SEPTEMBER SESSIONS
— A Contemporary Art Festival in Stockholm
10–13.9 2026

September Sessions is a four-day art festival in Stockholm, initiated in 2023 by Index – The Swedish Contemporary Art Foundation and Mint. While celebrating the diversity of Stockholm’s art scene, September Sessions also serves as a platform for independent curators. Each edition features a specially curated program by an invited curator, temporarily activating the city through projects presented at unique locations.

For the 2026 edition, a series of exhibitions and events will be presented by Accelerator, Antics, Beau Travail, Bonniers Konsthall, Filmform, Fylkingen, IASPIS, Index, Konsthall C, Konträr, Liljevalchs, MDT, Mint, and Tensta Konsthall, alongside a specially curated program by Joel Valabrega.

This year’s curated program leans into emoness, into teenage gloom and late-night moods where intensity, irony, and quiet despair blur together. It stays with that unstable mix of not taking things too seriously while feeling everything too much. Vampires and zombies drift through it, alongside more ethereal presences that soften the edges, holding together fear, humour, pleasure, and a lingering melancholia.



Joel Valabrega is a curator based in Porto and Milan. In 2024, she curated the Luxembourg Pavilion at the 60th International Venice Biennale and the Present Future section of Artissima Art Fair (November 2024, November 2025, and the upcoming edition in November 2026). From 2020 to 2024, she was Curator of Performance and Moving Image at Mudam – Museum of Modern Art Luxembourg, and in 2025, she became Head of Programme / Curator at Galeria Municipal do Porto.

Recent projects include the exhibition programme in the framework of Index – Biennale of Media Arts (2026), the performance festival Fogo Fátuo (2025), the experimental exhibition Workers in Song by Billy Bultheel & James Richards (2024), the performative group exhibition After Laughter Comes Tears (2023), and the performance festival The Illusion of the End (2022).

Her curatorial work—spanning exhibitions, performance programs, and commissions—has involved collaborations with artists including Tarek Atoui, Alexandra Bachzetsis, Cecilia Bengolea, Ari Benjamin Meyers, Pauline Boudry & Renate Lorenz, Darius Dolatyari-Dolatdoust, Lara Favaretto, Stina Fors, Trajal Harrell, Ligia Lewis, Eliane Radigue, and Nora Turato, among others.

dream baby dream


The fourth edition of September Sessions presents dream baby dream — a programme curated by Joel Valabrega, including work by Josefin Arnell, Chiara Bartl-Salvi, Ange Halliwell, Industria Indipendente with Annamaria Ajmone, Antonina Nowacka, and Grace composed by Daniele Guerrini (aka Heith), Leone Ciocchetti, Pietro Agostoni, and Valentina De Zanche. Unfolding across various locations throughout the city of Stockholm, the programme takes place in venues including Cues, Fylkingen, the Italian Cultural Institute, and MDT.

dream baby dream leans into emoness, teenage gloom and late-night moods where intensity, irony, and quiet despair blur together. It stays with that unstable mix of not taking things too seriously while feeling everything too much. Vampires and zombies drift through it, alongside more ethereal presences that soften the edges, holding together fear, humour, pleasure, and a lingering melancholia.

Taking its cue from the eponymous track by the American musical duo Suicide, the programme returns to adolescence not as a life stage but as a condition. Across performances, concerts, and moving image works, crushes, obsessions, transformations, and hauntings become ways of moving through the world.

Throughout the programme, bodies, voices, and narratives are continually remade. Asphalt becomes an instrument, voices dissolve into architecture, dreams take material form, and fictional characters reappear as guides for navigating uncertain realities. Folklore, horror, pop culture, and speculative imagination intersect in works that move between intimacy and theatricality, tenderness and roughness. Rather than offering a coherent narrative, dream baby dream unfolds as a constellation of emotional states and shifting identities, inhabiting the uneasy overlap between fantasy and everyday life.

Suspended somewhere between sincerity and performance, darkness and desire, the works gathered in this edition inhabit that peculiar space where emotional excess, camp, horror, and tenderness become difficult to tell apart.


Grace, 2026, Domenico Nicoletti.
Grace, 2026, Domenico Nicoletti.


Grace
Concert
Friday, September 11, 2026, 18.00–19.00
The Italian Cultural Institute, Gärdesgatan 14, 115 27 Stockholm
Free admission

She lives in illusion. Emotion is skill. Love a device. My man is a girl, Grace serves the night. With her on my mind I am living a poetic life.

Grace is a new project formed by Valentina De Zanche, Daniele Guerrini, Leone Ciocchetti and Pietro Agostoni.


Ange Halliwell, photo: Naïa Combary.
Ange Halliwell, photo: Naïa Combary.


Ange Halliwell – Live
Concert
Friday, September 11, 2026, 21.15–22.00
Fylkingen, Sveavägen 41, 111 40 Stockholm
TICKETS

Ange Halliwell is a musician and multidisciplinary artist whose practice unfolds through sound, performance, and image. Rooted in the landscapes of southwest France, his work explores the emotional and symbolic resonances of the natural world through compositions that combine hypnotic harp arpeggios, layered sonic textures, and a wide vocal range encompassing sung, spoken, and screamed forms. Drawing from traditional music, lyric poetry, folklore, and horror, Halliwell creates immersive environments where tenderness and unease coexist. Across his musical and visual practice, he develops a distinctive universe that is at once luminous and melancholic, inviting audiences into spaces shaped by memory, imagination, and transformation.

