Konstfesten 2025

It is time for Kin’s second Konstfest, celebrating art at one of the world’s northern-most art museums. More than twenty artists, curators, and researchers will introduce and discuss their work which in one way or another will appear at Kin in the next few years.

Two exhibitions will open during Konstfesten, featuring work by Glicéria Tupinambá and her kin from Bahia, as well as Katarina Spik Skum from Jokkmokk. We are pleased to announce that the artists will be present for the occasion. In the Footsteps of the Stars—The Embroidered World of Britta Marakatt-Labba will be on view and the artist will introduce the retrospective exhibition.

Thursday, February 13

16:00 Floor 1
Opening of the Exhibitions

The Living Room—An Installation by Katarina Spik Skum
February 13–December 31, 2025

Reindeer-hide beanbags, cotton drapes decorated with traditional Sámi patterns, wooden tables that have retained the organic forms of branches, and rákkas—mosquito tents made of thin materials. These are all typical Sámi alternatives to interior design, created by the artist and duojár (Sámi craftsperson) Katarina Spik Skum.

16:30 Floor 3
The Traveling Cloak
February 13–May 11, 2025

A cloak made of bird feathers takes center stage in the exhibition Cloak in Movement. The artist and activist Glicéria Tupinambá delves into the history surrounding the cloaks that have been worn and crafted by her people—the Tupinamba of Brazilian Bahia—since ancient times.

17:00 Floor 5
Conversation with duojár and artists Katarina Spik Skum and Glicéria Tupinamba, moderated by Fernanda Mendonça Pitta

Duojár and artist Katarina Spik Skum is introducing duodji (Sámi craft) to new spaces, weaving together arts and crafts that have roots in the Lule Sámi region. She is based in Jåhkåmåhkke/Jokkmokk and has a master’s degree in duodji from Sámi allaskuvla in Guovdageaidnu/Kautokeino.

Glicéria Tupinambá is an artist, researcher, teacher, farmer, and activist. She is one of the female leaders of the village Serro do Padeiro (Bahia, Brazil). She was a teacher at the Tupinambá Serra do Padeiro Indigenous State College, in the Tupinambá de Olivença Indigenous Land. She completed an Indigenous Intercultural Degree at the IFBA and is currently working on a master’s degree at UFRJ. Her research examines the process of accessing museums and listening to artifacts from the Tupinambá people.

Fernanda Mendonça Pitta is Assistant Professor in the Research Division in Art, Theory and Criticism at the Museum of Contemporary Art, University of São Paulo. She was previously an art historian and senior curator at the Pinacoteca de São Paulo from 2014 to 2022.

18:00 Floor 5
The Future of Sápmi: Reindeer Herding and the Mines—Why Are the Discrepancies So Large?

A round table discussion that will address challenges for reindeer husbandry with journalist and writer Arne Müller, representatives from the Sámi villages. Jan-Erik Länta, Jåhkågasska, Nils Johanas Allas, Talma and Lars-Marcus Kuhmunen, Gabna, and researcher Daniel Fjällborg. In Swedish. English translation in the meeting room Järven on the ground floor of the city hall.

As part of the exhibition In the Footsteps of the Stars—The Embroidered Worlds of Britta Marakatt-Labba, a series of lectures and talks organized by Kin will explore the themes and questions in Britta Marakatt-Labba’s work. The series is lead by the Umeå-based freelance journalist Arne Müller, who is the author of Smutsiga miljarder: den svenska gruvboomens baksida (Ord & visor förlag, 2013) and Norrsken: drömmen om den gröna industrin (Ord & visor förlag, 2023). Presented in collaboration with ABF.

Friday, February 14

11:30 Floor 5
Introduction to Kin and its activities by Maria Lind, director of Kin, presented as a museum tour. Artist Luca Frei on his Mobile Lobby and Bettina Pehrsson, deputy director at Kin, on Pro qm’s book selection for Kin’s shop.

