The presence of a place...I cannot imagine any Swedish photographer, being able to capture the delicate preciscion of the presence of a place, other than Gerry Johansson. I am referring to his landcape portraits of the county of Halland, where he during the early 80's, topographically retraced C. G. Rosenberg's journeys of fifty years ago. I am referring to his recently shown panoramic photographs of the southern Swedish province of Skåne. But also, perhaps first and foremost, to those places, which in their
unobtrusive individuality or slightly comical eccentricity, appeared in the book and exhibition project "Trivia" in 1992.

It was thus obvious to ask Gerry Johansson, when we were looking for someone, a couple of years ago, to create a portrait of the place Rooseum - primarily planned as a series of advertisements aimed at the international art press. We wanted to make Rooseum more than an abstract name, for those who had not had the opportunity to come here in person, and to create an association with something physical and actually present. A particular room, a certain building.

The result, The Rooseum Suite , is now being shown in this very building. The unmistakable character of the Road Movie , so typical of Johansson's photographs, is striking even when the area is restricted to to just one room. He has, in other series of works, "driven" through the southern Swedish landscape seemingly at random, stopping by the roadside, the petrol station or by the village square. He has, similarly, covered the Rooseum building with his large camera, (the pictures in the exhibition are contact sheet copies not enlargements). He has experienced the granduer of John Smedberg's architecture from the turn of the century, including its emotive emotive details. He has been influenced both by its classical rigidity, as well as its element of anachistic caprice. He has appreciated the beauty of the vast empty surfaces of grey and white, and from these developed a sensational sensual materiality. He has given the graphic designer Marja Pennanen, a wonderful startingpoint for a series of posters, advertisements and invitation cards.