A note on MAMI:AMA:MÖDRAR, Botkyrka konsthall
Augusti 29 2020 – January 16 2021
Installation view, ‘MAMI: AMA: MÖDRAR’, Botkyrka Konsthall, 2020. Photo: Hanna Ukura.
Springing out of an open call and collective process, ‘MAMI: AMA: MÖDRAR’ is an anticipated group exhibition hovering between art and social action, joining together nine artists and cultural workers over the fall season at Botkyrka Konsthall. The idea of the forming of collective spatio-temporal practices rather than the single unitary scheme of one-artist-one curator strikes a chord with me from interviews I’ve had, especially with emerging artists over recent time and years, where some recurring emphasis has been placed on collectivity as a sustainable approach going forward. Emma Dominguez, a recent graduate of Konstfack and one of the driving forces behind this project vehicle made headlines already when attempting to rectify the lack of diversity at said school by inviting other PoC-artists (some without formal art schooling) to join her in an exhibition in the school premises.
Sara Rad. ‘MAMI: AMA: MÖDRAR’, Botkyrka Konsthall, 2020. Photo: Hanna Ukura.
‘MAMI: AMA: MÖDRAR’ is a declaration of love for the mothers; the maternal force that carried diasporic communities forth in a society which alienated and abused them, following migration. It’s a face-off with system failures and class divides that forced mothers into low-paid labour work where the mothers took care of the mothers and children of more privileged people. Where the bodies of the mothers were worn down and the admissions of their detoriating health later mistrusted by authorities like the social insurance services, with granting powers. Meeting one of the participants, Sara Rad, she puts it so well, speaking about a photographic triptych (‘Mamma är inte ett helgon’ = Mother is not a saint) honoring her mother. We elevate the mothers, bestowing upon them a skewed armor of invincibility, because we need them to be and because they want to be. But it’s a burdening weight, considering the social injustice that works actively against it.
Sarasvati Shrestha. ‘MAMI: AMA: MÖDRAR’, Botkyrka Konsthall, 2020. Photo: Hanna Ukura.
I feel moved already when entering, spotting a large-scale aerial installation of chained pieces of textiles (which proves to be sarees of the mother) by Sarasvati Shrestha. I spot the top part of another aerial mixed-media installation, by Sonia Sagan, which is representational of the logo of the Region of Stockholm (which is responsible for all publicly-financed healthcare in Stockholm County) followed vertically down to the floor by working slippers among other coded-elements. Say no more, I’m already sold. “A monument about failure”, she calls it (“ett failmonument”). Sonia Sagan is a third-year conceptual artist and student at the Royal Institute of Art and appears to have one of the most complex and compelling artistic practices I’ve heard of in a while, informing in the midst an ongoing ten-year project of inventing a fictious “religion” called ‘Atar Walk With Me’. We speak and while some parts of her account are so elaborate it actually goes over my head which I’m unused to happening (my own limitations nevertheless, not hers), I realize she is one of those unique artists who needs to be seen and flourish in the local art scene.
Sonia Sagan. ‘MAMI: AMA: MÖDRAR’, Botkyrka Konsthall, 2020. Photo: Hanna Ukura.
Leila El Harfaou. ‘MAMI: AMA: MÖDRAR’, Botkyrka Konsthall, 2020. Photo: Hanna Ukura.
Another standout artist, who only just finished her first year at the same school (which is difficult to believe), Leila El Harfaou, presents three works which wryly with perfect humour confronts the neglect her mother saw in the Swedish health care system and which she likens to sheer gambling; a circuit and evil chain of negligently being prescribed medication, where the side effects rendered more illness, until a point of no return and “imprisonment”.
Macarena Dusant (one of the non-artists but art worker; an art historian and writer, participating in the exhibition) presents a separatist and participatory installation titled ‘Altar For Our Migrated Mothers’ (‘Altare till våra migrerade mödrar), where vistors with mothers who migrated from another country, are all welcome to leave a tribute or a testimony about their mothers. The symbolic elements composing the installation are telling of everything; The gesture of hanging on a clothesline and texts written on sheets of baking paper. Honestly, I’m not really one of those people who get easily touched on a genuine emotional level which is one of my regrets in life. But of course the jist I will get to here, to conclude, is that I felt very affected by a lot of the art.
Macarena Dusant. ‘MAMI: AMA: MÖDRAR’, Botkyrka Konsthall, 2020. Photo: Hanna Ukura.
Yes, many of the artworks are great but it’s also such a priceless take-away to be shook up and reflect on your own parents and your own personal story, by way of those of others.
Photo credit: Hanna Ukura Images courtesy of Botkyrka Konsthall
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