Dr. EvaMarie Lindahl
- C-print
- 23 hours ago
- 11 min read
Updated: 3 minutes ago
EvaMarie Lindahl is a researcher and visual artist who has been on our radar for years and years. She recently opened a major institutional show The Museum Fauna - Lost Tails and Unheard Stories of Resistance at Skissernas Museum in Lund, Sweden. For the show which draws from her dissertation on critical animal studies, she examined over forty thousand artworks and partly made new work in dialogue with the permanent collection of the museum; the world’s largest collection of sketches and models of artworks.
C-P: While we’ve followed you for years, ever since an exhibition years ago at the defunct Stene Projects, we’ve never done an interview so I feel like this is long time in the making. First of all, congrats on the recent
opening of THE MUSEUM FAUNA – Lost Tails and Unheard Stories of Resistance at Skissernas Museum in Lund. Major! Looks like a wonderful show based on some of the installation shots I’ve seen. Tell me a little about the approach for the show, both in terms of selection and the space. I believe you’ve had access to the museum collection and the permanent collection of Lund University and in the process examined several thousands artworks. Surely, you must have encountered some very interesting things. Feel free to share a personal highlight or two.
EM.L: Thank you! I’m truly happy with how the exhibition turned out, and with the two years of research in the collections of Skissernas Museum and Lund University. Skissernas Museum began as a collection where art history students could study artworks up close. Today the museum holds the world’s largest collection of sketches and models of artworks. Two years ago, I was invited to do a large-scale solo exhibition creating new pieces made in conversation with the university’s art collection.
After an initial research phase in the digital archives, I embarked on a process where I could return to the methods I developed during my thesis while also exploring some newly found interests. I then continued with slides, searched the archives, hallways and offices of Lund University, and lastly the exhibition halls of Skissernas Museum. It is hard to believe that I went through 44.000 sketches, prints, sculptures and paintings during the research, but I did!
The exhibition is composed of two larger projects and a newly produced video work. The title plays with the concept of Museum Fauna, which I developed during my thesis to describe and reflect on the non human animals within the museum walls, the ones living now portrayed and the once living grinded into material. In short, the visible and the invisible within art production.
The first project is titled (Art) Histories of the Museum Fauna and is a series of text- and sound-based artworks shown together with selected works from the collection where non-human animals are portrayed. The texts and sounds offer an alternative art history from the perspectives of the non-humans in the installation. The horses of sculptor Asmund Arle describe physical labour and the violence of their master. The fish in a 17th-century painting explain their transformation into glue. A butterfly reminisces about what it is like to be treated as material without life.
The second project is an ongoing work titled Archive of Lost Tails, where I trace the violent practice of horse tail docking throughout art history. In the collection I found some exciting Albrecht Dürer prints of horses with shortened tails that became a bridge to what I had been working on in my studio. For this exhibition I’m showing around 50 drawings from the series, ranging from small to large scale. Lastly, I’m showing a newly produced video that I had the opportunity to shoot at Musée Rosa Bonheur, where I spent time alone in Bonheur’s studio, preserved in the condition it was by the time of her death, during a residency at the Swedish Institute in Paris.
Just last week I found some old notes from that first phase of research, where I follow every whim and curiosity. The lemons! The beards! The guy who looked like a vampire. The cat on a bench next to a woman
that turned out to be a fur muff.
And as always in relation to archives and collections the questions that linger through every note and thought in my sketchbook: Who has been remembered and portrayed and why? Who hasn’t been remembered and portrayed and why? Where are the women? Who are these people? Who are the animals? Where are the gaps?
Working on this exhibition has been a joy, not least because of the incredible people at Skissernas Museum. I’m forever grateful to the curator Malin Enarsson, who I have been working closely with, and museum
director Annie Lindberg for trusting me with this project.
I’m also deeply thankful to Alexandra Altmark and Nilufar Salehi, curators of the university art collection, who guided me through thousands of works and opened every door needed.
C-P: You completed your doctoral studies at the Centre for Human Animal Studies at Edge Hill University, UK, in 2022. The text based on artworks of your dissertation was later published by Aska Förlag (2023).