For this performance, Halliwell creates a dark and immersive sonic environment in which harp and voice unfold through slow, atmospheric compositions. Drawing on folklore, dream states, and ghostly presences, the work moves between moments of delicacy and intensity. Through layered sound and a restrained, non-frontal stage presence, the performance fosters a sense of intimacy and closeness, inviting audiences into a contemplative atmosphere shaped by melancholy, mystery, and imagination.

Halliwell’s concert is presented in collaboration with Fylkingen’s two-day festival celebrating their opening in ABF Huset at Sveavägen 41. More information on their opening festival is available here.

Those who purchase tickets for the Saturday September Sessions performances at MDT are welcome to choose the discounted option for the Friday festival ticket at Fylkingen.


Josefin Arnell, Beast and Feast, 25 min, 4k, stereo, 2023 (still).
Josefin Arnell, Beast and Feast, 25 min, 4k, stereo, 2023 (still).


Josefin Arnell
Screening
Saturday, September 12, 2026, 17.00–18.00
Cues
*Free admission
Tickets are free but limited, RSVP will be essential. Get in touch at info@cues.cx to reserve your seat. More information will follow after confirmation.

Josefin Arnell is an artist and filmmaker. Working across film, performance, and collaborative processes, her practice examines how systems of power, social hierarchies, and forms of structural violence shape everyday life. Through storytelling, dark humour, and carefully constructed fictional scenarios, Arnell creates works in which characters navigate the contradictions and pressures of contemporary society. Often developed through participatory methods and collective encounters, her projects use imagination and role-play as tools for questioning dominant social narratives and exploring alternative ways of relating to one another.

On the occasion of September Sessions, Arnell presents Buurthuis 2 and Beast and Feast, two films that combine fantasy, humour, and social critique. Realised in collaboration with the community centre De Witte Boei in Amsterdam, Buurthuis 2 follows a cast of vampires, wizards, and zombies caught in a real-estate scheme to transform a residential neighbourhood into a luxury spa resort. Drawing on the history of Dutch community centres, the film reflects on questions of citizenship, social welfare, and collective responsibility. In Beast and Feast, Arnell turns to cycles of power and violence through a shifting constellation of characters in which victims and perpetrators continually exchange positions. Set within a horse-breeding stable, the film examines desire, control, and the ways living beings are enlisted in larger social and political structures. Together, the two works employ speculative narratives and genre conventions to illuminate the tensions and inequalities embedded within contemporary life.

This screening is presented in collaboration with Cues and IASPIS; tickets are free but limited, RSVP will be essential. Get in touch at info@cues.cx to reserve your seat. More information will follow after confirmation.

Arnell is currently an IASPIS Artist in Residence in Stockholm from May 4 to October 25, 2026.

More information on her residency and current research can be found here.


HEAT ISLAND x Rakete Festival, photo: Paola Lesslhumer.
HEAT ISLAND x Rakete Festival, photo: Paola Lesslhumer.


HEAT ISLAND
Chiara Bartl-Salvi
Performance
Saturday, September 12, 2026, 20.00–20.45
MDT Moderna Dansteatern, Slupskjulsvägen 30, 111 49 Stockholm
TICKETS

Chiara Bartl-Salvi is a choreographer, performer, and visual artist based between Vienna and Paris. Working across performance, sound, and visual art, her practice investigates the relationship between body, material, and environment. Central to her work is the shoe as both sculptural object and performative instrument, generating movement, rhythm, sound, and light. Through immersive and interdisciplinary formats, Bartl-Salvi explores questions of temporality, transformation, and collective experience, drawing connections between contemporary choreography, popular culture, and material processes.

Heat Island (2025) examines friction as both a physical force and a social condition. Set against an urban soundscape of traffic and the ambient sounds of summer insects, the work unfolds through the repeated scraping of asphalt with specially prepared shoes, transforming the ground into a site of choreographic, sonic, and visual production. Oscillating between collective rhythm and fragmented gesture, the performance draws on references from digital culture and contemporary modes of perception. Through its attention to surfaces, labour, and ecological tension, Heat Island reflects on urban temporality while proposing a choreography of adaptation and transformation.

Bartl-Salvi’s performance within September Sessions is presented in collaboration with MDT. With MDT’s pay-what-you-can pricing, those who purchase tickets for the Friday festival ticket at Fylkingen are welcome to choose a discounted option for the Saturday September Sessions performances at MDT.


Heat Island is produced by Chiara Bartl-Salvi, with co-production by Tanzquartier Wien and Toihaus Salzburg. Heat Island is supported by the Federal Ministry for Housing, Arts, Culture, Media and Sport of the Republic of Austria, Gerriets, Tanzquartier Wien, and Toihaus Theater Salzburg.

Credits:
Concept, choreography and direction: Chiara Bartl-Salvi
With: Chihiro Araki, Chiara Bartl-Salvi, Elena Francalanci
Sound: Paul Ebhart
Stage and shoes: Patrick Winkler
Light design: Oskar Ott
Voice: Chiara Bartl-Salvi
Choral composition: Leon Leder
Management: Nina Samadi



QUIXOTE_A ROSE IS NOT A ROSE, photo: Rafa Jacinto.
QUIXOTE_A ROSE IS NOT A ROSE, photo: Rafa Jacinto.


