Art + Research: In a state of emotions

A talk with artist Linnéa Sjöberg and the Network for the Study of Emotions on identity, power and the politics of emotions. The event is part of Accelerator’s Art + Research programme.

Emotions have historically been understood as opposed to rational thought and scientific knowledge, yet they are fundamental to our lived experience. Why do we feel the things we feel? How are our identities and sensibilities shaped and governed by systems of power? And how do we study and work with emotions? During this event, historian Annika Berg will give a brief introduction to the study of emotions and the Network for the Study of Emotions, and historian Sara Ekström will share her research on the Swedish national dress in a presentation titled Power, Sensibility and Identity. Politics of Emotion in the National Dress Reform of 1778. The presentation will be followed by a conversation between Sara Ekström and artist Linnéa Sjöberg—whose solo exhibition Out of Character is on view at Accelerator until 14 June—on topics such as national identity, romanticism, open-air museums and difficult emotions. The conversation will be moderated by Nike Stolpe Wikström.

Accelerator Café
Language: English
18:30–20:00
Free entry

Programme

• Introduction to the study of emotions and the Network for the study of emotions by Annika Berg
• Power, Sensibility and Identity. Politics of Emotion in the National Dress Reform of 1778 by Sara Ekström
• Conversation between Sara Ekström and Linnéa Sjöberg

The exhibitions are open until 18:30.

Participants

Annika Berg is Associate Professor in History of Ideas at Stockholm University. Her research combines the history of medicine and the history of political ideas, but also touches on the history of emotions; for example in the book De samhällsbesvärliga: Förhandlingar om psykopati och kverulans i 1930- och 40-talens Sverige (2018) or in the current research project “Putting a price on health: Knowledge claims and ethical considerations in the field of health economics”, funded by the Swedish Research Council.

Sara Ekström is a postdoctoral researcher in History of Ideas at Stockholm University, working in the project “Cool Nature. Utopian Ecologies in Sweden 1780–1840”. She defended her doctoral dissertation, “Governing Through Emotions. Art of Government in three Gustavian Projects” in 2023. Her research interests include the history of emotions, political government, environmental history and national identity during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Linnéa Sjöberg was born in 1983 in Strömsund. Her artistic practice centres on identity, memory, and social structures. She holds a master’s degree from the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm. She lives and works in Stockholm and Berlin. Sjöberg’s works have been exhibited at several Swedish and international institutions, including Göteborgs Konsthall, Magasin III, Bonniers Konsthall, Fullersta Gård, NEST The Hague, the Athens Biennale, and the galleries Steinsland Berliner, Stockholm, Company Gallery, New York, and Galerie Martin Janda, Vienna. In 2018, she received the Maria Bonnier Dahlin grant. Through Accelerator’s collaboration with the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Linnéa Sjöberg is artist in residence at the Anthropocene Laboratory during spring 2026.

Nike Stolpe Wikström
Nike Stolpe Wikström is a PhD student in History of Ideas at Stockholm University with an interdisciplinary background in psychology. Her research interests lie at the intersection of the history of emotions and the environmental humanities. Her PhD project explores sensibility toward and through the more-than-human in eighteenth-century Sweden.