For those who might not be familiar with your research, what prompted you to initially examine non-human narratives in art history?
EM.L: My interest in how the representation of non-human animals often goes hand in hand with their oppression started early in my art practice. From early drawings of hunting scenes and zoo imagery, to thinking about how art and language have shaped the story of human dominance. A few years after my MFA at Malmö Art Academy, I took a course in Critical Animal Studies and discovered an academic field working toward animal liberation. This field also held a belief in art’s power to change society, something I hadn’t found in the art community I was part of at the time.
When I realized a couple of years later that my next project would take years, thinking of it as a PhD made sense. I was struck by how many non-human animals were actually present within the golden frames of museums, yet so rarely spoken about.
I began asking what it means to study animals as an artist. Can empathy and anthropomorphism inform artistic methods?
One of the first questions I asked myself was: What happens if I refuse to read the animals symbolically when I visit an art museum? As an artist, I believe it’s important to look critically at your own as well as your colleagues’ practice, and be open to change. Especially now, when interest in multispecies collaborations and human-animal relations is growing across the arts.
What I often miss in exhibitions and projects is attention to the practical consequences for animals. Sometimes a work advocates for one species while harming others through the very materials used. For a while now, I have half-joked, half-provoked by saying the art world needs a kind of “detox” before we can
fully engage with animal issues, but I’m starting to believe we really do need one.
C-P: Speaking of literature, you designed the cover artwork for Violette Leduc’s La Bâtarde (published by Rastlös Förlag, 2014). My friend Niklas Holmgren just had the privilege of making an artwork for Maria Maunsbach’s new novel and to me, designing a book cover must be such a “dream project” for an artist. Although some years ago now, what was that process like? Also, I’m going to assume that you’re a reader so I’m keen to ask you what you might have on your bed stand at the moment?
EM.L: It’s such a great honour to be given a text to read and reflect on with the aim then of translating it into image.
It was an even greater honour to illustrate the first book published by the fearless Aska Förlag. I’m still proud of how direct and unapologetic the cover of Oäktingen turned out. I had never heard of Violette Leduc before Jakob Kaae of Aska Förlag introduced me to her work.
What struck me most was the way she wrote about what she needed to do just to keep on living, physically and mentally. And how she carried her experiences as a child with her through life. Oäktingen is a biography where Leduc remains firmly at the centre, and I wanted the cover to reflect that. I drew the portrait on the cover in graphite from a photograph that had a folded crease. On the back, I drew the hills of the village that
defined her. The text on the inside cover is also drawn in graphite, which you can see if you look closely.
Last year I created the cover for En viktlös skärva av tid i Gaza – En poetisk antologi till stöd för Palestina. This time I wanted to contrast the grey-brown tones of dust, concrete and death that is the visual language of Israel’s unlawful occupation and genocide in Gaza.
No matter how the genocidal army of Israel redraws the map, the trees remember who has cared for them. I call for an end to the genocide of Palestinians and hope for a future of almasiyya, a diamond year, meaning a rich olive harvest, in a free Palestine.
On my bedside table right now there are many books, as usual. The three that I’m currently reading are: Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction by Ursula K. Le Guin gifted me by a friend. The Road by Cormac McCarthy suggested by several students at the art school where I work. And Poor Artists by The White Pube (Gabrielle
De La Puente and Zarina Muhammad), which I believe could be one to suggest to the same students.
C-P: Speaking of past project, one that I keep circling back to in mind is your collaborative project About: The Blank Pages with artist Ditte Ejlerskov. It’s such an ingenious and elaborate work of art shining light on
women artists that have been neglected in art history by way of Taschen’s Basic Art Series.
It felt so ahead of time (sadly) when it was first presented back in 2014, and now some years later, makes part of the permanent collection of the wonderful MASP in Sao Paulo. Looking back; what are your thoughts on the project?
EM.L: When Ditte and I first started this project, it came out of sheer disbelief.
We just could not believe that Taschen, which prides itself on its Basic Art Series as an accessible art history pedagogical canon, only in fact included five monographs on women in its series of hundred books. That number hasn’t improved.
