Matts Leiderstam _ See and Seen

My thanks are due firstly to professor Sarat C. Maharaj, who as my first supervisor has been an invaluable guide throughout my doctoral study and whose advice has kept me focused with stimulating and sensible suggestions, and of course Gertrud Sandqvist, the dean of Malmö Art Academy, who persuaded me to apply to the programme, and who has been an irreplaceable second supervisor. I would also like to thank Mikael Ahlund, Kristoffer Arvidsson, Peggy Phelan, Friedemann Malsch, Philip Metz, Erden Kosova and Serkan Özkaya, all of whom have engaged me through their stimulating and rewarding e-mail conversations, all published on See and Seen’s website.

I would like to direct my sincere thanks to the team working at Lunds Konsthall for being a most professional collaborative team, facilitating all works in connection with the See and Seen exhibition: director Åsa Nacking, acting director Anders Kreuger, project co-ordinators Anna Johansson and Madeleine Malmsten, technicians Anders Malmström,Terje Östling and Alfredo Pernin.

Many individuals have helped in the realisation of See and Seen. David Neuman, director of Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall, invited me to produce the project Grand Tour, and through his invitation I was able to rethink my work from 1996 up to the present time and to use Grand Tour as a test site. Tessa Praun and Elisabeth Millqvist, along with David Neuman, formed the curatorial team for Grand Tour. The institution Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall generously loaned work of mine from their collection to be exhibited in See and Seen. My warmest thanks also to Katrina Brown, curator of Dundee Contemporary Arts, co-producer of Grand Tour; Diane Shamash, director of Minetta Brook, New York, who invited me to produce my public work and book, View, which gave me a unique chance to develop a project related to landscape and landscape painting on a site charged with pictorial, historical and political connotations: the United States Military Academy at West Point and its surroundings, the Hudson Valley Highlands; Görel Cavalli-Björkman, director of research and curator of Nationalmuseum, who invited me to the group show True & False, which gave me the opportunity to work with Landscape with Rebekah Taking Leave of Her Father by Claude Lorrain, at Nationalmuseum in Stockholm; former director Helena Persson and director Lene Crone Jensen from Göteborgs Konsthall; Friedemann Malsch, director of Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, who exhibited Grand Tour and assisted me in producing new works related to my research subject, that are part of both Grand Tour and See and Seen.

I also extend my gratitude to Michael Thomas and Reinhard Koch from BUREAU-K in Hamburg, who are the designers for www.seeandseen.net, See and Seen CD-Rom and www.grandtourexhibition.com; Björn Fredlund, former director of Göteborgs Konstmuseum, Håkan Wettre, curator of Göteborgs Konstmuseum, and Michael Ahlund, curator of Nationalmuseum, who helped me to find relevant documents and whose conversations have been invaluable; Anders Ljungman & Johan Melbi, who designed the book View and assisted me with the design of text for a slide show that is part of See and Seen; Debbie Thomson, director of Falkenbergs Museum, who brought to my attention the Claude Glasses; carpenter Hans Berge who constructed the furniture for my installation; John Rothlind, former senior restorer of paintings at Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, who helped me with crucial information about the Claude picture; Erik Cornelius, photographer at Nationalmuseum, who took the X-ray photograph of my painting; Marcel Röthlisberger and Per Bjurström, two of the leading art historians in their field, who both responded to my questions; and my fellow PhD students Sopowan Boonnimitra, Miya Yoshida and Anders Kreuger for the stimulating discussions during our seminars.

There are others who have contributed as my work developed: Maria Lind, who read my text and provided valuable critical responses; Peter Samuelsson, Brian Manning Delaney and Mats Stjernstedt, who translated parts of my writings; I would like to forward my warmest thanks to Ana Ransom, who has functioned as an excellent and meticulous fine editor of my text in its final stages; Mako Ishizuka, my assistant during 2006, whose support and multi-talented competence proved to be key for both the practical work connected to See and Seen and the time-consuming, endless fact-checking of the text; Céline Kopp, who helped me to get in contact with Musée Fesch, Ajaccio in Corsica; and Ciléne Andréhn and Marina Schiptjenko, my gallerists in Stockholm, who have been most helpful and involved in both the production and support of my art practice.

I am also grateful to my dear friend Denise Robinson, who took on the difficult task of being the editor of my English, in addition to which she has been an excellent critic, challenging and extending my thoughts through different projects I have undertaken from 1997 until now. Last but not least, I would like to thank my partner Mats Stjernstedt, whose support and perceptive critique has always been crucial to my work.