköping AIR and initiator of the experimental research group Vision Forum.

In the late 1990s Hüttner took his interdisciplinary experiences and implemented these into a series of exhibitions investigating the relationship between the art object and the exhibition. In 2001 he co-curated an exhibition at Nylon with Goshka Macuga and Gavin Wade. Other noteworthy exhibitions that dealt with these issues and that engaged the audience in continuously reshaping the exhibition include: I am a Curator at Chisenhale Gallery in London, Repetitive Time at The Art Museum in Gothenburg and Participate? at CEAC in Xiamen, China, and at Basekamp in Philadelphia.

In the late 1980s and 1990s much of Hüttner's installations used computers, video and other new media. He was one of the first artists to create installations that used computers as a sculptural element and at the same time allowing them to present vast and complex information. The artist also used contemporary medical science to develop work based on research on the human brain at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, England - looking at how the brain remains in a constant state of change and regeneration. He also created exhibitions, publications and lectures with biochemist Elias Arnér that dealt with the relationship between art, science and the human body in Stockholm. In Begrepp - En Samling (Concepts a Collection) they brought together artists and scientists to dialogue about metaphysical questions.

Per Hüttner (born 11 February 1967) is a Swedish visual artist who lives and works in Paris. He is mostly known for his photographic work and for his interactive, changing and travelling exhibition projects. A number of monographs about his practice has been published including Per Hüttner, 2003; I am a Curator, 2004; Repetitive Time 2006, Xiao Yao You2006, Democracy and Desire 2007. The Imminent Interviews 2010 and The Quantum Police 2011.

Hüttner was born in Oskarshamn, Småland on 11 February 1967. His father Bengt, who was Jewish, died in a car accident in 1971 and he was brought up by his Protestant mother with his sister. He moved around Sweden until the age of 24 when he moved to Berlin to study. He studied at Hochschule der Künste in Berlin 1991 to 1992. He graduated from Konsthögskolan in Stockholm 1993.