SEPTEMBER SESSIONS
— A Contemporary Art Festival in Stockholm
19–22.9 2024 (with a prelude 14.9)

An initiative by Mint and Index including a specially curated program by Yaby
Tickets to the Saturday programme at Skandia here


September Sessions – A Contemporary Art Festival in Stockholm is back with a four-day programme spread over various art organizations in the city as well as public spaces in Stockholm. It hosts exhibitions, performances, concerts, film screenings, IASPIS Open Studios, readings, and social gatherings. We want to consciously celebrate the diversity of the Stockholm art scene and create a platform for interventions by international curators.

During the festival, a series of exhibitions and events will be organized by Accelerator, Bonniers Konsthall, Filmform, Ghost Platform, IASPIS, Index, Konsthall C, Liljevalchs, Mint, among others, as well as a specially curated program taking place in unexpected places all around Stockholm.

This new edition is curated by the Spanish duo Yaby, and looks at the performative side of visual art through a series of offsite pieces that engage with “liveness” —they happen, they do something, they conjure up time and respond theatrically to the narratives staged by a particular space. Notions of here and elsewhere underlie these works, which pull their audience to different settings and point their attention to different places or moments where a sense of meaning or at least completeness might be located. Presentness gets boosted through anticipation and spark, charged with conjecture, tropes, wariness and hanging emotions.

Hereness, thereness and presentness bring up questions about the import of different sensory planes, social adjustments, how instants of engagement happen or last, and how closeness and distancing shape those collective feelings that will become significant. If performance names an “actualized sphere,” we can see this group of dispersed and ephemeral artistic gestures as contending with the palpability of certain situations or atmospheres, pondering their materiality, textures, chemistry, their entry points and the conditions of life that they afford.

Beatriz Ortega Botas and Alberto Vallejo founded Yaby in 2017, an independent art space in Madrid that was open until 2022, where they programmed readings, performances and exhibitions with artists such as Caspar Heinemann, Rindon Johnson, Cole Lu, Precious Okoyomon, Nayland Blake, A.K. Burns, Atiéna R. Kilfa, Sitara Abuzar Ghaznawi or Angharad Williams. After closing their own space, they both continue to work together as an independent team, and have curated projects for the Joan Miró Foundation (Barcelona), EACC (Castellón), Vleeshal (Middelburg), ARCO (Madrid), La Casa Encendida (Madrid) or Hangar (Barcelona), with artists Kandis Williams, Jota Mombaça, Iki Yos Piña Narváez Funes, P. Staff, Claudia Pagès, Sam Cottington, Deborah-Joyce Holman, David Moser, Phung-Tien Phan, Quay Quinn Wolf and Aria Dean amongst others.

Programme

SATURDAY 14/9
(Prelude)

19.00–22.00: Performance: CHEAP: A World Where Nothing Is Private

Location:

THURSDAY 19/9

17.00–20.00: Opening:
Massinissa Selmani: 1000 VILLAGES

Location:


17.00–20.00: Opening:
LOVE TEST: P.O.V.
– Rosa Aiello & DylanAiello
Location:

20.30: Performance:
LOVE TEST: Cruising for a Bruising – Rosa Aiello & Dylan Aiello

Location:

Exhibitions:

12–17: Ksenia Pedan: FORMING THE CULTURE OF A DORMANT BRAIN
Location:


12–17: Frida Orupabo: ON LIES, SECRETS AND SILENCE
Location:


18–22: Massinissa Selmani: 1000 VILLAGES
Location:


11–20: HEARTBRAIN: 50 YEARS OF CONTEMPORARY ART THROUGH THE COLLECTION OF MARIKA AND CG WACHTMEISTER
Location:

12–17: MEDITATION ROOM
Location:


17–20: Rosa Aiello & Dylan Aiello: LOVE TEST: P.O.V.
Location:


FRIDAY 20/9

9.30–17.00: Open House and Breakfast for curators and art professionals
Location:


13.00–20.00: Iaspis Open Studios
Location:


17.00–19.00: Listening session and reception:
Artistic research projectGhost platform.
Location:


19.00–21.00: Opening September Sessions’ programme Rouge Ravager curated by YABY. With Alex Margo Arden and Craig Jun Li.
Location:


21.30: Performance: Monstra by Elisabete Finger, Manuela Eichner. Produced by Statens konstråd.
Location:


21.00–23.00: September Sessions Bar
Location:


Exhibitions:


12–17: Ksenia Pedan: FORMING THE CULTURE OF A DORMANT BRAIN
Location:


12–17: Frida Orupabo: ON LIES, SECRETS AND SILENCE
Location:


12–18: Massinissa Selmani: 1000 VILLAGES
Location:


11–17: HEARTBRAIN: 50 YEARS OF CONTEMPORARY ART THROUGH THE COLLECTION OF MARIKA AND CG WACHTMEISTER
Location:

12–17: MEDITATION ROOM
Location:


11–18: Rosa Aiello & Dylan Aiello: LOVE TEST: P.O.V.
Location:


SATURDAY 21/9

14.00: Presentation: Altar Practice with Mmabatho Thobejane

Location:


14.00: Conversation: Artist Ksenia Pedan and Bonniers Konsthall’s artistic director Joanna Nordin talk in Pedan's exhibition FORMING THE CULTURE OF A DORMANT BRAIN.

