Welcome to an evening of readings and conversations in conjunction with Accelerator’s spring exhibition The Kingdoms of Elgaland-Vargaland Present WORLD EXPO 2023 by Leif Elggren and Carl Michael von Hausswolff, and Oedipus in Search of Colonus by Loukia Alavanou. The conversation is part of the programme Art + Research, in which Accelerator invites artists and researchers to react to and reflect on the exhibitions together with the public – this time on the theme of “Time”.

We live in a time of rapid and irreversible change, which, at the same time, demonstrates that certain histories are repeated during crises and conflicts. The past constantly makes itself felt, planetary processes and personal events are engraved in our memories and mark our dreams of the future. Ideas of how time and notions of time shape today’s world, especially the urgent and acute now, are evoked in Accelerator’s spring exhibitions. The Kingdoms of Elgaland-Vargaland spans past and future time, while Loukia Alavanou’s VR work involves  time travel in which an ancient drama is brought to life in a migrant camp in a mythical place. The theme of the exhibitions, how we navigate in and between interior and exterior territories, forms the point of departure for the evening’s readings and discussions with researchers, who provide perspectives on where we are right now. Participants: Staffan Bergwik, historian of ideas, Hanna Hallgren, author and gender theorist, and author and poet Somaya El-Sousi.

The readings will be in Swedish and Arabic, and the conversation in Swedish. Further participants may be invited.

15 March 18:00–20:00 at Accelerator. 

Free entry. No pre-booking required.

Participants

Staffan Bergwik. Professor of the History of Science and Ideas at Stockholm University. Research areas: knowledge, society and culture in a historical perspective, with an interest in past notions of time and various ways of writing history.

Somaya El-Sousi. Palestinian poet and author from Gaza, based in Norway.

Hanna Hallgren. Author and Senior Lecturer in Gender Studies at the Linnaeus University. Artistic research in creative writing and LGTBI-historical research.