For today’s episode, we are live and in-person with Azmara Nigusse at her workplace, the Hallwyl Museum in Stockholm! We talk about the challenges of modernizing museums and reckoning with their colonial pasts, what it takes to actually open up these spaces for people of color (both visitors and long-term workers), running from swans, and why the spa is one of her non-negotiables.
Azmara Nigusse is a program curator and museum educator at the Hallwyll Museum in central Stockholm. The collection here is vast and varied, and was donated by the von Hallwyll family to the Swedish government in 1930, at which point the 120+ year old private palatial mansion turned into a national museum.
Like many museums, their collection is inextricably tied to colonialism (and all the -isms that come with that), but over the years, Azmara and her colleagues have been working to create programs and changes that both address this history and make the space more relevant and open to more of the public—including people of color. Azmara works mainly with creating programmes, events and collaborations at the museum as well as hosting guided tours.
Azmara also sits on the boards of the associations Gender in Museums and the Swedish Society for Museum Education, and in the working group for Afro-Swedish History Week. She is also a local project partner in Sweden for the Nordic Network of Norm Critical Leadership and a union rep.
If you’d like to find out more about the Hallwyl Museum, you can visit their website at www.hallwyllskamuseet.se.
And if you want to read more about Azmara’s work, I can recommend another interview of hers with MagasinK.se from November 30, 2022.
You can listen also to Azmara on episode 43 of the museum’s own podcast, Hallwylska Podden!
Earlier in the episode, we also mention fellow Konst Detox member Nicol Savinetti, who founded/runs ARTIVAL, a multilingual culture festival in the Nordic region, as part of IMMART.
This week, we’re back in the studio in Malmö—this time with Daniel Ricardo Terres, a curator (among other things) based in Gothenburg. We talk about urban art, intergenerational trauma, finding art through his old punk bands in Argentina and Bolivia, the power of comic books, and the joy of, occasionally, doing absolutely nothing.
While we don't fully dissect the terms "urban art" and "urbanity" in this episode, we do have a brief discussion on this topic. Because, I mean, technically, anything in a city is urban. So what differentiates urban art from the art in city-based white cubes and sanctioned public artworks? Who is even defining these terms, and what is their power relationship to the makers, viewers, and discourse of urban art? And again, no group is a monolith (where everyone is the same)—class, gender, etc. intersect in all kinds of ways!
But also I promise, we have some funny chats in this episode too! (Hint: coordinated outfits from Daniel's band days.)
For the past 10 years, Daniel Ricardo Terrés has worked as a curator and project manager in the independent cultural sector and for institutions such as Urban Konst at Göteborgs Konsthall.
Daniel's previous background is in pedagogy and social work with young people dealing facing vulnerable situations and substance abuse. Based in Gothenburg, he was born in exile and grew up between Argentina and Bolivia.
In the autumn of 2021, he was guest editor of Ord&Bild, together with Patrik Haggren. The result of this collaboration can be read as an in-depth exploration of the relation between art and a segregated urbanity.
Daniel Terres’ essay Föreställningen om en urban konst was published in Paletten, issue 331.
You can read his and Patrik Haggren’s 2021 editorial text for Ord&Bild here: Urban Konst i toleransens tid (Urban Art in the time of tolerance).
Summer exhibition curated by Daniel, Dorna Aslanzadeh, Stina Edblom, and Liv Stoltz:
Jag föreställer mig ett hem – Göteborgs konsthall 100 år (SV)I’m imagining myself a home– Goteborgs konsthall 100 Years (ENG)
June 9–August 27, 2023
And the books mentioned earlier on in the episode:
The Eternaut (sci fi comic) by Héctor Germán Oesterheld
Qué horizonte: Hegemonía, Estado y revolución democrática by Íñigo Errejón and Álvaro García Linera
For today’s episode, I actually got to travel to Stockholm for an in-person chat with Paula Urbano, an artist, scenographer, researcher, and producer! We talk about her work at the Multicultural Center in Botkyrka, before getting into a little bit of the history of migration in Sweden, and her (purposefully non-professional) love of music. Paula Urbano works mainly with video, installations and sculpture revolving around existential questions in relation to migration and location in her artistic practice. She currently works as a producer at the Multicultural center in Botkyrka. She is also an artistic researcher and has previously received the grant for Artistic Research and Development in 2015. She received her MFA from Konstfack (2008) and Post-graduate diploma in Architecture and City Planning from the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm (2015). Recently, she worked as a scenographer at Gottsunda Dans och Teater and has been working on a public art commision in Uppsala! Her solo show, Collect and (re)connect, at Sundsvall Museum runs September 9th through November 26th, 2023. If you want to find her on Instagram, she’s at @paulaurbano. You can see more of her work on her website, paulaurbano.com.
