Johanna Billing

Johanna Billing was born 1973 in Jönköping, Sweden.[1] She lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden. Billing studied at Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm, Sweden graduating in 1999.[2]

In her work, Johanna Billing deals with issues related to learning and how time plays a key role in this process. Billing in part directs participants as well as activates a series of improvisations and contingencies to challenge the notion of performance. In turn, her videos orchestrate an engagement with social dynamics to test the interaction between individual and society, public and private, performance and spontaneity. Her work often addresses political climates and cultural specificities. Within a documentary premise she creates a fictive space to expose the mutual relation between actual and contrived events. Billing's videos often feature modified scores and music composed by the artist or in close dialogue with participants, using sound as an essential device for collaboration and communication. Many of Billing's printed catalogues and booklets are made in collaboration with Åbäke.

Recent works include: In Purple (2019), Pulheim Jam Session (2015) and I'm Gonna Live Anyhow Until I die (2012). Other significant works include: I'm Lost Without Your Rhythm (2009), Another Album (2006), You Don't Love Me Yet (2003) and Magical World (2005). Many of the film’s soundtracks exist as soundtrack records published by the german label Apparent Extent. Between 1998–2010 Billing ran the independent record label Make it Happen. The interest in music is also expressed through the long term and ongoing touring project You Don’t Love Me Yet (2002-2021) in which over 300 artists and groups in different cities have interpreted the song with the same title, originally written by Roky Erickson 1984.

Billing has exhibited internationally.[3] Selected solo exhibitions include:

• 2021: In Purple, Konsthall 16, Riksidrottsmuseet, Stockholm, Sweden
• 2020: In Purple, Hollybush Gardens, London, United Kingdom
• 2019: In Purple, Stadsbiblioteket, Jönköping, Sweden
• 2017: Jam Session, with Betty Bailey, Et al., San Francisco, United States[4]
• 2017: About Art: I'm Lost Without Your Rhythm, Trondheim Kunstmuseum, Trondheim, Norway
• 2016: Keeping Time, Villa Croce, Genova, Italy
• 2015: Pulheim Jam Session, Hollybush Gardens, London, United Kingdom
• 2014: I'm Gonna Live Anyhow Until I Die, Fieromilanocity, Milan, Italy
• 2012: I’m Gonna Live Anyhow until I Die, The Mac, Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
• 2011: I'm Lost Without Your Rhythm, Crystal, Stockholm, Sweden
• 2010: I'm Lost Without Your Rhythm, Modern Art Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
• 2009: I'm Lost Without Your Rhythm, Camden Art Centre, London, United Kingdom
• 2009: This Is How We Walk On the Moon, Mercer Union, Toronto, Canada
• 2008: This Is How We Walk On the Moon, Malmö Konsthall, Malmö, Sweden
• 2007: Forever Changes, Museum for Gegenwartskunst, Basel, Schweiz
• 2007: Keep on Doing, DCA, Dundee Contemporary Art Center, Dundee, United Kingdom
• 2007: Another Album and other films, Jönköpings Konstmuseum, Jönköpings, Sweden
• 2007: Another Album, Hollybush Gardens, London, United Kingdom
• 2006: Magical World, PS.1, New York, United States
• 2005: Magical World, Hollybush Gardens, London, United Kingdom
• 2001: Where She Is At, Moderna Museet Projekt, Stockholm, Sweden
• 2001: Where She Is At, Oslo Kunsthall, Oslo, Norway

• In Purple (2019)
• Pulheim Jam Session (2015)
• I’m Gonna Live Anyhow until I Die (2012)
• I'm Lost Without Your Rhythm (2009)
• This Is How We Walk On the Moon (2007)
• Another Album (2006)
• Magic & Loss (2005)
• Magical World (2005)
• You Don't Love Me Yet (2003)
• Where She Is At (2001)
• Missing Out (2001)
• Project For a Revolution (2000)
• Graduate Show (1999)

• Johanna Billing - Works [Paperback]
• Johanna Billing: Look Behind Us a Blue Sky [Hardback]

• Official website