Mattias Gunnarsson

Everything is connected, again

MASU is an artistic platform run by Mattias Gunnarsson and Susanne Westerberg. MASU has a drawing practice, both on paper and through spatial installations in wood where the drawing becomes spatial and the movements of the material through the space become lines. They have a slow process where different works and contexts form an ecosystem of interwoven narratives where methods, spatialities and materials return and get new voices. MASU works intuitively and non-figuratively with a focus on experiencing and thinking with the body and over time the lines form compositions in the space that build scenographies for stories not yet told. For seven years between 2018 - 2025, MASU worked on the exploratory project (Material) Site recordings which was centered around 3000 wooden laths that were joined with cable ties to temporary structures in ten different locations in Sweden. The project started in Halmstad with an artistic residency and three weeks of work on site in the city space and then moved between different locations in forests, cities and exhibition spaces. Each move involved dismantling, packing, transport and new spaces for building. From the different locations, the material collected traces of the encounter with visitors, weather, forests and water and along the way, many laths broke and new ones were added. In relation to the material and the locations, an ecosystem of investigations, objects, images, meetings and relationships grew, all of which were given the opportunity to develop and resonate with the ongoing movement. When the project was completed in Falkenberg, it included more than 5,000 laths and ten locations linked in a common narrative. Everything is connected, again is an intuitive story about the project, the locations, the material and the relationships. It is a flow of images and text where everything exists at the same time and runs in parallel. Essays from within the process, along with conversations, location stories, and descriptions of the work, are interspersed with sequences of images, drawings, and notes. The pages are each their own glimpse into a project where different layers, details, movements, and encounters are linked together.