Massrörelser
- C-print
- 4 days ago
- 9 min read
A few weeks ago, we met with artist Jenny Nordmark and curator Elias Kautsky who have together put on Massrörelser, the former's impressive solo exhibition in multiple parts involving local high school students at Haninge Konsthall. Ahead of next week's closing event, we checked in with both, to hear more about the process from the artistic and curatorial point of view respectively. "It was not supposed to be a student exhibition. I was responsible for the entire artistic output but at the same time I wanted to include their presence, experiences and differences" Jenny says of working with the 49 students involved in the exhibition process.
Jenny Nordmark, artist
C-P: Hi Jenny, congrats on a wonderful show. It’s a very layered show in constant transformation, denser than what initially meets the eye, drawing from your multi-disciplinary background. Before diving into it, tell me a little a bit about your background (and how it its reflected in the show at hand). You told me that you initially started out as an architect, and coincidentally, worked for Tengbom (ed’s note: a leading architecture firm in Sweden) that helmed the project of Haninge Kulturhus back in the day.
J.N: Thank you! I first started as an architect and worked both in larger firms like Tengbom and smaller ones. I have mainly worked idea-based with architectural issues and participated in two group exhibitions at the Architecture Biennale in Venice with Nordmark & Nordmark architects and practical research projects through ArkDes. I studied and worked as a set designer in performing arts at institutions and independent groups around the country including Göteborg Stadsteater, Kulturhuset Stadsteatern and Turteatern. And in art, I’ve worked with site-specific installations, actions and materiality in the public realm and self-initiated projects and publications. My recent work includes two site-specific installations for Luleåbiennalen, one in Kiruna and one at Havremagasinet in Boden (2024) and a boat action with a 3D-printed boat on lake Vättern, a public commission for Jönköping municipality. But ever since I started studying architecture at the age of 19, I have in one way or another worked with how people use, meet or interact with materials, space and historical events.
C-P: How well acquainted were you with Haninge as a municipality prior to the show? It’s very much a show that departs from the site and its surroundings.
J.N: I had previously only visited Haninge in connection to exhibitions and one of the islands in the archipelago. Haninge is an archipelago municipality with the armed forces as a major employer. Since it was an exclusive exhibition for Haninge konsthall in collaboration with students from Fredrika Bremergymnasiet (ed's note: local high school), I chose to depart from their immediate environment. By using materials taken directly from the ground and different places in Haninge with archetypal tools such as shovels, wheelbarrows and buckets, I came closer to the municipality in a very tangible way. Material that simultaneously connects the global material movements and the built environment. A piece of land that was previously a swamp connected to a newly built center and also connects how land is conquered by humans.
At the opening ceremony, the piece of land was inaugurated with a brass band playing a march. Sand from the beach, a scarce commodity in the world because we build houses and infrastructure of concrete made of sand. The sand is gradually transferred into bags during the exhibition period. Sandbags that, with their weight and their malleability with millions of small stones from large geographical areas, have served as protection for houses, monuments and people. Against bullets. Against bombs. Against floods. Blue clay from the seabed, clay that is an ancient building material. After the last ice age, the landscape of Haninge municipality has slowly risen from the sea. Humans are the species that has now affected the landscape the most and the seabed is fields, villa plots and roads. Now the seas will rise for thousands of years to come due to climate change and the land will gradually become the seabed again.
I have played with my multidisciplinary background. The master plan and built environment for the municipality that extends to 2070 is based on the challenges we already have today and has been a source of inspiration. To see the exhibition room as space for rehearsal and in the end a stage where the materials are the actors and shift roles. The exhibition is in constant transformation in a reported form, where all the materials and tools are in the room throughout the entire exhibition period.
C-P: You’ve previously worked with high school students at Anna Whitlock’s gymnasium in Stockholm and this new project at Haninge Konsthall involved a great number of students, 49 to be precise, from the local Fredrika Bremergymnasiet. How did you organize the work with the students? And what have been some of your personal takeaways during the process?
J.N: Since the collaboration was part of the invitation, I received from Haninge konsthall and Elias Kautsky, the curator, I brought with me the theme of working with coming-of-age students, the ones who will face the future. It was not supposed to be a student exhibition, I am responsible for the entire artistic output but at the same time I wanted to include their presence, experiences and differences. I tried to give as clear instructions and frameworks as possible and make sure that all the students had the same starting point; a kilo of clay and a chipboard painted in clay color. Their clay figures, which represented themselves, were taken to the exhibition room as a procession by each student to dry. One student said “This is the most exclusive material, it's like the origin”. It was interesting to see how different the figures were but also the shared similarities. For instance, many had headphones on and had represented themselves as an animal. After some weeks I broke the figures with a hammer one by one and mixed them into clay paint. A group of students came back and carved into the painted boards with the instruction, what represents a home. Many carved their room with a lot of details like what was hanging on the wall.