QUIXOTE_A ROSE IS NOT A ROSE
Industria Indipendente with Annamaria Ajmone
Performance
Saturday, September 12, 2026, 21.30–22.10
MDT Moderna Dansteatern, Slupskjulsvägen 30, 111 49 Stockholm
TICKETS

INDUSTRIA INDIPENDENTE is a performance and visual arts collective founded in 2005 by Erika Z. Galli and Martina Ruggeri. Their practice is rooted in language, understood as an expanded form of writing that extends beyond the page to inhabit bodies, spaces, images, and collective experiences. Working across different scales and formats, the collective develops projects that explore alternative modes of being together, questioning dominant notions of productivity, identity, and social organization. Through performance, installation, and text-based works, INDUSTRIA INDIPENDENTE creates speculative environments where individual and collective narratives can be reimagined.

Annamaria Ajmone is a dancer and choreographer whose research centres on the body as a mutable and ever-evolving material. Working across different formats and durations, her practice emerges through encounters, exchanges, and collaborative processes, exploring movement as a space of transformation and possibility.

For QUIXOTE A ROSE IS NOT A ROSE, INDUSTRIA INDIPENDENTE and Annamaria Ajmone bring together language, sound, and choreography in a shared exploration of imagination and transformation. Conceived as a textual, sonic, and choreographic score, the performance centres on the figure of an ultra-feminine knight: a future Don Quixote who navigates uncertainty not through conflict, but through acts of imagination and reinvention. Moving between narrative and abstraction, the work unfolds as a speculative journey through possible worlds, where identity, desire, and vision remain open, fluid, and continually in the making.

Their performance within September Sessions is presented in collaboration with MDT. With MDT’s pay-what-you-can pricing, those who purchase tickets for the Friday festival ticket at Fylkingen are welcome to choose a discounted option for the Saturday September Sessions performances at MDT.


QUIXOTE A ROSE IS NOT A ROSE is a production by Industria Indipendente and L’Altra Associazione, with the support of BASE (Milan) and Angelo Mai (Rome), La Ménagerie de Verre, as part of the StudioLab program.

Credits:
Text, conception: Industria Indipendente
In collaboration with and with Annamaria Ajmone
Sound: Martina Ruggeri
Voice-over: Céline Sciamma



Antonina Nowacka, photo: Riccardo Caspani.
Antonina Nowacka, photo: Riccardo Caspani.


Songs of the Moon and the Flower
Antonina Nowacka
Concert
Location and Details: Coming Soon
Sunday, September 13, 2026
Kungsholms Kyrka, Kaplansbacken 1, 112 24 Stockholm
Free admission, 16:15–17:15

Antonina Nowacka’s work investigates voice as an artistic medium through its relationship to space and aesthetic sensibility. Drawing inspiration from nature, dreams, and otherworldly narratives, she creates intimate soundscapes that intertwine sound, architecture, and imagination. Informed by traditional music and liminal states between consciousness and dreaming, her practice explores the expressive potential of the voice while opening spaces for reflection, resonance, and shared aesthetic experience.

Songs of the Moon and the Flower reflects Antonina Nowacka’s enduring engagement with the natural world and its symbolic dimensions. Performed with voice and strings, the work unfolds through minimal yet emotionally resonant compositions that draw on Mediterranean sonic landscapes and contemporary imaginaries. Through a careful interplay of sound, light, and architecture, the performance transforms the brutalist church into a space of resonance and collective attention, inviting audiences into an environment where imagination, memory, and sensory perception converge.

With support from the Polish Institute in Stockholm.

Programme


THURSDAY 10/9

17.00–20.00 — Opening:
RECANTATION – Ruby Nilsson
Location:

17.00–20.00 — Opening:
Art Club2000
Location: Antics

21.00–22.00 — Performance:
I'M JUST A SYMPTOM OF A MORAL DECAY – Marie Karlberg

Post-show bar open
Location: Konträr*


Friday 11.9


09.30–16.00 — Filmform Open House:
Breakfast & Presentation for Curators and Scholars
Location: Filmform (please RSVP to info@filmform.com)

— Doors open at 09:30
— In-depth presentation 10:00–12:00
— Open house for drop-in meetings 12:00–16:00

12.00–17.00 — Guided Tour:
The Hand That Tells, The Hand That Waters – Maxime Hourani – Exhibition Tour and Participatory Performance

Location: Konsthall C


17.00–19.00 — Opening:
Remnants – Group exhibition
Location: Tensta konsthall


18.00–19.00 — Concert:
Grace, dream baby dream
Location: The Italian Cultural Institute

19.00–01.00 — Fylkingen ABF Opening day 1:
20.00 — Concert: Brenda el Rayes
21.15 — Concert: Ange Halliwell [dream baby dream]

22.30 — Concert: Yara Asmar

23.15–01.00 — Jean-Paul Tremont (DJ set) + Bar

Short intermissions with DJ sets in the bar between acts

Location: Fylkingen*


21.00–22.00 — Performance:
I'M JUST A SYMPTOM OF A MORAL DECAY – Marie Karlberg
Location: Konträr*



Saturday 12.9


12.00–17.00 — Guided Tour:
The Hand That Tells, The Hand That Waters – Maxime Hourani
Exhibition Tour and Participatory Performance

Location: Konsthall C


12.00–14.00 — Performance:
WonderWaves – Anna Öberg with Elize Arvefjord and dancers Viktor Fröjd and Jon Bugge Mariussen

Location: Accelerator


14.00–15.00 — Performance:
Answer me, Pythia – Ongoing Ventriloquism Research
Stina Fors

