PIER STOCKHOLM
ATLAS

When we hear the word ‘Atlas’ we might think of the mythological Titan condemned to support the vault of the heavens and who gave his name to the Atlas Mountains.  An atlas is also a book of maps, of course, and – particularly for cosmopolitans, explorers, mathematicians and geographers – the term will be evocative of the measuring of the globe, the charting of unfamiliar territories, the drawing and redrawing of borders: a way of emphasising both the control humans want to impose on the world and our ultimate failure to do so.  This kaleidoscope of semantic and experiential layers comes together in ‘Atlas’ – the new exhibition by Peruvian-born, Paris-based artist Pier Stockholm.  

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Indeed, one of the sculptures on display – Atlas (gas station) from 2026 – stretches out limbs as if to hold up the sky.  Slyly combining industrial, mass-produced elements with sparks of inventiveness, the piece prompts enquiry into the narratives and myths we tell ourselves about the nature of the world and our place in it.  And also about the nature of effort, of discipline.  Atlas is a figure of immense exertion and self-control and the exacting nature of making art – the sheer labour involved in the creation of forms – is a theme to which Pier Stockholm returns frequently.  ‘The really cool things are discipline, dedication, showing up every day,’ he says, ‘and the point of discipline is to create the right environment in which one is receptive and ready when creativity strikes.’  In other words, the nature of exertion is, paradoxically, to produce something that cannot come from effort.

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Something rooted, too, in a particular place and time, as the geographical term ‘atlas’ comes into focus.  This aspect, too, informs and pervades the work of Pier Stockholm.  For this artist, who trained as an architect, the tangible and the physical – particularly the built environment – are an essential location for interactions and creativity.  At the same time, if there is a map, there can be a journey, so an atlas both describes precise, cartographical details – cities, countries, continents – and is essential for movement and journeys: trade routes, highways, corridors.  For Pier Stockholm, whose biography circles the globe from the Americas to Asia to Europe, the term ‘atlas’ evokes precisely this tension between roots and dynamism.  ‘I create works designed to be transported.  Everything is modular and I am interested in the idea of portability – a moveable studio.  That means carrying ephemera including ideas, inspiration and experience from place to place.  But it also implies carrying physical tools, whatever those might consist of.’   As Pier Stockholm’s vocabulary and tools draw on those of engineering and industry, including plywood, pre-moulded parts, automotive filler, concrete, paint and heavy-duty sanders, the equipment he uses can, in fact, be substantial.  

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So, once again, the solid, the concrete and the disciplined are combined with the ethereal, the delicate and the creative to produce work that is densely packed with resonance and suggestion, energy and movement. 

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Importantly, this is combination, not replacement.  Archaeological time shows layer upon layer – modern cities combining with and overlaying historical conurbations, geological strata and – who knows – yet more ancient settlements underneath.  In the same way, Pier Stockholm brings together layers of impressions and meaning both implicitly and explicitly – as in his large-scale works, in which layers of material and pigment are continuously and meticulously applied and then just as rigorously excised, creating and revealing new depths, textures and surfaces.  Indeed, there is a strong topographical dimension to his work, which can recall, variously, the landscapes of East Asian painting; mapped, cartographic terrain; or even mythological settings – familiar and yet strange.

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n the exhibition’s more intimate works, space is more compressed, but it’s denser, more concentrated, rather than reduced.  The works – which feature intricate inlays and coloured acrylic glass elements – set off complex interactions between light, space and colour, allowing viewers to trace long journeys of discovery in the paradoxically smaller physical spaces.  These pieces also introduce the idea of portability.  Just as the world can fit between the pages of an atlas, so – condensed enough – it can also fit into the smallest case.

 

Featuring sculpture, installation, drawing and painting, Heldenreizer’s exhibition showcases a broad range of Pier Stockholm’s practice, providing in this – his first exhibition in Germany – a glimpse of the versatility and variety of this flexible, elusive, playful and ironic artist.

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Pier Stockholm (born 1977 in Lima, Peru) Having studied architecture in Lima, Peru, Pier Stockholm was awarded a Master’s degree in Fine Art at the University of São Paulo, Brazil.  He later moved to Paris, to undertake the postgraduate programme ‘La Seine’ at the École des Beaux-Arts.  He now lives and works in the city. He has exhibited, in solo and group shows, at the Paço das Artes in São Paulo; the Vleeshal in Middleburg, The Netherlands; the Casino Luxembourg; and, in Paris, the Espace Paul Ricard and La Galerie des Galeries. Pier Stockholm has taken part in several artist residencies, including SOART in Carinthia, Austria; the Cité des Arts in Paris; KNUA in Seoul, South Korea; and NID in Ahmedabad, India. His book The Weight of References was published by ONESTAR PRESS in 2014. In 2025, Pier Stockholm he took part in the exhibition Par Quatre Chemins, curated by Yvannoé Kruger and Margaux Knight at Château La Coste, Provence, France.