Luca Frei is an artist based in Malmö. His multidisciplinary practice involves sculpture, installation, textile, and design. In 2024, Frei created Kin’s new lobby, a work of art as well as a functional piece of furniture.

The Berlin-based Pro qm, one of Europe’s leading art, architecture, and theory bookshops, has been selected as Kin’s guest bookshop. Founded in 1999, Pro qm is internationally recognized as a hub for interdisciplinary debates on the city, architecture, artistic practice, and theory.

12:15 Floor 5
Presentations by artists Norra kollektivet, Mikhail Tolmachev, Geir Tore Holm, and Niclas Östlind, curator (on Teams), as part of Kin’s multiyear project Borg Mesch—A Photographer in Sápmi in the Age of Colonialism. The artists will present one of their own projects.

Under the name Norra kollektivet, Anja Öhrn, Fanny Carinasdotter, and Tomas Örn investigate the consequences of an open pit-mine in the north, the Aitik mine outside Gällivare. At the same time, they get to know the landscape, the villages, and the tracks that surround the mining business. Since 2016 the artists have been working together in a collaborative practice. Collectively, they’ve investigated the consequences of mineral extraction as well as the measures being taken to save the damaged ecosystem.

The artist Geir Tore Holm (b. 1966 in Romsa/Tromsø, Norway) grew up in the Sámi village Olmmáivággi/Manndalen. Together with his partner Søssa Jørgensen he lives and works at Øvre Ringstad Farm in Skiptvet, Østfold, Southern Norway. Holm is a graduate of Trondheim Academy of Fine Art in, completing his studies there in 1995. He is a founder and member of the community art project and collective Sørfinnset skole / the nord land based in Gildeskål, Nordland and active since 2003.

Mikhail Tolmachev is an artist and researcher from Moscow, currently based in Leipzig. His work takes interdisciplinary approach and explores themes of memory, history, and trauma.

Niclas Östlind is a professor and PhD in photography, curator and vice prefect in Research at HDK-Valand—Academy of Art and Design at the University of Gothenburg. His thesis, Performing History (2014), explores the professionalization of photography in Sweden from 1970 to 2014 through exhibitions, interviews, and cultural sociological methods.

13:45 Floor 5
Colonial Violence and Decolonial Resistance: The Case of Sámi Drums. Presentations by art historian Mårten Snickare and duojár and artist Fredrik Prost. Respondent: Åsa Simma, director of Giron Sámi Teáhter

The presentation examines colonial violence against Sámi drums around 1700 and its lasting impact on the Swedish museum system today. Fredrik Prost on the sacred Sámi drum and indigenous spirituality, the presentation is based on twenty years of research and personal experience.

Mårten Snickare is professor of Art History at Stockholm University and director of Accelerator, the University’s art space. He is the author of Colonial Objects in Early Modern Sweden and Beyond: From the Kunstkammer to the Current Museum Crisis (Amsterdam University Press, 2022).

Fredrik Prost is a Sámi artist and writer from the small village Viiikusjávri in the northeastern part of Kiruna municipality. He has for the past twenty years researched Sámi drums and spirituality, in theory and practice. Last year, he was invited by Kin and the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden to study the Sámi drums at the museums of ethnography in Leipzig and Dresden.

Åsa Simma was born into a nomadic reindeer herding family, migrating between the north of Sweden and Norway. Educated as an actor in Copenhagen, she has been very active in the global indigenous people’s movements. She has toured among Aboriginals in Australia, and she has lived with the Inuits of Greenland and with Native American Indians. Previously working as a film dramatist and script developer at the International Sámi Film Institute, she is currently the CEO of the Sámi theatre.

16:00 Floor 5
Imagination as a place to survive: Presentation by artist Salman Nawati on the Sahab Museum as an “imaginary institution” reflecting a new image of Gaza's heritage and history.