Location: Accelerator


16.00–17.00 — Performance:
The Defeated: Testimony – with Etienne Glaser, Felicia Mulinari and Saga Gärde (in Swedish)

Location: Bonniers Konsthall


17.00–20.00 — Opening:
Super – Bill Hayden
Location: Beau Travail


17.00–18.00 — Screening:
Josefin Arnell
[dream baby dream]

In collaboration with IASPIS
Location: Cues**


17.00–00.30 — September Sessions at MDT:

17.00–19.00 — Performance:
TEMPO – Josefina Björk

20.00–20.45 — Performance:
Heat Island – Chiara Bartl-Salvi
[dream baby dream]*
21.30–22.10 — Performance:
QUIXOTE_A ROSE IS NOT A ROSE Industria Indipendente with Annamaria Ajmone, [dream baby dream]*
22.10–00.30 — Post-show bar open
Location: MDT*


19.00–01.00 — Fylkingen ABF Opening day 2:

20.00 — Concert: Luka Aron

21.15 — Concert: Maria W Horn

22.30 — Concert: Ka Baird

23.15–01.00 — Ophelia (DJ set) + Bar

Short intermissions with DJ sets in the bar between acts.

Location: Fylkingen*



Sunday 13.9


13.00–15.00 — Participatory Performance:
Choose the way ritual – Ylva Snöfrid

Location: Liljevalchs


16.15–17.15 — Concert:
Songs of the Moon and the Flower – Antonina Nowacka
[dream baby dream]
Location: Kungsholms Kyrka


*Ticket needed. For more information, addresses, and the full schedule, please visit septembersessions.se

** Capacity at Cues is limited. RSVP info@cues.cx to reserve your seat.

ARTISTS [dream baby dream]

Josefin ArnellChiara Bartl-SalviAnge HalliwellIndustria Indipendente + Annamaria AjmoneAntonina Nowacka and Grace composed by Daniele Guerrini (aka Heith)Leone CiocchettiPietro Agostoni +
Valentina De Zanche


ARTISTS [2026 September Sessions program]




ArtClub2000Ikram AbdulkadirAbsalonLuka AronÖberg/ArvefjordYara AsmarKa BairdZbynek BaladránSissel M BerghJosefina BjörkChiara BugattiSimnikiwe BuhlunguAli CherriDon CherryKudzanai ChiuraiNina Cramer and Ellen NymanDoug CrutchfieldÖyvind FahlströmHarun FarockiStina ForsEtienne GlaserJean-Luc GodardAne Hjort GuttuSaga GärdeBill HaydenSalad HilowleMaria W HornMaxime HouraniAvant JoikHamedine KaneMarie KarlbergHassan KhanKateryna LysovenkoErnest MancobaWonga MancobaAsier MendizabalFelicia MulinariPeter NestlerRuby NilssonNUGDaniela OrtizValerie OsoufGunilla Palmstierna WeissChristoffer PauesBrenda el RayesJulia RensbergSamuel RichterLenke RothmanLina SelanderYlva SnöfridPeter WeissElme Ämting

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 programme 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.



OPENING HOURS
Thursday: Opening Night (Pre-Opening, invite only) 18:00–21:00
Friday: 11:00–17:00 (Preview open to the public)
Saturday: 12:00–16:00 (Official opening day)
Sunday: 12:00–16:00


DURING THE FESTIVAL


Saturday 12.9, 12:00–14:00
Performance: WonderWaves – Anna Öberg with Elize Arvefjord and dancers Viktor Fröjd and Jon Bugge Mariussen
Location: Accelerator
WonderWaves is a choreographic installation at the intersection of dance, sculpture, and sound art. The work is inspired by partner dance as situated knowledge and by transmission as both a choreographic and speculative method. At its core is the question of how non-verbal, collective experiences can deepen our relationship to both our surroundings and one another.

A wooden floor with built-in speakers serves as both a dance floor and an audience space. The installation is activated by dancers Viktor Fröjd and Jon Bugge Mariussen, who have backgrounds in house and folk dance, respectively.

WonderWaves, 2026, presented at Accelerator, is a continuation of Landscapes (2025) with dancers Viktor Fröjd and Jon Bugge Mariussen.

WonderWaves is a part of the exhibition The Owl of Minerva.


Saturday 12.9, 14:00–15:00
Performance: Answer me, Pythia – Ongoing Ventriloquism Research
Stina Fors

Was the Nutcracker the first ventriloquist dummy — or merely a mouth waiting for a voice? Ventriloquism has been described as divine, demonic and comical — depending on who is listening. Answer me, Pythia continues this tradition.

Answer me, Pythia is Stina Fors’ ongoing work with ventriloquism as an artistic practice. The work focuses on the ventriloquist dummy as an instrument: rhythm, voice and mechanics rather than character. The performance explores the relationship between body and object, between different voices, and what happens when the voice no longer naturally belongs to the body we believe it comes from.

Answer me, Pythia is a part of the exhibition The Owl of Minerva.


The Owl of Minerva –– Absalon, Stina Fors, Hassan Khan, NUG and Öberg/Arvefjord

The exhibition The Owl of Minerva takes as its starting point questions about how knowledge arises and is valued. The title alludes to German philosopher Hegel’s idea that understanding an era becomes possible only in retrospect—“Minerva’s owl takes flight only at dusk”—and is an invitation to reflect on what counts as knowledge and when. The exhibition presents works by five artists: Absalon, Stina Fors, Hassan Khan, NUG and Öberg/Arvefjord. Through installation, performance, painting, sound, and video works, the artists explore ways knowledge can be conveyed. Visitors are met with various expressions of bodies in motion, voices and rhythms.