Location:


15.00: Special visit: Fanna Norrby presents Frida Orupabo On Lies, Secrets and Silence exhibition (in Swedish).

Location:


16.00: Artist talk: Massinissa Selmani and Khaled Bouzidi.

Location:


18.00–21.00: September Sessions’ Rouge Ravager curated by YABY with Sam Cottington, z.No Scott and Cara Tolmie.
Get your ticket here

Location:


21.00–23.00: September Sessions Bar

Location:


Exhibitions:


12–17: Ksenia Pedan: FORMING THE CULTURE OF A DORMANT BRAIN
Location:


12–17: Frida Orupabo: ON LIES, SECRETS AND SILENCE
Location:


12–16: Massinissa Selmani: 1000 VILLAGES
Location:


11–17: HEARTBRAIN: 50 YEARS OF CONTEMPORARY ART THROUGH THE COLLECTION OF MARIKA AND CG WACHTMEISTER
Location:

12–17: MEDITATION ROOM
Location:


Rosa Aiello & Dylan Aiello: LOVE TEST: P.O.V.
Location:


SUNDAY 22/9

12.00: Guided tour: With Rosa Aiello and Dylan Aiello.

Location:


13.00: Performance: Dynamic Resistance (for Liljevalchs), by Jojo Ahlkvist and Hedda Bauer.

Location:


15.00 + 18.00: Performance: Monstra by Elisabete Finger, Manuela Eichner. Produced by Statens konstråd.

Location:


Exhibitions:


12–17: Ksenia Pedan: FORMING THE CULTURE OF A DORMANT BRAIN
Location:


12–17: Frida Orupabo: ON LIES, SECRETS AND SILENCE
Location:


12–16: Massinissa Selmani: 1000 VILLAGES
Location:


11–17: HEARTBRAIN: 50 YEARS OF CONTEMPORARY ART THROUGH THE COLLECTION OF MARIKA AND CG WACHTMEISTER
Location:

12–17: MEDITATION ROOM
Location:


12–16: Rosa Aiello & Dylan Aiello: LOVE TEST: P.O.V.
Location:

ARTISTS


Rosa Aiello
+ Dylan AielloJojo Ahlkvist
+ Hedda Bauer
Becca AlbeeAlex Margo ArdenEmelie CarlénCHEAPSam CottingtonElisabete Finger
+ Manuela Eichner
Martine FlorLeif HolmstrandXadalu Tupa JekupéGöksu KunakBror Ida LennartssonCraig Jun LiSara Lindström LindheFrida OrupaboKsenia Pedanz.No scottMassinissa SelmaniMounira Al SolhMmabatho ThobejaneCara TolmieLauda Virginia Vargas

COLLABORATORS




Accelerator

Accelerator is an exhibition space where art, science and societal issues meet. It is part of Stockholm University. The mission of Accelerator is to engage actively with society, producing exhibitions presenting international and Swedish contemporary art.

Accelerator organises a public program of presentations and talks with artists, researchers, students and the general public. Accelerator’s programme is driven by an ambition to contribute towards a transparent and empathetic society by opening up opportunities for art to spark discussions and interdisciplinary dialogue.


Accelerator. Photo by Christian Saltas
Accelerator. Photo by Christian Saltas


OPENING HOURS
Thursday: 11–17h
Friday: 11–17h
Saturday & Sunday: 12–16h


DURING THE FESTIVAL


CHEAP: A World Where Nothing Is Private (14 September 19.00)

Between club nights and an art installation, CHEAP presents films, slides, lecturinas and music (by Xiu Xiu and others) in an exhausted performance about their political and private joys. Stop looking for that special someone. Enter their world where a whole proliferation of ways of connecting with others opens up.

With: Vaginal Davis, Daniel Hendrickson, Christian Fritzenwanker, Susanne Sachsse, Marc Siegel and Martin Siemann.

The art collective CHEAP was founded in 2001 in Berlin by translator Daniel Hendrickson, actor and artist Susanne Sachsse, and academic Marc Siegel. Artist and performer Vaginal Davis has worked with the international, transdisciplinary group from its early days, first as a guest, then as a crucial collective member. CHEAP currently collaborates frequently with artists such as Jonathan Berger, Pola Sieverding and Xiu Xiu, and has previously worked closely with Phil Collins, Annette Frick, Wilhelm Hein, and Bruce LaBruce, among many others.

