About
Niki Lindroth von Bahr is an artist and animation director based in Stockholm. Her award winning short films Something to Remember (2019), The Burden (2017), Bath House (2014) and Tord and Tord (2010) has been screened at festivals like Cannes, Berlinale, Toronto and Sundance. The Burden has since its premiere in 2017 won 82 awards, including the Cristal for Best Short Film in Annecy, Best International Short Film in Toronto and Guldbaggen for Best Short Film.
Niki got her master degree in fine arts from The Royal Institute of Art in 2016. She is represented as an artist by Stene Projects Gallery in Stockholm and as a director by Nexus Studios in London. She is also a costume designer and has been working for artists like Fever Ray and David Bowie.
Member of the Oscars Academy since 2020.
Introduction (from Stene Projects Gallery)
During recent years the model has become somewhat of a trademark for artist, sculptor and film maker Niki Lindroth von Bahr. Her award-winning movies Tord and Tord (2010), Bath House (2014) and The Burden (2017) are all created through stop motion animations with animal dolls in highly detailed miniature landscapes. One of the models has even become a work of its own; exhibited at gallery Stene Projects the spring of 2017, the large piece Bördan C filled up the whole exhibition space, inviting its viewers into the intriguing atmosphere of Lindroth von Bahr.
The animal theme has followed Lindroth von Bahr throughout her oeuvre. Nevertheless, she is neither a realist nor a naturalist. Many of the animals depicted are either distinguished by human behaviour or pure phantasms – mutants and monstrous crossbreeds, sometimes even sick or dead (for example her ear-less Fukushima rabbits). Herself she views her works as “modern fables”, exploring human relations through the filter of animality.
The model is commonly used as a tool for architects or city planners. To its form belongs a certain tradition of useful representation. If it lacks a purpose, the model is usually regarded as a toy or a craft. This is not the case for Lindroth von Bahr. By down-sizing and recreating the most prosaic objects – like a fire extinguisher or a piece of garbage on the ground – she manages to bring uncanny life into her small-scale universes. In the experience of almost-real, Lindroth von Bahr points to the details of life that we are used to overlooking. In a way, she makes the model even more real than reality itself.
Despite the seemingly naïve approach, the modern fables of Lindroth von Bahr explores both political and existential themes. By distorting human behaviour and human environments using on the one hand animality, and on the other hand scale, she manages to throw light upon the some of the most trivial yet fascinating aspects of our everyday life. /Astrid Grelz Andersson
Education
2016 The Royal Institute of Art
2009 Diagonalakademin, Animation and Experimental film
2006 Nordiska Scenografiskolan, Props and Special Effects
International Jury Commissions
2018 European Animation Awards
2017 Warsaw International Film Festival
2016 Anima, Brussels Animation Festival – Short film competition
2015 Annecy International Animated Film Festival – Short film competition
2015 Anifilm, Trebon – Short film competition
2014 Fredrikstad Animation Festival – Commision film competition
Lectures and workshops
2019 Tokyo University of the Arts, Film and New Media
2019 California Institute of the Arts
Berghs School of Communication
Stockholms dramatiska högskola
Konstfack
Grants
2020 Mai Zetterling-stipendiet
2017 The Swedish Art Grant Committee – Filmmaker’s 10 Year Working Scholarship
2016 The Royal Academy of Fine Arts – S Fridman Fund
2015 Short Film Grant, Rooftop Film NYC
2013 Byggnads Kulturstipendium
2013 The Swedish Art Grant Committee – Project Support
2009 Anders Sandrews Foundation
2006 Anders Sandrews Foundation