Within September Sessions 2026, Accelerator will host 2 performances as a part of the exhibition The Owl of Minerva.


Aerpiemaahtoe – Sissel M Bergh, Julia Rensberg, Elme Ämting and Avant Joik

Aerpiemaahtoe invites visitors to reflect on how different knowledge systems shape our individual worldviews and whose lived experiences are recorded in history. The exhibition is presented by Accelerator and Gaaltije Saemien Museume in Staare [Östersund] in collaboration with Bildmuseet in Ubmeje [Umeå] and features works by the artists Sissel M Bergh, Julia Rensberg, Elme Ämting and Avant Joik. The artists work with installation, sculpture, video, sound and performance.

Further information on the exhibitions and performances here.



https://acceleratorsu.art

Frescativägen 26A, 114 18 Stockholm

Antics

Antics is a gallery located at Hudiksvallsgatan in Stockholm. We, the artists Max Ronnersjö and Katarina Sylvan, consider it an artwork in its own right and an investigation into art’s intrinsic value vs. its use-value, explored through a conscious use of marketing, documentation and paratexts. Antics’ conception was inspired by the tradition of artist-run galleries, but primarily by a lack of space for conceptual practices in the Stockholm art scene, be them local or international. However, we do not exclusively exhibit artists explicitly working within the legacy of Conceptual Art, as the criterion is more interesting as a thought than it would be in practice. Antics has been a way for us to take an active part in the Stockholm art scene and to vitalise it — a mission as philanthropic as it is egoistic as we are simultaneously creating the art scene we want to work within as artists. This does not correspond to expecting everything we do to be ”successful” in the eyes of others, nor is that important to us. It is important for us that what we do has good intentions and a sense of urgency. It has to be do-able according to our personal finances and means and we have to preserve a sense of freedom. We also change our minds all the time. We do a show whenever we think there is momentum and we feel excited for it. An artist is often invited to show with us because we’d look forward to talking with them about art. Perhaps you could say that we’re in it for the good conversation. Pleasure is the driving principle. Sometimes not many people show up. Sometimes way too many. Quantity is not important.




OPENING HOURS
Thursday: 17:00–20:00
Friday-Sunday: 12:00–16:00 
Additionally open by appointment


DURING THE FESTIVAL


Thursday 10. 9, 17:00–20:00, Opening: Art Club2000


https://www.antics.se

Hudiksvallsgatan 8, 113 30 Stockholm

Beau Travail

Beau Travail is an artist-run gallery founded by Marie Karlberg in Stockholm in February 2024. With a focus on multidisciplinary, project-based work, the space forgoes exclusive representation in favor of a collaborative curatorial model shaped closely with exhibiting artists. Beau Travail positions itself as a responsive and artist-first platform within the contemporary art landscape.


OPENING HOURS
Saturday: 17:00–20:00


DURING THE FESTIVAL


Saturday 12.9, 17:00–20:00, Opening: Super – Bill Hayden


https://beautravail.se

Skånegatan 108, Stockholm

Bonniers Konsthall

Since it’s opening in 2006, Bonniers Konsthall has commissioned and exhibited works by numerous Swedish and international artists. As a non-collecting institution, Bonniers Konsthall works closely with artists to realize their visions and engages diverse audiences through a range of programmes and publications. Conveying the new is central to our work. Bonniers Konsthall has its roots in the Maria Bonnier Dahlin Foundation, which was created in 1985 by Jeanette Bonnier in memory of her daughter Maria, and which yearly awards grants to young artists.

Photo Jean-Baptiste Béranger
Photo Jean-Baptiste Béranger


OPENING HOURSThu-Sun: 12–18


DURING THE FESTIVAL


Saturday 12.9, 16:00–17:00
Performance: The Defeated: Testimony – with Etienne Glaser, Felicia Mulinari and Saga Gärde
TICKETS

A literary collage by director Saga Gärde with texts by Felicia Mulinari and Peter Weiss.

In 1966, Peter Weiss gave the famous speech "I Come Out of My Hiding Place" at a conference in Princeton, where he describes his journey from a kind of artistic withdrawal to an open political commitment. Today, poet Felicia Mulinari writes a poetics of curse, where curse and accusation are explored as a literary form to construct a contemporary aesthetics of resistance. In the alternation between Weiss and Mulinari, Saga Gärde's collage opens a space where questions of defeat, lack of resistance and responsibility can be articulated. Actor Etienne Glaser, and his relationship to Weiss, actualize the question of what it means to continue a political theatre tradition. The work concludes with a conversation in which the audience is invited to participate.

The Defeated: Testimony is in Swedish and is a part of Bonniers Konsthall’s exhibition The Defeated: The Aesthetics of Resistance 2026


The Defeated: The Aesthetics of Resistance 2026

Zbyněk Baladrán, Chiara Bugatti, Ali Cherri, Öyvind Fahlström, Harun Farocki, Jean-Luc Godard, Ane Hjort Guttu, Hamedine Kane, Kateryna Lysovenko, Asier Mendizabal, Peter Nestler, Daniela Ortiz, Valerie Osouf, Gunilla Palmstierna Weiss, Christoffer Paues, Samuel Richter, Lenke Rothman, Lina Selander, Peter Weiss.

