At the invitation of Xenia Klein (SE) a group of six artists traveled to Blekinge – a small archipelago region in the south of Sweden – to create a residency relevant to their surroundings. Together they explored bird migrations, eel fishing, stone carvings, personal childhood memories, and distinct food customs within the context of Blekinge’s archipelago culture.

The project “Birds don’t take the train, but we do” shape-shifted into an archival exercise and an artistic display of the everyday, made accessible through an online living archive and a portable exhibition-in-a-box: a treasury of found stories, texts, illustrations, postcards, paper sculptures, a recipe book, and audiovisual records of the experience.

Alongside the archive, the project has unfolded in different public and private, online and offline encounters, becoming an experimental space for the participant artists and their guests to share their practices, energies, and temporalities in a common learning experience.

Images: ‘Birds don’t take the train, but we do’ at NEST, photos by Maureen Mark. Exhibition-in-a-box launch at Page not Found, photos by Dagmar Bosma. Web archive, illustration concept by Elisa Cuesta.

BIRDS DON’T TAKE THE TRAIN, BUT WE DO

Artist-run residency led by Xenia Klein (SE) and co-curated with Elisa Cuesta (ES), Rosa van Walbeek (NL), Victoria de la Torre (ES), Haevan Lee (SK) and Serene Hui (HK).

DOCUMENTATION

Online archive
Publication
Presentation at Page Not Found

© Elisa Cuesta, 2022

WITH THE KIND SUPPORT OF

Region Blekinge, Konst i Blekinge and Karlskrona Kommun

PRESENTED AT

Samtidskonstdagarna 2021 (online)
‘A Scenic Route to Self’, NEST Den Haag (collective exhibition)
BMAV 2022. Bienal de Mujeres en las Artes Visuales (guest proposal, online)
Page Not Found, Den Haag (open launch of publication, online-offline)
Blekinge Museum, Öppet hus i Magasinet Rosenholm