September 19–22, 2024
An initiative by Mint and Index including a festival programme curated by Yaby.
September Sessions—A Contemporary Art Festival in Stockholm is back with a four-day programme spread across various art organizations in the city as well as public spaces in Stockholm. The festival hosts exhibitions, performances, concerts, film screenings, IASPIS Open Studios, and social gatherings. Whilst celebrating the diversity of Stockholm’s art scene, September Sessions aims to create a platform for invited curators’ contributions.
Collaborating art organisations are Bonniers Konsthall, Filmform, Ghost Platform, IASPIS, Index, Konsthall C, Liljevalchs, MDT, Mint, Public Art Agency Sweden. A prelude will be arranged on September 14 by Accelerator, featuring a concert by Xiu Xiu and performance by artist collective CHEAP.
The second edition of September Sessions presents Rouge Ravager—a programme from the curatorial duo Yaby, founded in Madrid 2017 by Beatriz Ortega Botas and Alberto Vallejo. The programme includes work by artists Alex Margo Arden, Sam Cottington, Craig Jun Li, z.No scott, Cara Tolmie among others.
Rouge Ravager will unfold in the curious setting of Skandia, a 1920s cinema designed by one of Sweden's leading modernist architects, Gunnar Asplund. Its velvet interiors, taut projection screen and cinematically invocated elsewhere intermingle and set the tonal frame for the works featured.
Rouge Ravager looks at the performative side of visual art through a series of offsite pieces that engage with “liveness”—they happen, they do something, they conjure up time and respond theatrically to the narratives staged by a particular space. Like in the architectural and cinematic demeanor of Skandia, notions of here and elsewhere underlie the works of the selected artists, pulling the audience to different settings and pointing their attention to different places or moments where a sense of meaning or at least completeness might be located. Presentness gets boosted through anticipation and spark, charged with conjecture, tropes, wariness and hanging emotions.
As part of September Sessions, a series of exhibitions and events will be organized by Accelerator, Bonniers Konsthall, Filmform, Ghost Platform, Index, Konsthall C, Liljevalchs, MDT, Mint, and Public Art Agency Sweden with Rosa Aiello and Dylan Aiello, CHEAP, Dynamic Resistance, Elisabete Finger and Manuela Eichner, Frida Orupabo, Ksenia Pedan, Massinissa Selmani, Xiu Xiu.
Also, IASPIS international residency programme in Stockholm opens its doors with the seasonal Open Studios, featuring artists Becca Albee, Emelie Carlén, Martine Flor, Leif Holmstrand, Xadalu Tupã Jekupé, Göksu Kunak, Bror Ida Lennartsson, Sara Lindström Lindhe, Mounira Al Solh, Lauda Virginia Vargas.
Graphic design: Aron Kullander-Östling
Banner photo: Lasse Olsson
IASPIS is the Swedish Arts Grants Committee’s International Programme for Visual and Applied Arts, hosting residencies and public events in Sweden and abroad, publications, expert visits, regional and international collaborations, and an archive. IASPIS’ programme aims to contribute in various ways to developing and deepening international contacts between practitioners, organisations, audiences and markets and in this way support artistic development and improved job opportunities.
