Malin Franzén was born in Stockholm in 1982 and studied at Malmö Art Academy in Sweden. She works with video, objects, and installations, often using documentary material. Her works explore the role of legends and myth, as well as religion and politics. Her most recent work, Länge bor vi på ruinerna av det förgångna – For a Long Time We Live in the Ruins of the Past (2017), focuses on the Swedish author, feminist, and public intellectual Elin Wägner.
Palermo Herbal (2018)
Mixed media
The Sicilian botanist Paolo Boccone (1633–1704) used a particular method to add colour to pressed plants and print them directly onto paper, a procedure known as nature printing. Boccone cultivated special interest for plants containing toxins that could be used in medicine. His research led him to make a Grand Tour of northern Europe, where the majority of his prints are still found. In Palermo Herbal, Malin Franzén combines Boccone’s nature printing method with modern systems of scientific imaging to depict plants capable of growing alongside toxic substances, such as the reeds or other plants found on the estuary of the Oreto River and in the abandoned park at Acqua dei Corsari in Palermo.