b.1973 Jönköping, Sweden Lives and works in Stockolm

Johanna Billing (Jönköping, Sweden, 1973) is a conceptual filmmaker who lives and works in Stockholm. Since 1999, Billing has been making video works that weave together music, movement and rhythm in ways that blur the lines between documentary and fiction.

 

In her works, Billing often addresses political climates and cultural specificities, but more importantly she transforms, through a documentary method, her filmmaking in a fictive space to examine actual and contrived events and how that filmed compression illuminates their overlap. Billing’s films often involve music, which in her hands becomes a tool for communication, memory and reconstruction.  About the musical aspect of her work, she has said: “I have a background in working with music in various forms. During many years I used to work parallel both with a record label, and with lots of live music events, as well as working as a DJ and a music journalist. In my films I have also come to work a lot with the musical soundtracks, which I arrange together with musicians whom I have an ongoing collaboration with. In the films there is always some kind of performance, but then the performance is most of the times only for the camera. [I am interested in] how to work with live events, in the music world – as well as in the art scene, and to explore this in different places and venues.”

Education

1999
Konstfack /Konstfack International College of Arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2018

15 Years of You Don’t Love Me Yet, Galleria Laveronica, Modica

2016
Keeping Time, Museo D’Arte Contemporanea, Villa Croce, Genova

2014
I’m Gonna Live Anyhow Until I Die, Fieramilanocity, Milan, Italy

2013
I’m Gonna Live Anyhow Until I Die, Kavi Gupa | Washington, Chicago, IL

2012
I’m Gonna Live Anyhow Until I Die, Hollybush Gardens, London, UK

 

I’m Gonna Live Anyhow Until I Die, The Mac, Belfast

2011
I’m Lost Without Your Rhythm, Crystal, Stockholm

2010
Magical World, Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA

2009
I’m Lost Without Your Rhythm, Camden Arts Centre, London, UK

 

Touring to Modern Art, Oxford and Arnolfini, Bristol

 

Tiny Movements, ACCA, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne

2008
This is how we walk on the moon, Kavi Gupta | Washington, Chicago, IL

 

Johanna Billing: Taking Turns, Kemper Art Museum, Kansas City, MO

 

This is how we walk on the moon, Malmö Konsthall, Malmö

 

Johanna Billing: Project for a Revolution, Kunsthaus Graz, Austria

 

You don’t love me yet, Live Event, Münchner Kammerspielen, Munich

 

Taking Turns, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO

2007
Forever Changes, Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel

 

Keep On Doing, DCA, Dundee Contemporary Art Centre, Dundee

 

One Mile, Collective Gallery, Edinburgh

 

Stages, Fundacio La Caixa, Barcelona

 

Magic and Loss (and other films), Joan Prats Gallery, Barcelona

 

Another Album, Hollybush Gardens, London

 

Silent Running, Raster, Warsaw

 

This is how we walk on the moon, film and event program, Collective Gallery, Edinburgh

 

Magical World, the Israel Museum, Jerusalem

2006
Magical World, St. Louis Museum of Art, MO

 

Songs, Cities and Circles, Basis, Frankfurt

 

Magical World, The Box- Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH

 

Magical World, P.S.1, NEW YORK

 

Magic & Loss // Magical World, Kavi Gupta | Washington, Chicago, IL

 

More Films About Songs, Cities and Circles, MARABOUPARKEN, Sundbyberg

 

Magical World, STANDARD (OSLO), Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville *

 

Another Album, Fundacio La Caixa, Barcelona

 

You don’t love me yet live event, Madrid Abierto, Madrid

 

Magical World, Galeria Posibla, Bucharest