A visit to Oscar Niemeyer
Text: Hedvig Hedqvist Photo: Åke E:son Lindman
16 March - 13 April 2024
In the spring of 2000, the writer Hedvig Hedqvist and photographer Åke E:son Lindman, traveled to Brazil. The trip was part of an assignment from the Swedish National Property Board and the Department of Foreign Affairs, to document Swedish embassies designed by Swedish architects, a result which was presented in the book Seventeen Swedish Embassies built 1959-2006 (2001). Hedqvist and Lindman saw their trip to Brazil also as an opportunity to study one of the most experimental and artistically bold architect of the modernist era, Oscar Niemeyer (1907-2012), up close. With a letter of introduction from Niemeyer himself, Hedqvist and Lindman could enter the congress, senate, and the remarkable Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the capital Brasilia (1957–1960), and on their way back via Rio de Janeiro, also visit Niemeyer at his office and home. This wonderfully unique trip is now described in detail in an exhibition catalogue along with exhibited photographs.
Works in the exhibition
Niterói Contemporary Art Museum
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs Brasilia
Bios
Hedvig Hedqvist (b.1940) interior architect, Skolen for Boligindretning (the Danish design school) Copenhagen 1959–62, worked with exhibitions and as head of design at Kooperativa Förbundets textile department 1967–74. From the middle of the 1970s Hedqvist wrote about design and architecture for magazines Femina, Vi and from 1978-2000 as contributor to the daily newspaper Svenska Dagbladet. Over the years also articles for the periodicals Arkitektur, Form and Sköna Hem. As lecturer, editor and writer, Hedqvist has strongly contributed to the documentation and analysis of the modern Swedish design history, a selection of prominent titles are Estrid Ericson – a biography (Norstedts, 2023), Swedish Modern (Orosdi-Back, 2018, 2024) and Svensk Form Internationell Design (Bokförlaget DN, 2001, 2007).
Åke E:son Lindman (b.1953) graduated in photography from Konstfack, University of Arts, Crafts and Design in 1975, and has since the 1980s dedicated himself to document our built environment – from the Step Pyramid of Djoser, Saqqara in Egypt, via Nagakin Capsule Tower, Tokyo in Japan, to Caixa Forum, Madrid in Spain. As the leading photographer in Europe on architecture, Lindman’s work has been frequently exhibited and featured in international architectural and design periodicals. Lindman has been the main photographer of over 50 books for publishers such as Birkhäuser (CH), Thames & Hudson (UK) and Bonnier (SE) and a monograph on Lindman’s work, Pure Architecture, was published by Arena in 2010.