Secure your spot here



https://acceleratorsu.art

Frescativägen 26A, 114 18 Stockholm

Bonniers Konsthall

Bonniers Konsthall exhibits contemporary art from all over the globe, granting space both to artists who are just beginning to acquaint themselves with a larger public, as well as featuring well-known names. We venture into new forms and territories and collaborate with artists in the evolution of new works. Bonniers Konsthall is one part of a long-term work in progress for creating and expanding knowledge and understanding of contemporary art through exhibitions publications talks and exchanges. Conveying the new is central to our work.

Photo Jean-Baptiste Béranger
Photo Jean-Baptiste Béranger


OPENING HOURS
Wed: 12–20
Thu-Sun: 12–17
Free entrance on Friday


DURING THE FESTIVAL


(Saturday sept. 22, 14.00)

Conversation between artist Ksenia Pedan and Bonniers Konsthall’s artistic director Joanna Nordin in the exhibition of Ksenia Pedan.
LINK

15.00: Special visit: Fanna Norrby presents Frida Orupabo On Lies, Secrets and Silence exhibition (in Swedish).
LINK

Exhibitions:

Frida Orupabo
Bonniers Konsthall is proud to present Frida Orupabo;s first solo exhibition at a Swedish institution. Through newly produced works in the form of collage, video and sculpture, On Lies, Secrets and Silence takes its starting point in our most private and intimate space—the home.

Ksenia PedanKsenia Pedans installations are specific to the spaces in which they are displayed. The exhibition Forming the culture of a dormant brain at Bonniers Konsthall moves towards a two-dimensional language where a spectrum of surfaces play against each other – presenting paintings, sculptures and details from building interiors.

www.bonnierskonsthall.se

Torsgatan 19, 113 21 Stockholm

Filmform

Filmform is one of the oldest organizations in the world devoted to video art and experimental film and was founded in 1950 in Stockholm, Sweden, originally as an independent film co-op. Later it was re-organized into a foundation and is now the most important driving force for artists' films and videos in Sweden – working with archiving, distribution as well as dissemination of knowledge and information. Filmform is further an important intermediary between independent filmmakers and governmental agencies and is often engaged as an advisor to museums, galleries, universities, and festivals. Constantly expanding, the distribution catalogue spans from 1924 to the present, including works by Sweden’s most prominent artists and filmmakers within the field of moving images.

Filmform has its origin in the post-war generation of artists that experienced the cinema as a new and expanding creative field. In film – personal expression, free from the regulations of convention, could maintain its independence. Artists' films – as well as videos later on – made it possible to connect to the world and to modern times. Filmform has been the hub of artists' films and videos since several decades. Artists like Viking Eggeling, Peter Weiss, and Gunvor Nelson have been important in this process, and new names are merging continuously. It is a beautiful coincidence that the first film that was planned when the association once formed in 1950 was called Vision. The vision of artists moving images is under constant review. Works from Filmform are available to rent for public screenings and exhibitions as well as for educational purposes.


OPENING HOURS
Friday: 9.30–17h

DURING THE FESTIVAL


Open house for curators and scholars at Filmform (20/9, 9.30–17h)

Location:

Welcome to an exclusive presentation of Filmform’s collection and resource for curating and learning on Friday, September 20th. The organization as well as the distribution catalogue will be presented in detail and a few newly acquired works from the collection will be shown. The presentation is first and foremost intended for you who is working as a curator, writer, researcher, producer, programmer, scholar, or teacher.

Doors open at 9.30. The presentation will take place between 10–12 AM. Afterwards, between 1–5 PM there will be a chance for spontaneous drop in meetings at the office for those who can’t make it to the presentation. A light breakfast will be served. Please RSVP to info@filmform.com in order to secure a seat and make a reservation to the presentation.

If you are interested in previewing the full length films and videos from the catalogue (LINK) – please contact andreas.bertman@filmform.com in order to receive screeners link to specific works as well as suggestions on what to see in relation to your research and field of interest. Finally, feel free to contact Filmform for separate physical or online meetings if you can’t make it to the open house.


www.filmform.com

Svarvargatan 2, 112 49 Stockholm

Ghost Platform

“Ghost Platform: Generating the "Complex Image" of Data, Labour, and Logistics” is a 3-year artistic research project engaging representations of obscured worker perspectives from relevant infrastructural contexts via video, sound, photo, drawing, etc. Using custom software, it facilitates collaborative media-making processes and aims to cultivate socio-political resonances across disparate nodes in supply chain and geography.

Initiated by artist Benjamin Gerdes, the project is funded by the Swedish Research Council (2023-2025) and hosted at the Institute for Future Studies.


The Institute for Futures Studies is an independent research foundation that promotes future perspectives in research and public debate.

