white dress

Laia Abril, Ala Kachuu, On Rape, 2022 Photo: © Laia Abril. Courtesy Gallerie Les Filles du Calvaire.

Laia Abril meets Emily Jacir and Teresa Margolles

What Remains

6.9 2025 – 18.1 2026

Stockholm

Resistance, activism and political standpoint unite the artists in the exhibition “What Remains”. In their works, Laia Abril, Emily Jacir and Teresa Margolles draw attention to stories that highlight misconducts, abuses and raise questions about responsibility, understanding and the role of art in conversation and healing.

When Laia Abril suggested some artists that she was inspired by and wanted to meet in her exhibition at Moderna Museet, the choice fell on Emily Jacir and Teresa Margolles. Two artists who, like Laia Abril herself, work research-based with archives, photography, film and interviews.

In the exhibition “What Remains”, the works of the three artists now meet in a dialogue where resistance to various forms of oppression, social engagement and storytelling are the underlying themes.

shirt and trousers
Laia Abril, Military Rape, On Rape, 2022 Photo: © Laia Abril. Courtesy Gallerie Les Filles du Calvaire.

On Rape (2022)

In her extensive project “A History of Misogyny”, through topics such as abortion, mass hysteria, menstruation and femicide, Laia Abril has explored various myths, structures and social systems that oppress women.

“What Remains” shows the second part of the project, “On Rape” (2022), where women’s testimonies of rape are reproduced through a series of conceptual photographs of clothing and objects connected to the abuse.

letter to a friend (2019)

Emily Jacir’s film “letter to a friend” from 2019 depicts the conflict between Palestine and Israel, a work that is still just as ferociously relevant today, six years after its creation. In the film, Emily Jacir talks in detail about her home in Bethlehem, Dar Jacir, and the street where it is located. A place marked by the constant threat of violence that the city and its inhabitants live under.

Plancha (2010-2025)

For the exhibition at Moderna Museet, Teresa Margolles has created a new version of the work “Plancha”, originally from 2010. In the work, the violence in Mexico is linked to the increasing spiral of violence in Sweden and the Stockholm region in recent years. Material has been collected from various crime scenes around the city and been mixed with water. The water drips from the ceiling onto heated hotplates, where it evaporates and creates a kind of memorial to the lost lives of the murdered people.

How can we relate to or understand the atrocities depicted? What do these stories evoke and what remains in us after encountering them? Art cannot resolve conflicts, but it can reveal and process collective experiences and thereby create space for conversation and healing.– Anna Tellgren, Curator.