Kjellmer, Viveka2024-07-092024-07-092015https://hdl.handle.net/2077/82363Viveka Kjellmer holds a Ph.D. in Art History and Visual Studies. She is presently an Assistant Professor in Art History and Visual Studies at the Department of Cultural Sciences, University of Gothenburg.Swedish multimedia artist Tobias Bernstrup (b. 1970) works in a transboundary universe where reality and fiction merge. I examine how computer games and virtual identities can be understood as artistic tools. I am especially interested in how Bernstrup’s use of his own body in his artworks relates to a biographical approach, and how he uses multiple media forms to portray identities. Discussing examples of Bernstrup’s art in relation to a biographical interpretation, I show that a traditional biographical perspective is misleading in his case and propose »anti-biography« as a concept better suited to understanding the biographical as non-personal. The artist’s body becomes a tool expressing generic anti-biography. The artist wears fictional biographies, all with traits borrowed from Bernstrup, but at the same time demonstrating that identity is created and negotiable. I conclude that Bernstrup’s exposure of his own body should be interpreted as referencing not his person but his artistic universe, with his body becoming a metalanguage to express something deeply human rather than personal.sweTobias Bernstrupanti-biographymultimediaavatarText