Still from the video Glass Port, 2021 Benjamin Gerdes
Still from the video Glass Port, 2021 Benjamin Gerdes


DURING THE FESTIVAL


Dirty details of the clean startup chime (listening logistically)

(17:00-19:00 Friday 20th September, Institute for Future Studies)

Listening Session And Drinks

The Institute for Futures Studies hosts the premiere of a new 15-minute sound work. Drawing on materials from the ongoing project Ghost Platform, Dirty details of the clean startup chime collages field recordings and other encounters with sites of logistical importance situated outside of popular awareness: ports, data centres, nuclear power plants, e-commerce warehouses, urban delivery hubs, and transoceanic power and internet cable interconnects. We could say that these sites and the labor struggles unfolding across them as they become increasingly operative in our everyday lives are “invisibilized,” but for the evening we engage them as “unheard.” How does the sunny soundtrack backing the smoothly animated data viz meet the churned soil, sweat, and mechanic klang of place? When workers with firsthand familiarity attempt to collectively envision more just futures, what can be overhead, whispered, echoed back behind the dominant story being sold to us? What is the resonance of this haunted longing when the image is blocked off? With a screen shutting down or locked in black mode, what shakes through?

The listening session will be followed by drinks and a curated logistics and infrastructure-themed playlist. The event will also share information about other artistic research projects currently hosted by the Institute for Futures Studies.

GHOST PLATFORM: Generating the "Complex Image" of Data, Labour, and Logistics is a three-year artistic research project led by artist Benjamin Gerdes and funded by the Swedish Research Council (2023-2025), hosted at the Institute for Futures Studies. It convenes logistics workers and artistic researchers to co-design a software tool—a ghost platform—combining sound, image, text and virtual elements with discussion of these obscured perspectives.


Institute for Futures Studies, 4th floor
Holländargatan 13, 111 36 Stockholm
RSVP required: RSVP LINK

IASPIS

IASPIS is the Swedish Arts Grants Committee’s International Programme for Visual and Applied Arts. The programme is aimed at professional artistic practitioners within, for example, visual arts, crafts, design, illustration, architecture, spatial and urban practice.

IASPIS programme include residency programmes in Sweden and abroad, public programmes in Sweden and internationally, publications, expert visits programmes, regional and international collaboration programmes, and an archive.

IASPIS programme aims to contribute in various ways to developing and deepening international contacts between practitioners, organisations, audiences and markets and in this way contribute to artistic development and improved job opportunities.


OPENING HOURS
Friday 20/9: 13–20h

DURING THE FESTIVAL


IASPIS Open Studios Autumn 2024
For one day, this autumn’s artists in residence are generously opening their studios and invite the public to hear about their practices and take part of their work in process. Join a programme of presentations, performances and conversations with the artist and invited guests.

Artists include Becca Albee (USA), Emelie Carlén (Sweden), Martine Flor (Sweden), Leif Holmstrand (Sweden), Xadalu Tupã Jekupé (Brazil), Göksu Kunak (Türkiye), Bror Ida Lennartsson (Sweden), Sara Lindström Lindhe (Sweden), Mounira Al Solh (Lebanon/Netherlands), Lauda Virginia Vargas (Dominican Republic/USA).
Conversation Partners: Karin Bähler-Lavér, Hendrik Folkerts, Yuvinka Medina, Isi de Paula, Roberto Peyre, Lina Selander, Isabella Tjäder.

Full program can be found here


www.iaspis.se

Maria Skolgata 83, 118 53 Stockholm

Index

Index – The Swedish contemporary art Foundation has a history of more than 40 years behind it. Firstly, with a focus on photography and publishing, and for the last 25 years with contemporary art as its cultural sphere.

Index has multiple public roles as an art institution: We are a platform for artists and for audiences. We understand that the role of an art institution like Index does not begin and end with an exhibition – instead there is an ongoingness to the activities, research processes, learning programs and relationships between Index, artists and audiences. Index works with an artistic conceptual approach that aims to carve out space and time for criticality, dialogue, curiosity and building discursive situations that develop the role of art today. The size of Index is “human” and the contact with its visitors is defined as a permanent dialogue. Being placed at the center of Stockholm helps Index to be understood as a key institution and node within contemporary art networks.

Index Foundation. Exhibition with Pauline Curnier Jardin: WAITING FOR AGATHA, SEBASTIAN AND THE REST OF THE HOLY CHILDREN — UNFOLDING A FILMIC RESEARCH. September 2021
Index Foundation. Exhibition with Pauline Curnier Jardin: WAITING FOR AGATHA, SEBASTIAN AND THE REST OF THE HOLY CHILDREN — UNFOLDING A FILMIC RESEARCH. September 2021


OPENING HOURS
Thursday: 18–22h
Friday: 12–18h
Saturday & Sunday: 12–16h


DURING THE FESTIVAL


Massinissa Selmani: 1000 VILLAGES

The exhibition with artist Massinissa Selmani -curated by Natasha Llorens- offers an approach to Algeria in the 70´s and the urbanism plans to create a new model for society. Selmani’s point of departure was an archive of press clippings about an urban planning project initiated by the Algerian government in the mid- 1970s under the aegis of the “Agrarian Revolution.” Its goal was to redevelop the agricultural sector of Algeria’s economy by collectivizing its infrastructure. Selmani was fascinated by how the 1000 socialist villages project transformed from built forms into a sort of political rumor: people knew some villages had been established, but few had been to construction sites and even fewer knew why the project had been suspended.


