Fia Backström, Malin Arnell, Imri Sandström, Where we are at, Skype still (2014). Courtesy the artists 

Kapitel, Kaput, Kapital, Kapitulera, Capitulum: header of a text and a part of the arm is a joint exhibition by artists Malin Arnell, Fia Backström and Imri Sandström. The artists’ shared desire to understand what is most elemental, and therefore often taken for granted, and the political dynamics that determine the possibilities for participation, forms the starting point for the collaboration. In an attempt to not distinguish between the negotiation, production, and presentation of the work, the gallery is open to the public while the work is in progress. 

Vi tillgängliggör ett pågående arbete.
We make available an ongoing work.
Our interaction is part of the work.
Vår interaktion är en del av verket.
Det är intressant att inte skilja de olika tiderna åt
It’s interesting to not separate these times
(då vi är i rummet eller inte).
(when we’re in the room or not).
Någon kommer in och får ta del av vad som äger rum.
Someone enters and may take part of what is taking place.
Kapitel: en period av tid som är väldigt olik perioden av tid innan.
Chapter: a period of time that is very different from the period of time before it.
Att det är öppet och arbete pågar, galleriet öppet.
That it is open and work is in progress, the gallery is open.
- Vad betyder att saker är o/åtkomliga (för vem/vad),
- What does it mean that things are in/accessible (for whom/what),

Synliggöra de porösa kontaktytor som det singulära använder.
Make visible the porous contact surfaces that the singular uses.

Hur “lika villkor” kan användas som en flexibel arbetsmetod.
How “equal terms” can be used as a flexible practice.
Hur använder sig språket av sammanhangen
How does language use the contexts

Materialiseringar/materializations: overheadapparater, transparent film, A4 papper, bokstäver/letters, språkljud/language sounds, dagsljus/daylight, glasskivor/sheets of glass och speglar/mirrors samt videoprojektor(er) + (rökmaskin)/(smokemachine), svett/sweat, vågbrus/sound of waves, andetag/breath, tidsrytmer/rythms of time

Vad gör en Stor Bokstav?
What does a Character do?
What does a Capital do?
Vad gör ett Kapital?
och att ingenting sker utan det andra,
and that nothing takes place without the other,

About the artists:

Interdisciplinary artist, researcher and educator Malin Arnell (lives and works in New York, Berlin and Stockholm) is a frequent collaborator with other artists, activists and writers. Through her practice, she emphasizes matter, doing, and actions, focusing on the experiences around/in/of the body (her body, their body, our body), presence, participation, membership, and other affective manifestations. Recent projects include In This Almost, Paço das Artes, São Paulo (2014), Mo(WE)ments of labor, CCS Bard / Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY (2014), Slow dancing with two fans, White Columns, NYC (2014), I am not quite sure. This is an arduous terrain, Swiss Institute Contemporary Art, NYC (2013), The Oncoming Corner, a series of monthly gatherings that takes place in the artist’s loft, Brooklyn, NY (2012-ongoing), Föreningen JA!/YES! Association (2005-ongoing). Since 2010 she’s working on her artistic doctoral theses My Body Remains the Enduring Reality - Participation Out of Bounds in Choreography at the University of Dance and Circus, Stockholm University of the Arts. She is currently a visiting scholar at the Department of Performance Studies at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. 

Fia Backström (lives and works in Stockholm and New York) is a writer, educator, and artist whose practice is based in questions on collective formation and the fabric of the social bond. While rethinking the construction of subjectivity and authorship, the parameters of engagement are worked out through writing (in text), and through presence (in performances, events, environments and collaborative group formations). Friends, peers, visitors and institutional staff alike frequently partake. Backström’s work include: Aphasia as a visual shape of speaking: on A-Production and other language syndromes, Poetry Project, New York (2014), The Growth and its Perennial, Musac, Léon (2014), Misty Harbor – at your leisure, Museum of Modern Art, New York (2010), The Worker through the Ages, Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2010), Studies in Leadership – the golden voice, ICA, London (2009). In 2011 she represented Sweden at the 54th Venice Biennale with BORDERLESS BASTARDS – multi-culti abc. Her texts have been published in Artforum and Art on Paper among others. Backström co-chairs the photography department at the Milton Avery Graduate School of Arts at Bard College and teaches at the graduate Visuals Arts Program at Columbia University and the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University.

Textual and physical transformation, and ways in which language and image act and perform, are core themes explored within the works of artist and researcher Imri Sandström (lives and works in Malmö and Gothenburg). She uses writing, sound, and still and moving images to investigate links between the past and present. Her works, often dealing with specific historical figures or locations, bring up parallel subjects as diverse as heroic death, ideas of beauty and freedom, religious devotion and non-verbal narratives. Recent projects include: Toner som stenar stammar/Tones as Stones Stutter, Konsthall Norra Kvarken, Järnäsklubb (2014), (S)TONE TOLD, “The Oncoming Corner”, New York (2014), The Horse is Horse and Not Horse, “Exploring The Animal Turn Symposium”, Lund (2014), Performing Language and Telling Text, CAGE, New York (2013) and The Spelling and the Spell of Dying Men, “Art in Translation”, Reykjavik (2012). Imri Sandström is currently working on her artistic doctoral project Howe Across Reading - Performing the Past at the department for Literary Composition at Gothenburg University.

Index is funded by the Swedish Arts Council, the City of Stockholm and Stockholm County Council. With thanks to Peroni. 

The exhibition is organized by Nathalie Åhbeck, Curator, Index – The Swedish Contemporary Art Foundation.