Floating in the sky, free from walls, in the form of a cloud from which it takes its name, Sahab Museum. Salman Nawati is a visual artist who co-founded SAHAB Museum with the collective HAWAF. Originally from Gaza, he is currently based in Tanum. In 2026, he will do a residency at Kin.

16:30 Floor 5
Sharing the Burden? Artists and Museums’ Colonial Collections, a roundtable discussion with anthropologist and curator Michael Barrett, artist and activist Glicéria Tupinambá, artist d harding, curator Benjamin Seroussi, and duojár and artist Fredrik Prost.

Museums took active part in the colonial oppression and exploitation of indigenous communities. Yet, some contemporary artists choose to approach colonial collections. Is it possible to share the weight of a colonial heritage? How should museums take responsibility for their part of the burden? What conditions are required to create viable and caring collaborations despite lingering power imbalances? What is at stake and for whom? From the vantage point of three artists and their practices, the conversation will think through these issues and speculate about possible futures. A collaboration with Stockholm’s Museum of Ethnography.

Michael Barrett is an anthropologist, researcher, and curator of the African collections at the National Museums of World Culture (NMWC) in Sweden. His current research focus is on the colonial history of the collections as well as on the representation of Africa and people of African descent in museum displays in past, present, and future Sweden.

d harding lives and works in Brisbane and Paris. They are an artist in residency at Kin in February 2025 and will participate in an upcoming group exhibition at Kin in 2026. Harding works in a wide variety of media to explore the visual and social languages of their communities as cultural continuum. d is a descendant of the Bidjara, Ghungalu, and Garaynbal peoples. They draw upon and maintain the spiritual and philosophical sensibilities of their cultural inheritance within the framework of contemporary art internationally. He is doing a residency at Kin in February 2025 and he will participate in a group exhibition in 2026.

Benjamin Seroussi is a São Paulo-based curator, editor, and cultural manager. He works as artistic director of the Casa do Povo, a Jewish Brazilian autonomous art space. He is a co-curator of the exhibition The Traveling Cloak.

17:45 Floor 5
Britta Marakatt-Labba introduces her exhibition.

For half a century, Britta Marakatt-Labba, born in Ađevuopmi/Idivuoma in Kiruna Municipality, and based in Badje Sohppar/Övre Soppero, has been one of Sápmi’s most prominent artists. Using a needle and thread, she has brought forth a rich and poetic narrative about the cultural and territorial struggles of the Sámi people.

18:30 Floor 4
Language in Art and Art in Language: a conversation between Lena Ylipää and Emma Pettersson Juntti with a point of departure in the work Back to Back by Karin Keisu and Josse Thuresson, a part of Kin’s collection. As part of Kin’s ongoing series Sitkeä.

Lena Ylipää is a tornedalian artist from the village Lainio in Kiruna municipality. Ylipää’s work takes place between forests and mining pits, the nation state and multilingualism. In the center of traditions, attitudes, and conflict.

Emma Pettersson Juntti is a producer and mediator at Kin. For many years she has been engaged in questions regarding language and culture within the minority groups Lantalaiset, Kväner, and Tornedalingar.

19:00 Floor 5
Members of the Norrbotten-based, all-female, artist collective Koncentrat present their work over the last twenty years.

Koncentrat, featuring Agneta Andersson, Britta Marakatt-Labba, Lena Ylipää, Viktoria Andersson, Anita Mikko, Anita Ylipää, and Lena Stenberg, will celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2025. The group works both individually and collectively on artistic projects and has engaged with cultural policy issues. Kin is planning a project with Koncentrat in 2028.

19:30 Floor 5
Presentations by artists Salad Hilowle on a new project, Mats Wikström on the Råneå biennial, Amol Patil, artist-in-residence at Kin, and eeefff on digital solidarity. Artist and curator Andjeas Ejiksson introduces the traveling exhibition A Box in a Box in a Box: Thoughts and Art by Staffan Westerberg.