In today’s episode, I talk with artist and teacher Munish Wadhia about life after art school, learning as a grown up, and listening to your body’s limits, plus some cool sci fi/fantasy reading recommendations!
Munish Wadhia is an artist and teacher based in Mölnbo, Sweden since 2006. His work deals with painting through an experimental and interdisciplinary approach, where he explores collective memories, inheritance, and the absence of other knowledges in westernized discourses. At the moment, his artistic practice involves painting, installation, and video, but also playing and experimenting with object collecting.
Born in Mombasa, Kenya, Munish grew up in Leicester (UK) before moving to London as a teenager. He has an MFA in painting from the Royal College of Art, London, and a BFA in painting from Wimbledon School of Art (University of the Arts London).
He also serves on a panel at Grafikens Hus, where they are working on the "Collecting Thoughts" Project, investigating and discussing what it means to collect and archive today.
His next exhibition will open at Södertälje Konsthall on May 26, 2023 and will be on show until July 1st. The official title has since been changed to "från från / from from" and was inspired by listening to Monica Youn talking about her book of poetry of the same title, "from from".
You can see more of his work on his website www.munishwadhia.com. I’ve also put the link in the show notes, so you can find it there too.
And here are some links to the other things Munish mentions in this episode:
Pandava series by Roshani Chokshi
Transforming Collections, Rewinding Internationalism Conference at Van Abbemuseum
Invisible Seams exhibition at Konstakademien (2022)
The Helsinki Biennial in Finland (June 2023)
Join us for our first full episode, where I sit down in the studio in Malmö with Nontokozo Tshabalala! We’ll chat about imagination, mental health, and futurity; the early days of moving to Sweden; and what it's like to routinely ~literally~ wake up with a cheerful song in your head. (Classic Nonto.)
But first, a little bit about our guest: Nontokozo Tshabalala is a multidisciplinary artist, poet, graphic designer, fashion stylist, organiser, producer, motivational speaker, and lecturer. She received her MFA in Design at HDK/Valand. Formerly based in Gothenburg, she’s now living and working in Malmö!
She is the co-founder of #viskaprata, an initiative for raising the stories of police/security brutality against POC in Gothenburg and Mamgobozi Design Factory, a South African design studio. Among the many projects she’s worked with over the past few years are Melanin Spaces, her thesis project and a space occupation project in Social design; and the Neither Here Nor There exhibition (2021), which she co-curated alongside Mmabatho Thobejane at Blå stället in Gothenburg.
She is currently working on a group show at Röda Sten Konsthall in Gothenburg, which opens on June 10, 2023.
You can find her on Instagram at @future_of_brown
Welcome to the Konst Detox Podcast: a show about artists and art workers of color all across Sweden—their work, their lives, and how they unwind!
I am your host, C. Grace Chang, a curator/artist based in Skåne. Throughout the season, I'll be talking to amazing, talented, fun people in the industry about their latest projects before we get to the core of our discussion—the question: what do you do to recharge?
If you’re anything like me, you might need a little help in that area. So, if nothing else—if art or working conditions or interviews with lovely human beings aren’t your thing, this podcast might at least give you some ideas on how you might rest and recharge.
This podcast is a project launched by Konst Detox Sweden, a new association for and by people of color in Sweden's art industry. This podcast was made possible by the Swedish Arts Council (Kulturrådet) and Inter Arts Center in Malmö.
You can find us on Instagram at @konstdetox.