Closed
Until further notice

Every Saturday at 11
Nordic Walking

Thursdays
Tensta konsthall Art School

25.9 - 17.1 2021
Åke Hodell – Resistance. An exhibition with 5 live programs

Starting Spring 2021
Literary course: Black skin, White Masks

Online
Literary course: To Read and to Be Read

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Tensta konsthall Art School

The art school is an art course for young people between 15 and 25, who are curious about art and creative creation. The course is free of charge and serves as a preparatory course with a norm-critical perspective, where participants can try different techniques, go to art exhibitions and do studio visits together (when possible) and have inspiring meetings with professional artists. The course is lead by the art pedagogue George Chamoun and has been realized with the support from Skandia - Idéer för livet and Foundation for Arts Initiatives.more →

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Nordic Walking

Saturdays at 11:00
Keep moving! Join Fahyma Alnblsi's cheerful Nordic walking Saturdays. We meet at Taxingeplan, outside Tensta konsthall and go for a healthy walk together. We have sticks to lend.
Welcome. As this event takes place outdoors, it continues even if Tensta konsthall itself is closed.

Here you can see Swedish Television reporting from Fahyma's Nordic walk!more →

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Closed until further notice

Due to the current situation, we have decided top follow the recommendations of the Swedish Health Agency and close Tensta konsthall until further notice. This means that the restaurant is kept closed as well. Hope to see you soon again!more →

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Literary course: Black Skin, White Masks

Starting Sprin 2021 Black Skin, White Masks is a reading circle for young people focusing on racism and power with Frantz Fanon’s texts as a starting point.

Together we read Fanon’s classic Black Skin, White Masks, written in 1952 which deals racism, power and colonialism.

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To Read and to be Read

Online Literary course for young people at Tensta konsthall

4 occasions starting October 28. Theme: Resistance

To read and to be read is the title of this fall’s course arranged in collaboration with Tensta library. The course is inspired by our exhibition Åke Hodell: Resistance and aims to create a platform for young people with an interest in the power and possibilities offered in creative writing and literature.

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Åke Hodell: Resistance An exhibition with 5 acts

Åke Hodell – Resistance. An exhibition with 5 live programs

25.9 2020– 17.1 2021

He was the combat pilot who turned into a poetic rebel and linguistic innovator in the name of resistance and anti-war operating in between satire, concrete poetry and social criticism. Åke Hodell constituted the driving force of the avant-garde scene in Sweden from the 1950s onwards, and this exhibition, initiated and curated by the music journalist Elena Wolay and the artist Fia Backström, is a re-activation of a number of Hodell’s central works in the form of an exhibition, workshops, concerts and performances.

Åke Hodell’s oeuvre delineates a trajectory from modern linguistic approaches in the 1950s to concrete, sound-based works starting in the beginning of the 1960s. Early on, Hodell took on a political, anti-Nazi and Black Power stance. For most people today he is probably most known for his slogan, ”Sassa Brassa Mandelmassa” and his play Rännstensungar (Guttersnipes), which also became a film.

Åke Hodell: Resistance - An exhibition with 5 live programs presents a number of his most well-known works, with igevär (1963), Orderbuch (1965), Where is Eldridge Cleaver? (1969) and Strindbergiana (1987) as well as lesser-known works. Hodell’s works are the source of inspiration for a program of live acts in which musicians and concrete poets relate to Hodell’s works in a multitude of ways. The live prorgams not only activate the exhibition, but also shed light on Hodell’s ability to challenge art, along with the ideological climate of his time. Included in the exhibition are two pieces of printed matter by Wolay and Backström, who also have created the exhibition architecture.

During WWII, Åke Hodell (1919 – 2000) was a fighter pilot, but soon became a convinced anti-militarist. In 1941 his plane crashed but he survived miraculously. His life took a new turn and he started to write poetry. Already as a child he had been exposed to literature, actors, writers and theatre thanks to his father, who was the director of Södra Teatern. In his art, Hodell freely shifted between concrete poetry, theatre, performance and acts for radio. In the Swedish 60s, he was considered a central figure within the concrete art and text-sound-compositions movements. In the 1970s, Hodell cooperated with producers at Radio Sweden to create a new form of experimental radio theatre, which resulted in the Apartheid-critical piece not being broadcast for fifteen years.

How to attend the events. Due to the current situation, our premises only allow 50 people at a time. To attend in person, please register from a link in our facebook events or on our website. The events will be live streamed on our facebook page.

Live program #1, Resistance, 26.9 18:00

Sofia Jernberg, soprano voice artist, improviser, interprets presentarms (igevär) from 1963.

Dror Feiler, composer, musician and activist with a background in the Israeli army.

Kamau Amu Patton, artist and pedagogue who in his practice examines history and culture through archival studies, documents and stories (via Zoom). The poet Nachla Libre reads from her new book Tiden har sett allt.

Live program #2, Black Power 27.9 15:00

Jasmine Kelkay, PhD candidate in sociology, lecturer on racial profiling.