Salad Hilowle on The Black Beach—Visual archives between Swedish and Caribbean horizons.

The Black Beach: Visual Archives Between Swedish and Caribbean Horizons uses testimonies, maps, and archival fragments to artistically explore life in the former Swedish colony of Saint Barthélemy. Inspired by Sten Nordenskiöld’s silent film The Friendly Island (1952), the project examines how artistic research can expand and critique the colonial archive’s restrictive and racist narratives.

Salad Hilowle is an artist and filmmaker based in Stockholm. He was born in Mogadishu in 1986 and moved to Gävle eight years later. He uses a research-based approach that highlights forgotten or hidden stories throughout art history and popular culture, exploring the representation of Afro-Swedes in cultural history. Through the research of archival records, Hilowle traces overlooked subjects and tells alternative stories. He is doing a commission for Kin in 2026.

The Råneå Biennial and Råneå konsthall: The Very Local and the Not So Very Local
Mats Wikström, artist and musician, artistic director for the biennale since 2018 and the art hall since 2022. Råneå biennalen and Råneå konsthall are collaborating with Kin on several projects.

Amol Patil is a performance and visual artist based in India. Inspired by his grandfather and father who were both writers, Patil works with drawings, objects, video, and performance using his family’s archive as a starting point. His work probes the current situation of workers and the prevalence of casteism whilst striving to connect the past, present, and possible futures. Patil works with the urban and human environment surrounding him, focusing on the reality of the community, the Dalits, to which he belongs. He is doing a residency at Kin in February 2025 and he will participate in a group exhibition in 2026.

School of Algorithmic Solidarity: eeefff
The school of algorithmic solidarity proposes to clash together the relations between the digital and the bodily, the infrastructural and the imaginative, and to experiment with quickly-assembled forms of communality and commoning.

eeefff (Minsk/Berlin) is a collaboration between Nicolay (Kolja) Spesivtsev and Dzina Zhuk. Since 2013, they have created software-based projects, networks, and collective situations that critically explore digital labor, value extraction, and community formation.

A Box in a Box in a Box
Andjeas Ejiksson, artist, writer, and filmmaker based in Stockholm, presents the exhibition A Box in a Box in a Box, which features seven suitcases containing fragments of the multifaceted works of theatre practitioner Staffan Westerberg. The exhibition was initiated and produced by Kin.

Saturday, February 15

14:30 Nikkaluokta Sarri
Presentations by artists Kultivator, artistic researcher Victoria Harnesk, and mediator Natasha Shapkina as part of the multiyear project The Benevolent Food on art and food.

In the wake of intensified and violent crises in various parts of the world, as well as climate change, questions of food safety have become even more urgent. Indigenous and other forms of traditional knowledge surrounding food have come to the fore as crucial means for the future of food security and food sovereignty. At the same time, food takes care of us, beyond daily sustenance, it brings us joy, offers moments of connection, it sustains human labours, and bonds us to places very far away. Together with Kin, a group of artists and collectives from different parts of the planet will delve into this in a series of projects.

Kultivator is an experimental platform for art and agriculture that initiates and executes projects, exhibitions, and workshops to explore possible crossovers of contemporary culture and farming. At their site on the island of Öland, Kultivator has a residency, exhibition space, and a community supported silvopasture farm with grazing sheep, cows, horses, donkeys, and chicken. Since its establishment in 2005, Kultivator has welcomed and collaborated with around one hundred and fifty artists, researchers, and farmers on their farm.

Victoria Harnesk is an artistic researcher and the author of the acclaimed book Taste of Sápmi (Slow Food Sapmi, 2015).

Natalia Shapkina is an independent curator, educator, art manager, and art mediator. Born on the Russian side of Sapmi, Natalia moved to Germany in response to the Russia’s political repressions against the artistic community’s anti-war stance. She currently works at Kin as an exhibition host for Britta Marakatt-Labba’s show.

Photo: Katarina Spik Skum, seat cushion in leather.