If we want to take on art, literature, we have to treat them against the grain, that is, we have to eliminate all the concomitant privileges and project our own demands into them. In order to come to ourselves, said Heilmann, we have to re-create not only culture but also all science and scholarship by relating them to our concerns. – Peter Weiss, The Aesthetics of Resistance

But who are “we”? And is this still our dream? Can the artworks of the past and the present be convoked for a resistance against the rising fascisms and inequalities of our times? Can culture be a means for community in today’s divided world? In the fall of 2026, Bonniers Konsthall presents a group exhibition that draws on the novel The Aesthetics of Resistance (1975–81), by the Swedish-German author, playwright, and artist Peter Weiss. The exhibition features newly produced works by an international group of artists; historical works and documents from Weiss’s circles and the novel’s world; and a program of lectures, performances, film screenings, and conferences, starting already in the Spring.

The Defeated: The Aesthetics of Resistance 2026 is curated by Kim West (researcher and critic. Stockholm); François Piron (curator, Paris); and Joanna Nordin (Artistic Director Bonniers Konsthall).

Further information is available here.



www.bonnierskonsthall.se

Torsgatan 19, 113 21 Stockholm

Cues

Cues serves as an intermittent venue run by Anton Halla and Annie Åkerman, hosting a variety of presentations centered around the scenario of a bar. Based in a residential cooperative in central Stockholm, it operates in a basement that echoes its former use. The programming consists of artistic responses to using its premises both as backdrop and as a site for informal encounters. Activities have no fixed format or duration and cater to the preferences of each invited guest.

https://www.instagram.com/cues.cx

https://www.cues.cx


OPENING HOURS
Saturday: 17–18


DURING THE FESTIVAL


During September Sessions, Josefin Arnell’s screening is presented in collaboration with Cues and IASPIS. Details can be found above under the dream baby dream .

Please check Cues's website and social media for their September programming and exhibitions.

Filmform

Filmform (est. 1950 in Stockholm) is one of the oldest organizations in the world devoted to video art and experimental film. Originally an independent film co-op, it was later re-organized into a foundation and is now the most important driving force for artists’ moving images in Sweden, working with archiving and distribution. Filmform is an important intermediary between independent filmmakers and governmental agencies and is often engaged as an advisor to and resource for 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’s origin is 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 – and later videos – made it possible to connect to the world and to modern times. Filmform has been the hub of artists' films and videos for several decades. Artists like Viking Eggeling, Peter Weiss, and Gunvor Nelson have been important in this process, and new names are merging into the collection continuously. It is a beautiful coincidence that the first film planned when the association was formed in 1950 was titled 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: 9:30–16:00


DURING THE FESTIVAL


Friday 11.9, 9:30–16:00
Filmform Open House: Breakfast & Presentation for Curators and Scholars


Filmform invites you to an exclusive presentation of their collection and resources for curating and learning on Friday, September 11th. Filmform and its distribution catalogue will be presented in detail, alongside a selection of newly acquired and restored works. This event is primarily intended for curators, writers, researchers, producers, programmers, scholars, and educators. Artists are also welcome to attend.

Schedule:
— Doors open at 09:30
— In-depth presentation 10:00–12:00
— Open house for drop-in meetings 12:00–16:00

A light breakfast will be served.Please RSVP to info@filmform.com to secure your seat and make a reservation for the morning presentation.If you are interested in previewing full-length films and videos from the catalogue, please contact andreas.bertman@filmform.com to receive online screener links to specific works, as well as recommendations based on your research and area of interest. If you’re unable to attend the Open House during September Sessions, don’t hesitate to reach out to Filmform for individual physical or online meetings at a separate occasion.



www.filmform.com


Svarvargatan 2, 112 49 Stockholm

Fylkingen

Fylkingen is an artist-run, nonprofit association for experimental music and art. Founded in 1933, it is one of the world’s oldest forums of its kind.

More info: www.fylkingen.se/sv/p/about


OPENING HOURS
Friday–Saturday: 19:00-01:00

DURING THE FESTIVAL


Friday 11.9 & Saturday 12.9, 19:00–01:00
Fylkingen ABF Opening
TICKETS


After several years of work of finding a permanent venue for their organization, the move is finally happening! Fylkingen looks forward to welcoming you to their new location at Sveavägen 41 with a two-day festival.

During the weekend, they present a varied program with performances, concerts, international and local artists, DJ sets, and newly commissioned music – highlighting Fylkingen's role as a unique place for interdisciplinary expressions and celebrating that the centre of Stockholm gains a new venue for experimental music and art.


Friday 11.9: Opening day 1

20:00 Concert: Brenda el Rayes21:15 Concert: Ange Halliwell dream baby dream22:30 Concert: Yara Asmar
23:15 – 01:00 Jean-Paul Tremont (DJ set) + Bar
Short intermissions with DJ sets in the bar between acts

Full information on Friday’s programme here.


Saturday 12.9: Opening day 2

20:00 Concert: Luka Aron
21:15 Concert: Maria W Horn
22:30 Concert: Ka Baird
23:15–01:00 Ophelia (DJ set) + Bar
Short intermissions with DJ sets in the bar between acts.

Full information on Saturday’s programme here.



https://www.fylkingen.se/

Sveavägen 41, 11134 Stockholm

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
Saturday: 17-18

DURING THE FESTIVAL


Saturday 12.9, 17:00–18:00
Screening: Josefin Arnell [dream baby dream]

During September Sessions, Josefin Arnell’s screening is presented in collaboration with IASPIS and Cues. Details can be found above under the dream baby dream programme.


