Erika Bjerstrom
Global Climate correspondent
01.12.2024 – 15.12.2024
“I am a Swedish TV- Correspondent, presenter and author working for National Swedish Television. I have travelled globally for decades and reported on political affairs , focusing on development, democracy and the climate crisis. I have been EU- correspondent, Africa- correspondent and US -correspondent and bureau chief based in Washington DC. I have written books on economic growth across the African continent, EU- affairs and how the climate crisis is affecting Sweden.”
“I am writing a new book on how the climate crisis is becoming the new battle field fuelling polarisation. I want to examine climate change and democratic transformation and see how the democratic institutions can withstand the pressures when forces are using climate to enhance conflicts. While in Paris I plan to meet with stakeholders to learn more about the new political landscape and examine if reform of democratic institutions is needed to make them more resilient against climate chaos.”
Peter Johansson
02.12.2024 – 29.12.2024
Artist
“I describe my artistry as a 30-year research journey through Swedishness. In sculptures and installations, I have occasionally, but not always very successfully, tackled cherished Swedish phenomena such as Dala horses, falukorku, folk dance, red cottages and racism. Above all, I want my art to concern many people by being physical, direct and highly visual. Preferably also laughable.”
“After the big solo exhibition at the Swedish Institute in Paris in 2019 – 2020, there were a lot of contacts and requests that I wanted to follow up on. It was hoped they would lead to future exhibitions and commissions. Then came the pandemic and all of this went down the drain. Now I want to recreate these opportunities and meet the art-initiated people, galleries and companies who then contacted me.”
Lovisa Ringborg
The Scenography of Her
02.12.2024 – 15.12.2024
“I’m an artist working with photography, sculpture and video. A recurring theme in my work is the inner world and the subconscious. Both the seductive and uncanny quality. I am interested in exploring the emotions associated with an ambiguous and dreamlike state of mind. I had my masters at the University of Photography 2008 in Gothenburg but am now living and working in Stockholm since 2011.”
“I am interested in the surrounding scenography around one of Paris’ most well-known and successful courtesans. Esther Lachmann constructed not only a new identity but also a specific place/theatre for the scenes that were meant to take place there and whom it would attract. The project will consist of photographs from the interiors of Hotel de la PaĂŻva in Paris but I will also create staged works inspired by her life.”
Ayedin Ronaghi
Visual Artist
02.12.2024 – 29.12.2024
“I am a multidisciplinary artist working in sculpture, installation, and film. I was born in 1986 in Tehran, Iran, but moved to Sweden at a young age. I am currently based in Stockholm, where I earned a master’s degree in fine arts from Konstfack University. My work has been shown at several international film festivals. My exhibitions include Halmstads Konsthall, Gallery Anderson Sandström, Eskilstuna Konstmuseum, Rian Design Museum in Falkenberg, and Norrtälje Art Gallery.”
“In Paris, I will be working on an experimental documentary titled Messages From a War Zone. Through a collage of real-life events and personal stories, I explore the diverse narratives of victims of wars, affected by some of the most significant conflicts of the past decade. During my stay, I plan to focus on storyboarding, character design, and manuscript development.”
Mary Sheeran
Expressing and reasoning about time and space in circuits and programs
02.12.2024 – 29.12.2024
“I am a Professor in Computing Science at Chalmers University of Technology. I studied electronic engineering at Trinity College in my native Dublin. For my doctorate at Oxford University, I worked on a programming language to describe and verify hardware circuits. This topic has continued to fascinate me during my career, which included a postdoc at Chalmers and a spell in Glasgow before I returned to Chalmers for good. I have worked, also, to get more women into science and engineering.”
“My project is on expressing and reasoning about time and space tradeoffs in circuits and programs. I have long worked on describing and reasoning about circuits, and my colleague Marc Pouzet at ENS Paris has worked on programming languages for safety critical applications, as used in aeroplanes, for example. Now we want to put our heads together as we have been working on related ideas. Marc would like to generate hardware from his programs too, so the time is right to work together in earnest.”
Alexander Zethson
Musician/composer/label manager
02.12.2024 – 29.12.2024
“I am a Stockholm-based pianist/keyboardist and composer active on the international jazz, improvised, and experimental music scenes – in groups such as Goran Kajfes Tropiques, Angles, Vathres, Fire! Orchestra, Unfolding Orchestra, and more. Furthermore, I am the founder of and run the record label Thanatosis production since 2016.”
“The purpose of the stay is to complete a record production with the Paris-based, Swedish-French duo LOVERS (releases 2025 on Thanatosis) and more generally to explore the possibilities for collaboration with experimental music scenes in Paris, through meetings with musicians, live venues and other record labels. The aim is to establish potential long-term artistic collaborations and – in a broader perspective – strengthen the link between the French and Swedish experimental music scenes.”
Michell Zethson
Ethnologist
02.12.2024 – 29.12.2024
“I am a senior lecturer at the University of Arts Crafts and Design in Stockholm, where I teach theory and writing. Since completing my PhD in 2012, I have been interested in the possibilities and impossibilities of revolt. Drawing on posthumanism, existentialism and critical animal studies, I have explored questions of norms and materiality, and of livable (and killable) lives.”
“Can we imagine a revolt that does not, after a sudden flare-up, either sink into oblivion or suffer a dialectical counter-movement? During my stay, I will be working on a project on the possibilities and impossibilities of revolt. I am approaching these questions from an angle that has been somewhat neglected in recent decades, and which I believe holds the promise of other kinds of resistance, namely existentialism, particularly as articulated by Albert Camus.”
Anna Ă–hman
Phd in Educational studies
16.12.2024 – 29.12.2024
“I have a Phd in Educational studies and a position as Senior Lecturer at Karlstad University. My work and research interest concern leading the education of principals in the Swedish Community School of Music and Arts as well as a project about professional leadership in this specific school-context. Despite being voluntary with limited governance, there are policies advocating educational practices such as broadening the scope of education to reach new groups of students.”
“I’ll be working with a project concerning leadership and learning in music and art education in and between schools and other institutions in Paris. I’ll continue the data-construction with interviews and observations in some new sites as last year’s fieldwork generated interesting contacts to broaden the scope. The aim of the project is to contribute with new perspectives on and knowledge about the possibilities of music and art education in Sweden to become more inclusive in practice.”