Loulou Cherinet, State Design, detail © Loulou Cherinet / Bildupphovsrätt 2023
Loulou Cherinet, State Design, detail © Loulou Cherinet / Bildupphovsrätt 2023
Loulou Cherinet, State Design, detail © Loulou Cherinet / Bildupphovsrätt 2023
Loulou Cherinet, State Design, detail © Loulou Cherinet / Bildupphovsrätt 2023
Loulou Cherinet investigates how politics manifest and express themselves in our physical environment and our bodies. How do the systems and structures that surround our society affect us and how we relate and interact with each other?
The paintings’ motifs are taken from Öbacka strand, a residential district in Umeå, but could represent any Swedish city. It is carefully planned areas that are designed to improve our lives. As Loulou Cherinet sees it, a perfectly planned environment can also risk other, more existential, needs to be overlooked.
Inspired by historical panorama paintings and cycloramas, Loulou Cherinet has created an installation that envelops the viewer and where we must navigate in the motif. It is not only an image of the urban space but also a representation of the system we built our society upon. At the same time as it can be perceived as protection, it can also be experienced as if it closes the viewer in.
State Design is produced by Bildmuseet and Loulou Cherinet has created the art onsite in Umeå.
"You step into this painting"
Loulou Cherinet (b. 1970) studied at Addis Ababa University School of Fine Art & Design and the Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm. She has had solo exhibitions in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Addis Ababa, Prague, Krakow, Lüneburg, and Jakarta. Her works have been featured in art biennials in São Paulo, Venice, Bamako and Sydney, as well as at Manifesta 8 and Momentum 7.
