Thinking about Monica – part of Scène d’Amour

Artists Lina Bjerneld, Helena Lund Ek, Alisa Margolis, Raksha Patel and Nadia Hebson, whose practices all centre around Painting, came together on May 1 for an informal discussion to consider in company the legacy of Monica Sjöö. The conversation ranged from shared experiences of their respective art educations in Scandinavia, the US and the U.K., personal readings of Monica Sjöö’s paintings, posters and manifestos and their current reception, archiving, misrepresentation, alternative Painting herstories and reflections on the ever expanding project of artistic recuperation.

This is the second conversation in the three part programme Thinking About Monica, which accompanies the exhibition Scène d’Amour at Mint and has been realised through the support of the Royal Institute of Art Stockholm’s artistic research fund as part of the research project Destroy She Said.

A Careful Strike – Artworks online and discursive programme

Part of the exhibition A Careful Strike*

Bok release of Minerva: The Miscarriage of the Brain by Johanna Hedva.

Minerva the Miscarriage of the Brain collects a decade of work from artist, musician, and author of On Hell, Johanna Hedva. In plays, performances, an encyclopaedia, essays, autohagiography, hypnagogic, and hypnopompic poems—in texts whose bodies drift and delight in form—Minerva tunnels into mysticism, madness, motherhood, and magic. Minerva gets dirty with the mess of gender and genius. She does the labour of sleep and dreams. She odysseys through Los Angeles, shapeshifting in stygian night and waking up to wail in the light.

Part of the exhibition A Careful Strike* and Bodies of Care.

Discussion with artists Emma Dominguez, Macarena Dusant, Sonia Sagan and Sarasvati Shrestha.

Part of the exhibition A Careful Strike*

During the past years, the Naples port has been affected by harsh labour conflicts. Employees have been fired on unclear grounds and the port businesses are unwilling to negotiate with the union. In Genova, dockworkers have gone on strikes to block ships with weapons cargo destined for Jemen. When the Black Lives Matter movement grew in the USA hundreds of dockworkers went on strike in Portland. In Sweden, the Swedish Dockworkers Unions struggle has become significant in the rapid restructuring of the power relations on the Swedish labour market. What does the conjunction between political strikes and labour related strikes entail today?

Reports by:
– Papis Ndiaye S.I. Cobas
– Martin Berg, chairman of the Swedish Dockworkers Union
– Alessandra Mincone, journalist at Napoli Monitor
– Mario Silvestri, dockworker Turi Transport Napoli, S.I. Cobas
– Mathias Wåg, activist and writer

Part of the exhibition A Careful Strike*

The struggle over history is the struggle for life, recognition and reparation. The conditions for an independent historical narrative are a recurring issue within the history of different social movements and struggles for emancipation. Which narratives are given a voice, which are suppressed? How is the ongoing struggle over history expressed today in the context of movements such as black lives matter?

Departing from the current conditions of struggle and rereading The Undercommons seven years after its first release poet and scholar Judith Kiros will be in conversation with its authors Stefano Harney and Fred Moten.

Part of the exhibition A Careful Strike*

A conversation departing from the current political situation in Belarus and the condition for artistic production, solidarity and strike in the heat of the moment.

Olia Sosnovskaya (artist and researcher, member of Problem Collective)

Anna Bredava (LGBTQ+ activist and organizer of DOTYK Queer festival)

Andrei Karpeka (activist, founder of Minsk Urban Platform)

Nicolai Spesivtsev (eeefff group and Work Hard Play Hard working group)

Part of the exhibition A Careful Strike*

On the possibility of struggle and resistance within health and care work. The corona pandemic has made the vulnerability of society even more evident as a consequence of decades of neoliberal reforms. How can care rather than economic principles become the primary organizing principle for societies? In collaboration with Feministiskt Forum. Participants: Roya Hakimnia, Pamela Otarola, Yolanda Aurora Bohm Ramirez and Mani Shutzberg.

Part of the exhibition A Careful Strike*

An event that took its cue from Marc Bernard’s text The Workers’ Days of February 9 and 12, which is now for the first time published in Swedish translation. It is a text that poses questions to the present: Is it still possible to think unity in resistance as a political and aesthetic principle? Is there still a progressive tradition that we can draw upon, and that stretches back to the moment of the popular fronts? If so, what continuities can we invoke? What discontinuities must we assert? With readings, presentations, artistic contributions, and critical commentaries by Emily Fahlén, Jörgen Gassilewski, Martin Högström, Ingela Johansson, Emma Kihl, Samuel Richter, Kim West, and Ellen Wettmark, we invite to common reflection regarding a central event in the cultural history of anti-fascism.

Part of the exhibition A Careful Strike*