Gustav Hellberg

Artist's Statement

I am an artist working across multiple media, exploring the complex relationships between people, spaces, and the systems that shape our world. Through lens-based works, spatial and interactive installations, and processor-controlled technologies, I explore themes of ownership, real estate, and environmental sustainability. My artistic journey has transitioned from examining urban dynamics to investigating the tensions between urban centers—epicenters of political and economic power—and rural landscapes, including untamed natural environments. This evolving focus reflects my concern with the unchecked exploitation of both natural and human resources that occurs in these intersecting zones.

Since 2014, my work has shifted from spatial and electronically interactive installations to a greater emphasis on photography and video, often created in collaboration with community groups. My video projects adopt a documentary approach, integrating interviews and non-actors to reflect on lived experiences, collective histories, and aspirations for the future. This methodology enables me to connect with diverse narratives and situate my work within broader socio-environmental contexts.

Over the last two years, my time in South Asia, based in Jakarta, provided invaluable insights into the interplay between urbanisation, environmental degradation, and cultural heritage. Now living and working in South Korea, I continue to expand this exploration, balancing my artistic practice with lecturing on lens-based art. These experiences have sharpened my understanding of the contrasts between urban ambition and rural marginalisation, as well as the environmental toll of unchecked progress.

Public space remains central to my work, offering a stage for dialogue and reflection beyond traditional art venues. My projects often intervene in everyday environments, disrupting familiar routines to reveal overlooked or ignored realities. By placing artworks in these spaces, I challenge audiences to confront the systems that define their surroundings—be they urban infrastructures or natural landscapes—and reconsider their roles within them.

At the core of my current practice is an inquiry into the zones where urban and rural meet—a space of exploitation and imbalance, yet also of possibility. I seek to highlight the fragility of these boundaries and question the societal structures that prioritise profit and control over sustainability and equity. Through art, I aim to foster moments of reflection and connection, inviting viewers to envision alternatives to the cycles of depletion that shape our present and threaten our future.