Conversation about the relevance of the Black Panthers today. Journalist Nathan Hamelberg (moderator) and Samuel Girma, curator, activist and co-founder of Black Queers Sweden, Judith Kiros and Bilan Osman, journalists at Kontext and Expo respectively.

Literary scholar and writer Judith Kiros reads her new texts.

Live program #3: Death 24.10

Eritrean coffee ceremony with Emma Berhane. Teddy Hultberg, writer, scholar and Hodell expert on minimalism and repetition in music. Live interview with La Monte Young and Jung Hee Choi, American avant-garde composers and pioneers within minimal composition. The poet and artist Leif Holmstrand reads from his coming book “diktbok inte världen”. Live music: Stephen O’Malley & Kali Malone (not streamed).

Live program #4: Identification 21.11 Performance with A.B.S. (Malin Arnell, Fia Backström and Imri Sandström) who materializes language through the porous contact surfaces of the singular. Live: Marja-Leena Sillanpää, poet, sound artist. Artist Leif Elggren: Som om jag vore Gunnar Ekelöf. Conversation about Åke Hodell and his publishing house Kerberos: Artist Books and DIY with Marja-Leena Sillanpää, writer Magnus Haglund and art historian Thomas Millroth.

Live program #5: Automatization 12.12

Lecture by the artist Loulou Cherinet, poet Ida Börjel, musician Leo Correia de Verdier’s sewing machine performance, and Fia Backström, performance The Alphabet and its Deviations. Mats Lindström (EMS) presents Hodell’s work 220 Volt Buddha. The Poet Iman Mohammed reads her own works. Please note: The program will only be streamed, no physical show. No tickets are needed.

All events are live-streamed via Facebook, and are subject to change.

About the curators

Elena Wolay is a driving force on the Swedish alternative music scene. She works as a music journalist, organizer, lecturer and also the founder of Jazz Är Farligt, which among other things arranges live festivals and publishes a magazine. Elena Wolay is a recurring voice in the Radio Sweden Classical Channel including her own productions. 2017– 2019 she curated Uppsala konsert & kongress with a Fluxus festival, among others. Previously, Wolay has been a member of the jury for the Nordic Council and its music prize, an expert at the Swedish Cultural Council and an expert consultant for the Cultural Administration of the City of Stockholm. Also, Wolay has worked as an artistic leader at Inkonst in Malmö. Currently she is a member of the Konstnärliga rådet för Statens Musikverk.

Fia Backström is an artist, pedagogue, critic and poet based in New York. In her context-specific practice, she problematizes the fabric of collectivity. Her work ranges from projects including institutional frameworks and participants, to text-based performances, photography, and installation-based exhibitions. Backström’s works have been shown at Centre Pompidou, Paris (2019); Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2019, 2010); MUSAC, Léon (2014); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2010), Tranzit, Prag (2008); and Serpentine Gallery, London (2007) among others, and her works are represented in the collection of Moderna Museet and the Whitney Museum. She represented Sweden at the Venice Biennial in 2011 and participated in the Whitney Biennial in 2008. Selected books: COOP a-script, Primary Information (2016) and Fia Backström, Sternberg press (2011). Her texts have been published in Artforum, Art on Paper and North Drive Press. She holds an Assistant Professorship at Cooper Union and was the chair of the photo department at the MFA program at Bard College in New York.

Tensta konsthall is supported by Stockholms stad, Region Stockholm, FfAI - Foundation for Arts Initiatives and Skandia - Idéer för livet. The project has been awarded grants from Musikverket and Stockholm stad.

Image from Law and Order, Åke Hodell, 1970.

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Åke Hodell – Resistance. An exhibition with 5 live programs

25.9 2020– 17.1 2021

He was the combat pilot who turned into a poetic rebel and linguistic innovator in the name of restistance and anti-war at the borderve between satire, concrete poetry and social criticism. Åke Hodell constituted the driving force of the avant-garde scene in Sweden from the 1950s onwards, and this exhibition, initiated and curated by the music journalist Elena Wolay and the artist Fia Backström, will be a re-activation of a number of Hodell’s central works in the form of an exhibition, workshops, concerts and performances.

more →

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13.6 – 12.12 2020: The Little Gallery - Body to Body New work by Åsa Norberg & Jennie Sundén

In their practice, the artist duo Åsa Norberg and Jennie Sundén, unite textile history with pedagogical innovators throughout time. As curious researchers, they dive into different pedagogical worlds of ideas, dealing with the connections between play, democracy and the building of a community as a contrast to authoritarian methods and fixed truths.