The work by Massinissa Selmani (1980, Algeria) has been presented at Venice Biennale, Palais de Tokyo, Sharhah Biennial, Modern Art Oxford and the Biennale de Lyon among other art venues. Selmani was nominated to the Marcel Duchamp Prize in 2023.


During September Sessions, a talk between Massinisa Selmani and Khaled Bouzidi (Director of Rhizome art space in Algiers) will observe the process behind the project.


https://indexfoundation.se

Kungsbro strand 19, 112 26 Stockholm

Konsthall C

Konsthall C is a public work of art, an urban renewal project and an art institution located in a former communal laundry in Hökarängen. The objectives of Konsthall C are to lead socially engaged practices, support new curatorial and artistic experiments, and contribute to discussions on justice, democracy, and urban development. Ulrika Flink, the Artistic Director, presents a program that delves into the influence of voice and language on personal and collective expressions of rights. The program emphasizes the importance of interconnectedness recognizing oneself in others. It brings together practitioners who engage in collective thinking, incorporating powerful language, poetry, and listening tools.

Through this combination, the program sheds light on the consequences of structural violence and advocates for alternative forms of resistance and radical liberation.


OPENING HOURS
Thursday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday: 12–17h

DURING THE FESTIVAL


Meditation Room
September 6th, 2024–10th October 2024
Open Wednesday–Sunday 12:00–17:00

"Altar Practice with Mmabatho Thobejane" [Saturday 21st September 14:00]

Mmabatho Thobejane (she/they) is a South African cultural worker and ngaka ya setso (traditional healer) based in Stockholm. At the moment she spends most of her time as a producer at MDT – Moderna Dansteatern, one of Sweden’s leading venues for contemporary choreography and performance. She has curated exhibitions and events for institutions such as Index – The Swedish Contemporary Art Foundation, Blå Stället, and Tensta Konsthall. Through Sonic Insurrections, an ongoing collaboration with curator, writer, and researcher Tawanda Appiah, she co-curates a series of gatherings that center sound as a medium. She has published texts in [In Review] and Errant Journal. Above all, her research-centered practice explores, immerses in, and unfolds, the ‘otherwise’.

Meditation Room opens the next artistic program at Konsthall C, Sacred Spaces, where artists reflect on spirituality, address questions of religion and society, and experiment with occultism.

Reimagined at Konsthall C, the original Meditation Room, which first opened in 1952 at the United Nations headquarters in New York, aspired to serve as a multi-faith, room of quiet for contemplative, spiritual reflection in the vision of an ideal, peaceful, “new world order.”

The room was initiated by Wallace K. Harrison, chief architect of the UN, and renovated by Dag Hammarskjöld, former secretary general of the UN, who redesigned the space to adhere to his vision of twentieth century internationalism. In 1957, the Meditation room reopened with an abstract, in situ fresco produced by artist Bo Beskow, a 6-tonne iron ore stone altar donated by the Swedish monarchy, and benches produced by designer Carl Malmsten.

Hammarskjöld wrote of the Meditation Room:“The stone in the middle of the room reminds us also of the firm and permanent in a world of movement and change...Of iron, man has forged his swords, of iron he has also made his plowshares. Of iron he has constructed tanks, but of iron he has likewise built homes for man.”

“There is an ancient saying that the sense of a vessel is not its shell but the void. So it is with this room. It is for those who come here to fill that void with what they find in their center of stillness.”

Drawing on Hammarskjöld’s legacy as a diplomat, economist, and spiritual man of letters, the Meditation Room will be used as a space to host critical political discussions and reflect on the role of Sweden in global affairs historically and today. We will also hold community gatherings, reading nights, and meditation sessions.

The full program will be released at the end of August.



https://www.konsthallc.se

Cigarrvägen 14, 123 57 Farsta

Liljevalchs

Liljevalchs belongs to the City of Stockholm and was inaugurated in 1916 as the first public art space for contemporary art in Sweden. Today, Liljevalchs stays true to its founding intentions of nurturing an art institution of national and international status, showing the most relevant contemporary art. The original building was designed by architect Carl Bergsten and is located on the scenic Djurgården in Stockholm. The new extension Liljevalchs+ was completed in autumn 2021, designed by architect Gert Wingårdh in collaboration with glass designer Ingegerd Råman.