In fact, the newly revitalized Taschen Basic Art 2.0 series includes even fewer women. It’s hard to believe, but just open the books next time you see one and count the names you find. Ditte and I couldn’t stand it. So we mimicked the book covers so that it was impossible to see the difference between the 97 books about men published by Taschen and the 97 books with faked covers about women that we decided was missing. We then presented them together in a bookshelf. It took us four years to produce the work and we had some
incredible help by the in-depth knowledge of art historians Linda Fagerström and Annie Lindberg.
One thing I’ve carried with me from this work is how powerful it can be to turn facts into physical form.
I have lost count of how many times we have shown this piece and explained the blank white pages in the
monographs representing women artists, only to have someone pick Artemisia Gentileschi from the bookshelf, find nothing but blank pages, and ask in disbelief: Surely she has a book?
When denied the facts and images and presented with blank pages it is as if the knowledge of what we are denied finally land in the body. The project has toured quite a bit and can be found in the permanent collections of MASP in São Paulo, Arken Museum of Contemporary Art outside Copenhagen, and Malmö Konstmuseum.
C-P: Your activist streak is also manifested right now with the occupation of Gaza.
You are not only actively making your voice heard but have also actively taken actions by collecting money every month for the distribution of e-sims in Gaza.
EM.L: When the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza began in October 2023, I was horrified.
At the time, I was far from home on a research residency, with an injured foot that made it impossible to join any demonstrations. Back in Skåne, I still couldn’t walk, even taking my dog Jodie out was difficult, and since I had moved two hours outside Malmö, biking to Möllevångstorget for community and comfort wasn’t an option. I had to find a way to help, resist, and build community, all from my bed. I joined an Instagram Live from a demonstration, for people that needed to attend from bed, and overheard a chat about eSIMs (digital SIM cards) that provided Palestinans with internet access.
After a month of experimenting and teaching others how to care for eSIMs via Instagram, I took it a step further and started a tiny community of 20 people whose eSIMs I am caring for. Together, we currently support around 10–12 phones in Gaza.
It could be families staying in touch, students attending Zoom classes, or journalists reporting from the ground.
Recently, there have been blackouts and fiber cuts orchestrated by the IOF. I can immediately see the
consequences, some eSIMs slow down or disappear completely.
A few phones we support have been connected for months, others suddenly go dark and never return. It’s terrifying to think about what might have happened. I can only hope it’s a broken phone.
If you’re reading this and want to help with eSIMs, everything you need is found here: https://connecting-humanity.org. If you’d rather support without managing eSIMs yourself, I highly recommend donating to: http://cripsforesimsforgaza.org.
C-P: You’ve been based in Malmö for years. Are you still in the same studio I visited some years ago back then or have you moved since? From your point of view; how do you find the local art scene in 2025? From an outsider's point of view, I have the impression that the city is still quite bustling with some new spaces having opened since my last visit.
I still use my studio in Malmö somewhat, but I also have a studio in the village Bygdegård. It was a scary but a necessary step for me to move here. I had to choose between moving closer to Konstskolan Munka or quit teaching there, because of the four hours of commuting.
So I took the leap and moved since "folkbildning" is something that I truly believe in and want to be part of.
Just a shout-out to artists who don't come from money: you do not have to buy into the whole “get a secluded Instagram-friendly house with a huge garden and build a large studio”-project if you want a break from the city. You can find solace in a rented house with garden on the edge of a small village.
And oh yes! Malmö is still delivering a vibrant art scene with artist-run galleries opening and new communities forming.
Rents have gone up, but there are still affordable vegetables, drinks, studios and great people. Also, the art community of Malmö has fewer gatekeepers.
C-P: Lastly, you have a very impressive and long resumé, the credits are endless. What is there left for you to
accomplish?
I have not dared to say this out loud before, but I’ve been taking introductory astronomy courses at university level for a couple of years now, and some serious ideas are starting to take shape in my brain.
So yes, that’s absolutely still to be accomplished, to turn new knowledge into form. Keep an eye out!
EvaMarie Lindahl's THE MUSEUM FAUNA – Lost Tails and Unheard Stories of Resistance runs until November 2,
2025 at Skissernas Museum, Lund.