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Women

Tuesdays and Thursdays 13:00–16:00 Three times a week women from the Järva area meet at Tensta konsthall to work with different kinds of crafts. Through joint handiwork, a safe space is made possible where conversation and exchange of experience is at the center. The craftsmanship skills that women in the group already have is picked up and the teacher role alternates between the participants. This way, knowledge about techniques such as embroidery, jewelry making, knitting and crochet.more →

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Futures: Katharina Berndt Rasmussen and Moa Bursell

20.11 18:30 Futures: Katharina Berndt Rasmussen and Moa Bursell

Katharina Berndt Rasmussen
Imagine Linda, a business woman with strong anti-racist values. Despite her explicit values, she employs only light-skinned people, with Swedish-sounding names. Can we explain the difference between her explicit values and actual behaviour? A similar situation exists on the social level: Sweden is a liberal democracy with strong, anti-discrimination laws that forbid ethnic discrimination. According to very recent investigations, racist attitudes are on the decline amongst Swedes and a clear majority declare positive attitudes towards multiplicity. However, despite this, statistics indicate a widespread ethnic segregation and discrimination. How can this discrepancy be explained on both the individual and social level?

During the last 10-15 years, social science researchers have identified correlations between discriminating behaviour and so-called implicit prejudices. They have shown that these prejudices can contradict an individual’s explicit values and that they exist in all of us. Research results can contribute to explaining observed ethnic discrimination on the individual level — as in Linda’s case — and on the societal level.

But what should we do, as individuals and in society in general, to counteract our implicit prejudices and their effects? One answer to this question requires a moral philosophical perspective, in addition to the social scientific one. I will talk about moral philosophical questions such as: can Linda really be held responsible for implicit prejudices that she is unaware of? Should we blame or censure her? And how far should we go in our attempts to counteract implicit prejudices?

Self-presentation: I am a researcher in practical philosophy at the Institute for Future Studies. My areas of philosophical interest include political philosophy, moral philosophy and feminist philosophy. I have previously carried out research on democracy, discrimination, sexism, racism, harm and justice. In my present research I examine the moral philosophical implications that accompany empirical research on implicit bias. I received my PhD in 2013 at Stockholm University, with the thesis Democracy and the Common Good: A Study of the Weighted Majority Rule. The thesis was awarded the Stockholm University Association’s prize for the best thesis in the Humanities at Stockholm University. I am a university instructor, teaching courses in critical thinking, feminist philosophy, modern political philosophy and normative ethics. I am also editorial assistant for Tidskrift för Politisk Filosofi (the journal of political philosophy), a member of SWIP-Sweden (the Society for Women in Philosophy Sweden) and engaged in the public debate concerning issues such as equality, justice and democracy.

Moa Bursell: Can We Counteract Prejudices That We Don’t Know We Have?

Ethnic discrimination creates an unequal access to resources and opportunities. This relates not least to encounters between citizens and authorities, when ethnic background can affect, for instance, a civil servant’s judgement of how social welfare should be distributed or to encounters between employers and job applicants, when the assessment of the applicant’s qualifications or merits can be influenced.

Discriminatory judgements can depend on implicit — that is, unconscious — values that influence individuals without their knowing it. However, there are studies showing that these implicit negative attitudes can be reduced — or alternatively, controlled — at least temporarily through various psychological exercises. But we still don’t know whether these changes are temporary or permanent. Neither do we know if a reduction of implicit negative attitudes or increased control over them has any significant effect on the real assessments and decisions that employers and civil servants make concerning employment or distribution of welfare. I will present existing research in this area and discuss the form in which efforts to counteract unconscious prejudices might take.

Self-presentation: I am a researcher in sociology at the Institute for Future Studies. In 2012 I defended my PhD thesis, Ethnic Discrimination, Name Change and Labour Market Inequality — Mixed Approaches to Ethnic Exclusion in Sweden. I have continued to research ethnic discrimination in the labour market, and on discrimination in encounters between citizens and public institutions.

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Futures is a series of seminars at Tensta konsthall in collaboration with the Institute for Future Studies, for presentation throughout 2018

Can we be optimistic about the future of the world and mankind? Seldom has this question been so contentious as it is now. On the one hand, infant mortality, poverty and the number of violent crimes and wars in the world have decreased radically, while longevity, literacy, access to education, health care and clean water have increased. On the other hand, we face a serious climate crisis at the same time as several bloody conflicts continue, with consequent untold numbers of people seeking refuge. We are also witnessing a rise in racist and anti-democratic attitudes and movements in many places, and national sovereignty is being challenged by, amongst other things, technological developments that have created new, difficult to decipher infrastructures and new governance structures and processes.

In this lecture series, some of the themes and phenomena that will influence future developments will be discussed. How can democracy survive in a globalised world, where the importance of nation states is declining and technique and communication corporations are gaining more and more influence? Within what time frame do we need to think about “futures”? Do studies of the future need a Copernican turn with less human-centrism and a different conception of intelligence? How are tomorrow’s values affected by the waves of immigrants and new social media? New ways to discriminate against people have been seen recently — how can efforts against such kinds of injustice be reinforced? Does the survival of humankind depend on possibilities to leave our planet and move elsewhere in cosmos?

The seminar series is part of Tensta konsthall’s 20th anniversary.