Photo: Mattias Lindbäck
Photo: Mattias Lindbäck


OPENING HOURS:
Thursday: 11–20h
Friday–Sunday: 11–17h


DURING THE FESTIVAL


September 22, 13.00
Dynamic Resistance (for Liljevalchs), 2024
Performance by Jojo Ahlkvist and Hedda Bauer
The queer power play Dynamic Resistance is a site specific performance, first created in 2018 by artists Jojo Ahlkvist and Hedda Bauer. In the work, a range of performers move through, and resonate with, the site and its visitors approaching themes such as invisibility, inclusiveness and exclusiveness. Different ways of performing power, or the lack thereof, in public spaces. All costumes worn by the performers are made specifically for the site, in this case the premises of Liljevalchs, to echo its history and challenge its conditions.

Dynamic Resistance has previously taken place at Kristianstads konsthall (2022), Cabaret Voltaire and Münsterhof in Zürich (2021) and Akademie der Bildenden Künstein Wien (2018).



https://liljevalchs.se


Liljevalchs+, Falkenbergsgatan 3, 115 21 Stockholm

MDT

MDT is one of Sweden’s leading venues for contemporary choreography and performance and a co-production platform. We are situated in a reconstructed torpedo workshop on the island of Skeppsholmen in Stockholm and our facilities include one main stage and two studios. We co-produce, host and present both international and Sweden-based dance artists with the aim of providing space for both artists and audiences to develop, discuss and experiment within contemporary dance and choreography.

"Sweet & Sticky". Photo: Sebastian Berthold
"Sweet & Sticky". Photo: Sebastian Berthold


DURING THE FESTIVAL


MONSTRA – a choreography for 5 humans and 5 plants.
MONSTRA is a dance ritual for the sacred and complex relationship between humans and the earth that carries us. The work is presented by The Public Art Agency Sweden in collaboration with Moderna dansteatern, MDT, as part of September Sessions.

MONSTRA is directed by choreographer Elisabete Finger and visual artist Manuela Eichner, and is created and performed in collaboration with Barabara Elias (Mariza Virgolino), Danielli Mendes, Josefa Pereira, Patricia Bergantin and Mariana Costa.

Elisabete Finger and Manuela Eichner work together since 2015 mixing techniques and principles from choreography and collage. Their research evokes a certain “political ecology of people and things”, proposing other logics and organizations for this ensemble. Their artworks problematize the certainties and contradictions of what is generally taken as organic and artificial, natural and cultural. Together they made: COREOCOLAGEM (2015), Eu-Planta (2016), MONSTRA (2017) and RUN FAST BITE HARD (2023).

MONSTRA is a part of “All my relations” – a new series of art projects developed by Public Art Agency Sweden that together with various artistic practices explores the potential of ritual to open up space for forms of togetherness and belonging.

Read more about the work

Free entry! Secure your spot here

Costume: Lu Mugayar.
Photo: Debby Gram.
Video: Estúdio Baile_Aline Belfort.
Producer: Corpo Rastreado / Corpo a For a.
Support and artistic residency: Casa Líquida and Casa Juisi.
A part of the Public Art Agency Sweden's "All my relations series", which through artistic practices examines the ability of ritual to create space for reflection, togetherness and belonging.


https://mdtsthlm.se

Slupskjulsvägen 30, 111 49 Stockholm

Mint

Mint is a non-profit exhibition space situated in the Workers' Educational Association in central Stockholm, initiated in 2019 by curators Emily Fahlén and Asrin Haidari. Focusing on contemporary art and poetry, Mint is embracing experimental practices, cross-generational encounters and site-specific interventions. As the practice of a museum relates to – and is in dialogue with – its collection, Mint allows its program to be inspired and directed by the history of the building and its events, struggles, organisations and cultural expressions.

Installation view, "Third Eye Butterfly", Mint 2022
Installation view, "Third Eye Butterfly", Mint 2022


OPENING HOURS
Thursday: 17–20 (opening)
Friday: 11–18
Saturday: 12–18
Sunday: 12–16


DURING THE FESTIVAL


LOVE TEST: Cruising for a Bruising – Rosa Aiello & Dylan Aiello 
(Performance 19 september, Sandlersalen, Sveavägen 41, 20.30)

Book your ticket here

LOVE TEST: Cruising for a Bruising is a collaboration between artist Rosa Aiello and actor Dylan Aiello. Building on a lifelong creative collaboration, the siblings stitch together film and live performance to stage the slippery dynamics of testing love, attention-seeking, and pushing past thresholds of social comfort—power plays in search of meaningful connection. This piece is made up of short comic routines, or “Lazzi”, performance units from Commedia dell’Arte theatre used to construct, break into, and unravel plots. Here they serve to destabilise the roles we take on as friends, family, professionals, lovers. LOVE TEST puts a spotlight on the urge to act, to control, to make something happen: it is a variety show, an ecstatic conversation, a road trip, a succession of interruptions, asking “Who is in charge?” The one behind the camera, in front of the audience, the one driving, the one watching?

The original piece was commissioned by Anorak e.V, and premiered at their location in the Green House, Berlin in May 2023. It features film footage by Laura Langer and filmed appearances by Laura Langer, Arianna Calgaro, Leslie Ewen, Victor Jacono, Maya Misfud, Tori Sasso-Briggs, Scarlett Stitt, and Katherine Ward.

