Johanna Billing
Individual Works
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