Markings – performative walks

How the city is planned and designed – its street names and its public art – re­flects how political tendencies and values have exerted their influence during diffe­rent periods of times The same applies to the collections in art museums, where some individuals are portrayed as subjects and given names, while others are depicted as ano­nymous bodies. In our shared spaces, we preserve specific historical fragments, while leaving others to pass into oblivion. Some have a voice, while others are silenced.

In her performative walk, Hanni Kamaly traces how shifting ideologies and power relations have shaped the city of Malmö. Together we will visit locations that many of us pass bye every day, however, likely without reflecting on their relationship to Carl Linnaeus and his system of taxonomy, the lucrative trade of the East Indian Company, or Qu­een Lovisa Ulrika’s “curious civilizing-project” Couchi, the enslaved boy she received as a gift and named Gustav Badin.

Hanni Kamaly has in recent years attracted attention for her films, sculptures, and per­formative lectures, which shed light on out how certain groups of people are systematically stripped of their humanity and agency. Her art traces the workings and effects of racism and colonia­lism still ongoing in our present day. She brings together findings from archives and collections, with observations from pop-cul­ture found in advertising, TV-series, movies and music. The artist’s research centers on the human body, home of the subject and the surface of which ideologies and power structures are projected.

Welcome to join the walk!