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: 17–20
Friday: 12–18
Saturday-Sunday: 12–16


DURING THE FESTIVAL


Thursday 10.9, 17:00–20:00
Opening: RECANTATION – Ruby Nilsson

Opening 10 September, Ruby Nilsson’s exhibition ‘RECANTATION’ transforms Index into a theatrical setting for her new video installation.

The exhibition at Index is in many ways a conceptual continuation of Ruby Nilsson’s recent solo RESPAWN, (presented at Inkonst, Malmö, in February 2026) and her ongoing work with dark poetics of trans misogyny. The shift from performance and the context of the stage towards a dramatisation of the exhibition space opens up possibilities for Nilsson to play with dramaturgy through a different set of spatial, textual and temporal parameters.


Ruby Nilsson (SE, b. 1993) is an artist and writer whose work explores how sexual difference is staged through aesthetics of enmity. Across several works, transsexualism functions as an interface of sexual stigma through which hatred, antagonism, and hostility reach their most absurd expression. As a recurring visual strategy, she employs the black box as both a site and a source of theatricality, emphasizing how sexual differentiation is veiled by speculation, fiction, myth, and conspiracy. Nilsson’s work spans performance, video installation, curation, and writing. Her projects unfold as extended series of intricate worldbuilding that together operate as closed systems of investigation, often expanding and evolving with each new installment.

Deeply influenced by her initial training in philosophy, her practice is marked by a strong engagement with text, voice, and orality, particularly the complex language models and vernacular worlds that trans and queer people create as forms of survival and community-making. Inspired by and intertwined with these nano-cultures, her work heightens the visceral, complex, and witty styles and tonalities they produce as tools of endurance.



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.


OPENING HOURS
Thursday-Sunday: 12–17

DURING THE FESTIVAL


Friday 11.9 & Saturday 12.9, 12:00–17:00
Guided Tour: The Hand That Tells, The Hand That Waters – Maxime Hourani – Exhibition Tour and Participatory Performance

The exhibition The Hand That Tells, The Hand That Waters presents newly commissioned work from artist Maxime Hourani, wherein he conjures sacred and profane apparitions encountered in the Sinaitic desert. In addition to a speculative filmic survey, he presents a sound installation with newly created liturgical idiophones and instruments inspired by Eastern and Latin rites.

During September Sessions, Mariam Elnozahy will offer a tour of the exhibition The Hand That Tells, The Hand That Waters, elaborating on the contextual framework behind the exhibition. At the end of the tour, participants will be guided through a performance where they will activate the instruments on display in the exhibition, creating a symphony of sounds.

Maxime Hourani is an artist working with time-based media, exploring themes of landscape transformation and shifting ecologies. His previous research focused on 19th-century Arab futurism to question the existence of posthuman thinking at the turn of the Industrial Revolution. He also worked on the theme of "petromodernity" and the influence of the 1970s oil crisis on architectural technology. His work has been shown recently at Malmö Konstmuseum, Istanbul Biennial, and Skēne.


https://www.konsthallc.se


Cigarrvägen 14, 123 57 Farsta

Konträr

Konträr is a subscription-funded independent stage for contemporary performance in Stockholm. Konträr presents world premieres, international guest performances and new artistic formats. The subscription model makes it possible to work long-term and internationally — outside the logic of ticket sales. Through co-productions, residencies and annual showcases, Konträr strengthens the international presence of Sweden’s independent performing arts scene.



OPENING HOURS
Thursday: 21–22
Friday: 21–22


DURING THE FESTIVAL


Thursday 10.9 & Friday 11.9, 21:00–22:00
I’M JUST A SYMPTOM OF MORAL DECAY – Marie Karlberg
TICKETS


The year is 2089, and most of the world has been burnt to a crisp. Survivors embrace servitude for subsistence. In one household, Loosey (Marie Karlberg) has a compulsive need for sex – a new social norm. She keeps two servants: GiGi (Jaana-Kristiina Alakoski), loyal to the bitter end, and Poor Boi (Sigrid Windolf), an apathetic and rebellious alcoholic who can’t stop singing a song that came out in 1975.

A show at KONTRÄR, a subscription-funded independent stage for contemporary performance in Stockholm. Following Thursday’s performance, join us for a post-show bar hosted by KONTRÄR and September Sessions.

Marie Karlberg (b. 1985) is a Stockholm-based artist whose practice moves between film, performance and installation. Through playful but precise stagings, she examines everyday gestures, relationships and social structures.


https://kontrar.se

Östgötagatan 33, 116 25 Stockholm

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: 11–20
Friday–Sunday: 11–17


DURING THE FESTIVAL


Sunday 13.9, 13:00–15:00
Participatory Performance: Choose the way ritual - Ylva Snöfrid

During this immersive performance inside Ylva Snöfrid’s exhibition The House of the Muses, the Choose the way ritual is activated. The visitors are invited to enter and go through the artist’s paintings, where a choice between two possible paths is to be made: the pink, which leads to The Dream Rite, or the grey, leading to Dystopia. It all begs the question: What kind of world do we want to see?

Ylva Snöfrid is known for her performative works, pushing the boundaries of painting; within Snöfrid’s ritualized world, everything revolves around painting that moves between figuration and matter. Her artistic process often takes place in communal rooms and collective rituals, where she takes on the role of a mediator between work and reality. In 2017, she performed a “transmutation ritual” in which she became one with her twin soul Snöfrid.

