A Summer Note: Spejare at Haninge Konsthall

Spejare

Group Exhibition

Haninge Konsthall

June 4 - August 23, 2025

Curator: Elias Kautsky

I'm a few minutes ahead of the summer opening hours so I take a moment to observe the sign placed outside the entrance of Haninge Kulturhus inside which the kunsthalle is located. The list of participating artists in Spejare amounts to seventeen (eighteen if taking an artist duo in account). At face value, it's a very eclectic bunch including recent Royal Institute of Art MFA graduate Elina Birkehag and seminal artists such as the late Tuija Lindström, Leif Elggren and L. G. Lundberg (I later learn that most of the artworks make part of the municipality's public art collection). I'm intrigued. Appointed for a three-year term, Spejare is curator Elias Kautsky's second exhibition for the kunsthalle following Bror Ida Lennartsson's Slavought earlier this year which I regretfully missed.

More and more people join the crowd eagerly waiting for the doors to open. I've always been fond of art centers where "real people" meet. Perhaps even more so today in the not-so-arts-friendly times we live in. Haninge Kulturhus is one of those true gems holding a wonderful library (incredible natural light), a space for workshops, a theatre and an assembly room. My impression is that the regular art crowd in Stockholm doesn't make it out here very often (they should) while in fact it's a mere 20 min ride from the city with the commuter train. The art centre is also very conveniently located just a stone's throw away from the Handen station. No excuses.

left: Johanna Kindahl, Nectar Guide / Mark (2024), center: Lisa Andrén, Spejare (1991), right: Timothy Crisp, Black Antenna I (2014)

I finally enter and immediately spot the artwork that I'm guessing lends its name to the show; Lisa Andren's framed drypoint engraving depicting a figure bent over a telescope. It's cleverly installed on a temporary modular wall (made of old benches merged together I think?). In a previously unutilized cubicle - I can't recall having seen anything installed in there before - artist duo Gidesson/Londré's video Monsunbiblioteket (the Monsoon Library), shot during an artist residency in Coorg, India, makes for an intimate screening room.

A standout, both in terms of the space its been afforded and artistically, is Kasra Seyed Alikhani's ingenious Ni Måste Namasté, a video installation which made part of his MFA degree project at Valand Academy back in 2020. A selling billboard on one side nodding to Alikhani's background as a painter and a built-in screen on the other set with two used plastic lounge chairs (it's all in the details). The amateurish film which speaks of gentrification and its implications with humor and wit, puts the fictional neighborhood of Sudden Hills to the fore. With the nearby area of Vega in mind, the recent development on an entire new eco-friendly city part, the inclusion of course makes sense. Installed on the wall behind, are two comic-like works (Lyckliga Gatan I and Lyckliga Gatan II) by Swedish feminist pioneer Kristina Abelli Elander, depicting run-down streets (boarded-up windows... that sort of dystopian view). Dang.

left: Kristina Abelli Elander, Lyckliga Gatan I & Lyckliga Gatan II (1979), right: Kasra Seyed Alikhani, Ni Måste Namasté (2020).

Kasra Seyed Alikhani, Ni Måste Namasté (2020)

While I instinctively gravitate towards the more recent artworks in the midst such as Johanna Kindahl's lime green metallic sculpture resting on the wall like a bug, there's a takeway for everyone, intentionally so I would guess. Spejare is a generous group exhibition making use of the space to its fullest, with smart subtle curatorial choices. Good summer exhibitions are scarce, so why not make it out on a lazy day off? Make a quick stop at Passagen, a new art initiative by the station where artists Lotta Törnroth and Alexandra Larsson Jacobsson are currently on view, and cool off with a dip in the nearby pittoresque lake Rudan?  

L.G. Lundberg, Utanför Dalarö, (2000)

Pro tip: Haninge Konsthall is again teaming up with Mörby Gård for its annual summer exhibition aptly titled Den Femte Sommaren (The Fifth Summer). On Aug 9, a joint guided tour, free of charge, will be held. Start at the kunsthalle and hop on a chartered bus to Mörby Gård Konst on the island of Ornö where thirteen artists will be presented in this year's edition including Lotta Törnroth, Adele Essle Zeiss, and Kasra Seyed Alikhani serving as a link between both spaces.