LOVE TEST: P.O.V.
(Exhibition 19.9 – 27.10, 2024)
In the main space of MINT Rosa Aiello and Dylan Aiello will also be mounting a solo exhibition of new work, a second chapter: LOVE TEST: P.O.V, featuring footage shot this April with their family and community in Lamezia Terme, Calabria. These new video installations experiment with how the gaze functions to delineate belonging, to give rise to connection and to discipline, within groups and between individuals.


https://m-i-n-t.se

Sveavägen 41, 111 40 Stockholm

Public Art Agency Sweden

Public Art Agency Sweden’s mission is for art to be accessible and innovative where we live and work. We create and manage the cultural heritage of the future through producing public art and acquiring art for the state’s art collection.


OPENING HOURS
Fr 20.9.2024, 21:30-22:30
Sö 22.9.2024, 15:00-16:00
Sö 22.9.2024, 18:00-19:00



DURING THE FESTIVAL


MONSTRA – a choreography for 5 humans and 5 plants.
MONSTRA is a dance ritual for the sacred and complex relationship between humans and the earth that carries us. The work is presented by The Public Art Agency Sweden in collaboration with Moderna dansteatern, MDT, as part of September Sessions.

MONSTRA is directed by choreographer Elisabete Finger and visual artist Manuela Eichner, and is created and performed in collaboration with Barabara Elias (Mariza Virgolino), Danielli Mendes, Josefa Pereira, Patricia Bergantin and Mariana Costa.

Elisabete Finger and Manuela Eichner work together since 2015 mixing techniques and principles from choreography and collage. Their research evokes a certain “political ecology of people and things”, proposing other logics and organizations for this ensemble. Their artworks problematize the certainties and contradictions of what is generally taken as organic and artificial, natural and cultural. Together they made: COREOCOLAGEM (2015), Eu-Planta (2016), MONSTRA (2017) and RUN FAST BITE HARD (2023).

MONSTRA is a part of “All my relations” – a new series of art projects developed by Public Art Agency Sweden that together with various artistic practices explores the potential of ritual to open up space for forms of togetherness and belonging.

Read more about the work

Free entry! Secure your spot here

Costume: Lu Mugayar.
Photo: Debby Gram.
Video: Estúdio Baile_Aline Belfort.
Producer: Corpo Rastreado / Corpo a For a.
Support and artistic residency: Casa Líquida and Casa Juisi.
A part of the Public Art Agency Sweden's "All my relations series", which through artistic practices examines the ability of ritual to create space for reflection, togetherness and belonging.

Rouge Ravager

Get your ticket for the Saturday programme at Skandia here

The second edition of September Sessions presents Rouge Ravager – a specially curated program by Yaby (Madrid). It will unfold at the curious setting of Skandia, a cinema inaugurated in 1923 with an imaginative design by one of the leading Swedish architects of the time, Gunnar Asplund. The deep red, dimly lit interior of Skandia draws attention to the instancy of felt space, its here and now. But like any other cinema, this is a place of representation where experience is taken from one situation to another. Asplund’s desire was to create an atmospheric environment for film projection that followed the prevailing style trend of the United States: the indoors was conceived to evoke the outdoors environment. Velvet, the screen and an invocated elsewhere intermingle and set the tone for the curated program Rouge Ravager.


Rouge Ravager looks at the performative side of visual art through a series of offsite pieces that engage with “liveness” —they happen, they do something, they conjure up time and respond theatrically to the narratives staged by a particular space. Like in the architectural and cinematic demeanor of Skandia, notions of here and elsewhere underlie the works of the selected artists, pulling the audience to different settings and pointing their attention to different places or moments where a sense of meaning or at least completeness might be located. Presentness gets boosted through anticipation and spark, charged with conjecture, tropes, wariness and hanging emotions.


Hereness, thereness and presentness bring up questions about the import of different sensory planes, social adjustments, how instants of engagement happen or last, and how closeness and distancing shape those collective feelings that will become significant. If performance names an “actualized sphere,” we can see this group of dispersed and ephemeral artistic gestures as contending with the palpability of certain situations or atmospheres, pondering their materiality, textures, chemistry, their entry points and the conditions of life that they afford.


Artists within Rouge Ravager include Alex Margo Arden, Sam Cottington, Craig Jun Li, z.No scott, Cara Tolmie, among others.


Beatriz Ortega Botas and Alberto Vallejo founded Yaby in 2017, at that time an independent art space in Madrid which stayed open until 2022. There, they programmed readings, performances and exhibitions. After closing their own space, they continue working together as an independent team, and have curated projects at Joan Miró Foundation (Barcelona), EACC (Castellón), Vleeshal (Middelburg), ARCO (Madrid), La Casa Encendida (Madrid), and Hangar (Barcelona).





