OFF WITH THEIR HEADS! / !SDAEH RIEHT HTIW FFO

OFF Biennial Something Else, Cairo

01.11.2018 - 15.12.2018

Artists:

Roxy Farhat+Zhala Rifat, Goran Hassanpour, Katarina Löfström, Mattias Norström, Linda Tedsdotter, Theresa Traore Dahlberg

Curators: Power Ekroth & Sara Rossling

As part of the large exhibition Something Else, which focuses on rewriting history, the exhibition within the exhibition, OFF WITH THEIR HEADS! / !SDAEH RIEHT HTIW FFO focuses on rewriting the contemporary history using a quote from the classical children’s book by Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland. What if the reality we perceive as reality, is in fact only fiction – and the fiction is reality? In the times of ”fake news” and fake news, the news does at times seem more surreal than the most surreal of fantasies. It poses a classical philosophical problem: how can we be sure that we in fact know anything? This is also a problem young Alice meets in both Wonderland and after walking through the mirror in the sequel, Through the Looking Glass. In one of her encounters, Alice meets a Queen who acts highly unpredictable and irresponsible, and any opposition or annoying questions are met with one phrase ”Off with their heads!”, mirroring some of the real world leaders. Reading the reality through the mirror of fiction, or art, its possible to question the structures we built up to preserve our notions of right and wrong, black and white, what is real and what is surreal.

Artists’ Biographies

Roxy Farhat (b.1984, Tehran), SWEDEN

Roxy Farhat is a visual artist and director that mainly works with performance and video as mediums. Her work takes feminist and queer-feminist questions into account often in the light of contemporary popular culture. Farhat’s practice involves collaborations with other creative, within themes such as social and political issues of gender, race, and migration. Roxy Farhat’s artistic language draws from political messages and propaganda to commercial culture and kitsch, generating an expression that echoes absurdity, humor and sharp critique.

Farhat studied Visual Art at University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, in Stockholm. She has performed and exhibited throughout Sweden. HUR, a documentary art film created in collaboration with immigrant youth activists, premiered at Southbank Centre, London (2017) and was commissioned by the Swedish Public Art Agency. www.roxyfarhat.com

Zhala Rifat (b.1987, Stockholm), SWEDEN
Zhala Rifat is a musician that works artistically across music and art. The musician ‘Zhala’ launched her first self-titled album at Robyn’s Konichiwa Records in 2015 and met with critical acclaim for its genre-bending cosmic pop fused, with Kurdish Halparke music and dance moves. In videos, such as Holy Bubbles (2015), shot and directed in Los Angeles by Tony Karlsson, Zhala investigates the mechanisms that steer celebrity culture, fame, and constructions of identity.  Zhala’s practice involves collaborations with artists and directors such as Goldin+Senneby and Roxy Farhat. Zhala has performed extensively internationally in such art venues such as Momentum Moss, Norway (2015) and within the Goldin+Senneby exhibition at Tensta konsthall in Stockholm, Sweden (2016). Currently, Zhala will perform at 2018 edition of Athens Biennale in Greece. www.zhalazhala.com

Goran Hassanpour (b. 1977 or 1978 in Kurdistan) SWEDEN

Goran Hassanpour arrived Sweden as a political refugee because of his father’s involvement with a guerrilla movement in Kurdistan. Hassanpour’s works deal with memory, childhood and issues relating to his family’s forced exile. Working with many different types of material, the result is often visually stunning. Hassanpour received an MFA from the Akademy of Valand 2008, Gothenburg. Selected exhibitions: Momentum Biennial, Moss, Norway (2013), Something Else, OFF Biennale, Cairo, Egypt (2015), Artistic Territories, Bohusläns Museum, Sweden, (2018), Missionen, Gagnef, Sweden (2018).

Katarina Löfström (b. 1970, Stockholm), SWEDEN

Light, perception and how we choose to interpret the outside world is a recurring theme in Katarina Löfström's video works, three-dimensional works and installations, as well as her belief in the image's inherent ability to create meaning.  Katarina Löfström has received an MFA from the University College of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm and works primarily with video, digital animations, audio interactivity, and sculptural installations. Selected exhibitions: The 7th Busan International Video Festival, Busan Korea (2010): 13th Festival de cinema independent de Barcelona, Spain (2013): Something Else, OFF Biennale, Cairo, Egypt (2015). www.katarinalofstrom.com

Mattias Norström (b.1971, Gagnef) SWEDEN

Mattias Norström is a visual artist and founder of a music and art festival and and an art space in Dalarna, Sweden. Through video, sculpture, installation, performance and public art, his work explores the exchange between local craft traditions and contemporary culture within visual representation and perspectives on class. Through poetic language and humor, Norström’s art composes thought-provoking and contrasting situations. There is a sense of immediacy in Norström’s work, which is often site-specific and recurs to the rhetoric of humor. Norström studied Visual Arts at Valand Academy in Gothenburg, Sweden. He has exhibited internationally and in Sweden, in such venues as Sergels Torg/Kulturhuset Stockholm (2017) and in Bohusläns Museum, Uddevalla, (2018). In 2016, ICIA Gothenburg commissioned a public artwork, Du gamla, du fria.

Linda Tedsdotter (b. 1975, Laisvall) SWEDEN

Linda Tedsdotter's artworks can be site-specific or related in some other way to the situation and the context they form part of. There is frequently an element of surprise in her work and also an element of deliberate manipulation or illusion that intends to intensify the presence and self-awareness of the viewer. It's ultimately through the body that the visitors get the concept of the artwork Tedsdotter is transferring us. Tedsdotter also work as a independent curator.  Tedsdotter’s works have been shown in several museums of modern art, festivals and galleries, such as the Kaohsiung International Arts Festival in Taiwan (China, 2003), the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb (Croatia, 2004), Moderna Museet in Stockholm (Sweden, 2006) Palais de Tokyo in Paris (France 2013) and OFF Biennial Cairo (Egypt 2015). www.tedsdotter.com

Theresa Traore Dahlberg (b.1983, Värnamo) SWEDEN

Theresa Traore Dahlberg is a visual artist and filmmaker that formulates and mediates engaging complex, narratives through sculpture, photography, and film. Her films narrate stories in the expanded field of documentary including themes such as representation of the other, by questioning how individuals, events and places are perceived, interpreted and understood. The artist pays attention to production, working conditions, workers identities and fates of life, creating art that reflects the complexity of class, women's roles, and post-colonialism. Traore Dahlberg studied 16mm experimental film at The New School, in New York and at The Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts. Later, Visual Art at The Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm. Traore Dahlberg has exhibited in such venues as Zeller van Almsick, Vienna, Austria (2018) and at Uppsala konstmuseum, Sweden (2018). Her film The Ambassador’s wife (2018) was awarded the Tempo Documentary Short Award and shown at the Toronto Film festival (2018). http://momentofilm.se/profiles/theresa-traore-dahlberg/

Curator’s biographies:

Power Ekroth is an independent curator and critic based in Berlin. Current exhibitions include the Borås International Sculpture Biennial 2018, Sweden; John Bock at Kulturhuset Stadsteatern, Stockholm 2015; and the Momentum Biennial, Norway 2013. www.powerekroth.net

Sara Rossling is an independent curator based in Stockholm. Current projects and exhibitions in Sweden include GAIR, an international residency in Dalarna, founded together with Mattias Norström 2016; Unfold a Place group exhibition at Ottilia Adelborgmuseet, Gagnef 2018; and guest curator at the art and music festival Skankaloss, Gagnef 2016-2018. sararossling@gmail.com

The exhibition was made possible with the help of The Swedish Art Council, Statens Kulturråd.