Ylva Snöfrid has been based in New York, Berlin, Athens and Stockholm. She has exhibited extensively around the world in numerous large exhibitions and site-specific works, including Istanbul Biennial, Performa in New York, Palais de Tokyo, Swiss Institute in New York, Institut Suédois in Paris, Bonniers konsthall and Kunsthal Charlottenborg in Copenhagen.

https://liljevalchs.se


Liljevalchs+, Falkenbergsgatan 3, 115 21 Stockholm

MDT

MDT Moderna Dansteatern is a platform for contemporary dance and choreography, located on Skeppsholmen in Stockholm. With a theatre and studios at its heart, MDT co-produces and presents work by both Sweden-based and international artists. As a space for artistic development, critical discourse, and choreographic experimentation, MDT supports practices that challenge and expand the field of dance.


OPEN HOURS

Saturday: 17:00–00:30

DURING THE FESTIVAL


Saturday 12.9, 17:00–19:00
Performance: TEMPO – Josefina Björk


TEMPO is a bar where the audience is invited to hang out, drink cocktails, sing karaoke, and help prepare for the evening’s after-work. It sounds like a perfectly ordinary bar — but every now and then, something happens and time falls out of sync. Is the music glitching? Is the disco light broken? Has the bartender had a stroke?

You’re standing in the bar queue, increasingly irritated, waiting for a beer that never arrives. The DJ sings a pitch-down version of Fredis Milloinkaan, en löydä samanlaista, and a stranger buys you a drink. The evening ends with a shared after-work buffet featuring tapas.

The performance is free of charge and no ticket reservation is required. Audience capacity is limited, so arrive early to secure your spot. Affordable bar prices. Age limit: 18+.

Josefina Björk is a Swedish artist, performer, and director who works with immersive performance and film, born in Skövde and currently based in Stockholm. Björk’s works often take the form of familiar, but slightly twisted social situations in which the audience and performer form a temporary relation.The situations often examine contemporary cultural dilemmas and the ways in which its associated mechanisms shape our capacities to be in emotional states such as: community, presence, rapture, and trust.

Björk´s work has been commissioned and presented by Göteborgs Konsthall, Moderna Dansteatern, Röda Sten Konsthall, Inkonst, Skogen, Konträr, and Lilith Performance Studio. Alongside her artistic practice, she is a co-founder of Ställbergs gruva and in collaboration with the performance company Poste Restante, she co-directs Back2work. She is also a recurrent guest lecturer at the masters program for Contemporary Performative Arts (University of Gothenburg), Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design, and Gerlesborg School of Fine Art.

TEMPO is a part of September Sessions at MDT. Further information on the performance is available here.

Credits: Concept & Direction: Josefina Björk
Performers and Collaborators: Alexandra Tveit, Majula Drammeh, Josefina Björk, Adde Huumonen
Composition and Sounddesign: Adde Huumonen
Light Design: Christoffer Lloyd
Dramaturgy: Eric Sjögren / Aapo Korkeaoja
Graphic design: Evelina Mohei
Photography: Ekaterina Lukoshkova / Petter Petterson, Lilith Performance studio
Production: Överdrift AB
Supported by: The Swedish Arts Grants Committee, Nordic Culture Point, The Swedish-Finnish Cultural Foundation.
The original idea for TEMPO was developed at Lilith Performance Studio 2024.
Thanks to Anja Bergdahl and Medborgarhuset Hägerstensåsen
Image: Ekaterina Lukoshkova



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
CLOSED


DURING THE FESTIVAL


Mint is closed for renovation and will reopen on September 19, more information here.



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

Sveavägen 41, 111 40 Stockholm

Tensta konsthall

Tensta konsthall was founded in 1998 as a grass root initiative, partly at the occasion of Stockholm being Capital of Europe that same year. Throughout the years, Tensta konsthall has made itself a name as an art space devoted to an international outreach taking place in dialogue with programs and activities with local resonance.


OPENING HOURS
Friday: 17–19
Saturday- Sunday: 12–17


DURING THE FESTIVAL


Friday 11.9, 17:00-19:00
Opening, Remnants ––Ikram Abdulkadir, Simnikiwe Buhlungu, Don Cherry, Kudzanai Chiurai, Nina Cramer och Ellen Nyman, Doug Crutchfield, Salad Hilowle, Ernest Mancoba, Wonga Mancoba


Introduction at 17.30 with Tawanda Appiah, Cecilia Widenheim and participating artists.

Remnants pulls together a poetic constellation of gestures by living and departed artists, where pasts and presents meet in chorus.

What lingers in the archive? What breaths of Black life persist in its folds? What are the aural, visual, and tactile traces that hold both beauty and tension? In the exhibition, we encounter works that resonate with historical memory, resistance, improvisation, and the lived experiences of diaspora and exile. Together, they unfold through the rhythm and sound of jazz music.

Curated by Tawanda Appiah and Cecilia Widenheim. The exhibition had its first iteration in 2025 at HEIRLOOM – center for art and archives in Copenhagen.

Further information available here.



https://tenstakonsthall.se

Taxingegränd 10, 163 64 Spånga

About


CONTACT
info@septembersessions.se
Instagram: @september.session.sthlm


COLOPHON
Founders:
Index – The Swedish Contemporary Art Foundation
Mint
Curators 2026: Joel Valabrega
Coordination and communication: Michaela Yarmol-Matusiak
Graphic Design: Aron Kullander-Östling
Web Development: Robert Fransson

With generous support from the City of Stockholm and the Region of Stockholm.