I wrote a script, first for myself to see the whole sequence of events, but then the script became part of the exhibition as posters nailed to the wall and aligned with the presented idea.
C-P: I know you guys have planned a closing event on Nov 20 (ed’s note: the show runs until Nov 30). Tell me what visitors can expect.
J.N: I thought it was interesting to let another artist working with a different artistic expression meet the space. We have invited the poet Nioosha Shams who will read from her latest collection of poems Ur which has been described as a kind of ruined creation story. It both touches the exhibition but also adds additional layers. During the event the sand will be released onto a beach. Many mythologies and creation stories are about how land, order, is created from water, chaos. The beach is a border zone where two ecosystems overlap and are in constant change.
Elias Kautsky, curator
C.P: For those who don’t know you, would you like tell us a bit about what you have done leading up to this point?
E.K: It actually hasn’t been an obvious path! I started off studying Textile at Konstfack, wanting to work with fashion. I did that for a while, but didn’t feel it was right, and moved on to do a BA in Aesthetics instead. I wanted to find a way to combine practical knowledge from arts education with theory, and it was this that eventually led me to curating. Then, since finishing the MA in curating at Stockholm University, I have worked at Stockholm konst, Havremagasinet in Norrbotten and with the Luleåbiennalen, as well as with freelance projects. Right now I really enjoy the freedom of being able to work closely with artists on both long term and short term projects. No project is alike!
C-P: Your first project, a solo show titled Slavought with Bror Ida Lennartsson, was carried out shortly after you were appointed as curator. Your tenure is for a period of 2 years, with a possible extension of a third. What are your visions for the programme moving forward?
E.K: I was very happy that Bror Ida Lennartsson jumped right into the first exhibition! Since I was completely new at that point, we were both getting to know the space together. I think that exhibition really set the tone for what I want to pursue during my time at Haninge konsthall. I want to give artists the possibility to work with the exhibition space as a whole, to transform it freely, to experiment, and to test things out. Haninge Konsthall can feel both intimate and spacious depending on how you treat it, but it always brings a certain sense of concentration.
This year’s exhibitions have approached some larger, more societal questions, and I think next year will move closer to the poetics and politics of everyday life, looking at different layers of lived experience. Even though many of the visitors are not visiting the kulturhus for the exhibitions per se, they tend to come by regularly, and I experience that there is a genuine curiosity and interest in the shows. This allows me to work with continuity and to create exhibitions that allow for reflection over time.
C-P: Aside from the obvious, not only being the sole person directly tied to the art space but also working part time, what are some of the less evident pros and cons with working for a municipality art space?
E.K: I really enjoy working in a municipality which has a cultural centre where there is so much going on all the time. One day there is a children’s play in the house, the next day a troubadour on the stage just outside the art space, as well as festivals and celebrations happening regularly. Not to forget the beautiful library! I also have great colleagues, who even if they are not tied solely to the art space, work really hard to contribute to the exhibitions. What, on the other hand, is noticeable is that we live in a time when the position of art is unstable, and we have to stay attentive to budget cuts and to narrow ideas about what art should be and what potential it holds. In this way the art space carries a great responsibility.
C-P: Tell me a little bit about your collaboration with Jenny Nordmark who’s currently exhibiting, and the choices that went into the show Massrörelser?
E.K: When I worked at Stockholm Konst, they were doing a commission with Jenny at Anna Whitlock gymnasium, which was on the same street as the office. I went to see the progress, and was impressed by how she included the students in the project. A few years later Jenny was invited by the curators of the 2024 Luleåbiennialen to participate, and one of her commissions was Folkmakt, an installation located on the square in Kiruna outside of the new town hall. This project juxtaposed the ideas behind the architecture and function of the new and old town hall-building. We ended up carrying doors, iron rods and sand bags across the square in minus 20 degrees, which, I think, was the perfect way to get to know Jenny and her way of working with both materials and concepts. The project also made me realize the importance of the social aspect in her practice at large.
At Haninge konsthall I invited Jenny to work with a project that would involve students and that would have some element of change. I wanted the year to end with an exhibition that pointed towards construction or action, and I knew Jenny would be up for this. About a week after our initial conversation, Jenny sent me elaborated sketches that we have since then been working to realize. As expected, also this time it meant carrying heavy things around and being outdoors in cold weather!
C-P: You currently also serve as the producer/project leader for the next edition of Luleåbiennalen due in 2027. How do you juggle these two assignments?
E.K: I think it works very well, as long as the schedules don't overlap too much! The sites, the projects and my roles are different. The biennial is taking place in several locations and venues, with various artistic leaders, and many different artists and ideas involved. In Haninge, on the contrary, I work with just one space, and with fewer people and artists involved. I initiate the projects on my own, and then develop the projects together with the artists I invite. I really enjoy the contrast between the two jobs; what I learn from one often feeds into the other, and vice versa.
Massrörelser runs until Nov 30, 2025, at Haninge Konsthall with a closing event due on Thu, Nov 20.