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
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.
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 (Stockholm), 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 “Plancha (Stockholm)”, 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.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Laia Abril (born 1986)
Laia Abril is a Catalan artist, active mainly in Barcelona, who works investigatory with photography, text, video and sound. Her works tell intimate stories that reveal hidden and uncomfortable realities. With a particular focus on biopolitics and gender equality, she explores how structural violence manifests itself in individuals’ lives.
Laia Abril is a trained journalist and participated in the residency program at FABRICA, Benetton Communication Research Center in Treviso, where she worked for five years as a researcher, photo editor and photographer for COLORS Magazine. Her artistic projects are presented in the form of installations, on various digital platforms and in publications. Her books include the award-winning “On Abortion” (2018) and “On Rape” (2022), and the most recent “On Mass Hysteria” (2024).
Emily Jacir (born 1970)
Emily Jacir is a Palestinian artist, filmmaker and educator, currently based in Bethlehem and Rome. Her practice includes film, photography, sculpture, performance, text and sound. Through her research-based method, Emily Jacir highlights the political situation in Palestine from both everyday events and a historical perspective.
Since the mid-1990s, her work has been included in exhibitions all over the world and she has been awarded a number of prizes, including the Golden Lion for best young artist in 2007 at the 52nd Venice Biennale. She is one of the co-founders of the Dar Yusuf Nasri Jacir for Art and Research in Bethlehem in 2014, and is still active there.
Teresa Margolles (born 1963)
Teresa Margolles lives and works between her two hometowns, Madrid and Mexico City. In her art, she examines the social causes and consequences of deadly violence, discrimination and poverty. She has a background in communications and forensics, which informs her artistic methods. In her works, she often uses photographs, clay, textiles and fluids containing blood or other traces of human remains.
Through her installations and performances, Teresa Margolles draws attention to the severe misconducts in her homeland and in nearby border districts, giving voice to people in need. She represented Mexico at the 2009 Venice Biennale and has since continued to develop her practice in various exhibitions on the international art scene.