Artist Bios

Alex Margo ArdenAlex Margo Arden (1994, based in London) is an artist whose work uses theatrical methodologies to interrogate the production, interpretation, restoration, and restaging of histories. Through her conceptual research projects she often employs remaking and reperformance to question authority, authenticity, and labour. She has been thinking about the strength of liminal moments before performances and preparing a new commission in which she will elaborate on this idea of thresholds, on the barriers between audience and representation and the potential of activating both collective “safety” and the possibility of danger.

Sam CottingtonSam Cottington (1993) is an artist and writer based between London and Frankfurt. His written work takes form as plays, novellas and short stories and his artistic work spans painting, sculpture, video and installation. He studied Art and Art History at Goldsmiths University in London and is currently studying Fine Art at Städelschule in Frankfurt. His first novella People Person was published by JOAN in 2023. Recent exhibitions included zaza’, Milan (2023), Ginny on Frederick, London (2022) and Yaby, Madrid (2020).

"CJ" Craig Jun Li “CJ” Craig Jun Li (1998, China) is an artist based in Brooklyn, New York (Munsee Lenape land). Driven by research interests in circulation and semiotics, Li’s work often configures as inconstant installations utilizing perishable materials and architectural elements. Their practice aims to investigate the osciation between a given subject and how it’s perceived in relation to image and material production.

z.No scottz.No scott. is the benign ghost


behind the guidepost


disguised in guy’s clothes;


a rhizome [comprised of rhinestones]


crying in tritones.


A poet by origin, z.No’s work thrives off the page, in the undercommons. Turning colonial language against itself, z. works to forge phonetics into a weapon of creation — exposing the spectacle of Self like/as a dirty joke.


z.No performs wherever and whenever he can, always taking it too far.


A recent graduate of the CalArts’ Writing & Performativity MFA, z. won the 2022 Emi Kuriyama Thesis Award for his manuscript, ynglytch. z.No’s work can be found in Archway Editions, SPOIL (Hilo Press), second factory (Ugly Duckling Presse), Broken Lens Journal and, soon, in The Journal for Dominican Writers.

Cara TolmieCara Tolmie (1984, born in Glasgow, based in Stockholm) spends much of her time oscillating between contexts as an artist, musician, performer, DJ, pedagogue and researcher. Her works have been performed and exhibited widely at art galleries, music festivals, biennials, conferences and in the public space – both as solo presentations and collaborative projects. Her practice at large centers itself upon the voice, the body, and the complex ties between the two. All at once subjective as well as socially determined, she explores voice and body as two co-dependent entities able to confirm as well as contradict one another. Within this she often explores performative techniques that dis/reorient the listening relationship between the singer and her audience through live uses of the defamiliarised, uncanny and sampled singing voice. Cara Tolmie is currently a PhD candidate in Critical Sonic Practice at Konstfack, Stockholm.

Locations


ACCELERATORFrescativägen 26A, 114 18 Stockholm
https://acceleratorsu.art
Opening hours:
Thursday: TBA

Friday: TBA

Saturday & Sunday: TBA


BIO SKANDIA
Drottninggatan 82, 111 36 Stockholm
bioskandia.se


BONNIERS KONSTHALL

Torsgatan 19, 113 21 Stockholm
bonnierskonsthall.se


FILMFORM
Svarvargatan 2, 112 49 Stockholm
https://www.filmform.com
Opening hours:
Friday: TBA

IASPIS
Maria Skolgata 83, 118 53 Stockholm
www.iaspis.se
Opening hours:

Thursday: TBA

Friday: TBA
INDEXKungsbro strand 19, 112 26 Stockholm
https://indexfoundation.se
Opening hours:
Thursday: TBA

Friday: TBA

Saturday & Sunday: TBA
INSTITUTE FOR FUTURE STUDIES

Holländargatan 13, 111 36 Stockholm
Link

KONSTHALL C
Cigarrvägen 14, 123 57 Farsta
https://www.konsthallc.se
Opening hours:
Thursday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday: TBA

LILJEVALCHS+

Falkenbergsgatan 3, 115 21 Stockholm

Opening hours during September Sessions:

Thursday: 11–20h

Friday, Saturday & Sunday: 11–17h
MDT
Slupskjulsvägen 30, 111 49 Stockholm

https://mdtsthlm.se
Opening hours:
Saturday: TBA

MINT
Sveavägen 41, 111 40 Stockholm
https://m-i-n-t.se
Opening hours:
Friday: TBA

Saturday & Sunday: TBA

About


CONTACT
info@septembersessions.se
COLOPHON
Founders: Emily Fahlén (Director Mint) and Marti Manen (Director Index)
Curators Rouge Ravager: Yaby
Producers: Alice Söderqvist and Isabella Tjäder
Coordinator: Nora Pollak
Graphic Design: Aron Kullander-Östling
Web Development: Robert Fransson

With generous support from the City of Stockholm, The Swedish Arts Council, and the Region of Stockholm. We would also like to thank the Embassy of Spain in Stockholm for their support.