Bus Tour Through the History of Political Imagery

Elements of an incomplete map
Bus Tour Through the History of Political Imagery

17 November, 11.30am–2.30pm

As part of the exhibition Inhale, exhale, resume, a guided tour will be conducted between places in the city that have been crucial to the collectives and movements that the exhibition explores. The tour uses and activates the map available in the exhibition room. Through it, historical layers that otherwise remain hidden unfold at the same time as the city’s many transformations become visible. Artists Sebastian Dahlqvist and Helena Fernandez-Cavada will talk about artist-run movements initiated in Stockholm in 1938–1955 as reactions to the inaccessible position of art in society, a growing fascism and the acceleration of global capitalism.

A tour bus will depart from Marabouparken konsthall at 11.30 am on 17 November. The tour lasts approximately 3 hours. Conversations and readings will alter between English and Swedish. Free of charge. Sign up with isabella.tjader@marabouparken.se.

Inhale, exhale, resume
Sebastian Dahlqvist and Helena Fernández-Cavada
Open Call

Sebastian Dahlqvist and Helena Fernández-Cavada was chosen to produce and subsequently present an exhibition during the autumn of 2019. Sebastian Dahlqvist and Helena Fernández-Cavada were selected from 87 applicants by Marabouparken’s advisory group, which consists of Elof Hellström, Sharam Khosravi, Marie-Louise Richards and Selam Tadele, together with Rudy Loewe, who was selected in last year’s Open Call.

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The exhibition examines and highlights artist-driven movements and collective strategies and ambitions during the 20th century in Sweden. It raises questions about the history and potential of political imagery, as well as stories of collective organization in the Swedish art field. But also the boundaries often go for these we-formations. The exhibition at Marabouparken is a first part of an ongoing study and focuses mainly on collective and movements operating in Stockholm during the years 1938-1955.

The movements and collectives that the exhibition highlights emerged as reactions to the inaccessible position of art in society, a growing fascism and the acceleration of global capitalism. Today we are experiencing a resurfacing and normalization of fascism and reactionary movements. Moreover, the acceleration of global capitalism has assumed even more violent attributes. Throughout the exhibition, artists Sebastian Dahlqvist and Helena Fernández-Cavada look towards earlier colleagues, their ambitions and failures to find a common ground where to belong. An attempt to discern what opportunities, or even responsibilities, are left to those who come after.

The exhibition features a montage of archival material, two new video works, a cartographic exploration of various sites in Stockholm used by previous colleges for collective organizing and a performative walk through the city. The gaps in between the tables on which the archival materials is displayed reminds us that what is presented is and will remain incomplete.

The research behind the exhibition builds on the private archive and previous research done by the art historian Thomas Millroth. Other archival material has been borrowed from the Jan Myrdal Library and the Swedish Labour Movements Archives and Library. After the end of the exhibition part of the material will be donated to the Swedish Labour Movement Archives and Library. Together with archivists the artists are working to ensure the future and accessibility for the material making it possible for other colleges to continue building on.

The exhibition is supported by Arbetarrörelsens Kulturfond

Sebastian Dahlqvist is an artist and curator based in Malmö and Stockholm. His artistic practice often involves collaborations and engages with questions related to collective memory, ways of reading and writing history and the production of social and political relations to space.

Helena Fernández-Cavada is a visual artist currently based in Malmö, Sweden. She draws every day in order to pose questions and spend time with them – a process which Hannah Arendt called ‘understanding’. This process ranges from the questioning of established relationships to emerging contradictions as an attitude to life.