2026 - Livets långa näsa, eller Profylaxoratoriet
Ystad Konstmuseum, solo exhibition
Oil, acrylic, gouache, clay, fabric sculptures, sound, performance

The Long Nose of Life, or The Prophylaxoratorium is an interdisciplinary exhibition and performance project exploring breath as a biological process, a musical instrument, and a symbol of life’s beginning and transformation. Developed in collaboration with children, musicians, and artists, the work combines sculpture, painting, installation, music, choir singing, and performance.

Inspired by the pioneering work of midwife Signe Jansson and the children’s own questions about the body, birth, and care, the project weaves together personal experience, social history, and evolutionary narratives through a multilayered form of storytelling. Drawing from the everyday realities of caregiving and parenthood, the work reflects on larger questions of time, memory, coexistence, and human interdependence.

The exhibition unfolds simultaneously within different spaces and temporalities: the early oceans where oxygen first transformed life on Earth, the human body, the delivery room, the maternal body, and the theatre stage. Processes of transformation and metamorphosis run throughout the work, both biological and psychological, culminating in a “Theatre of Life” where birth, care, evolution, and performance become intertwined.
The exhibition is organized in two rooms, each operating according to a distinct logic: the “Outer Room” and the “Inner Room”. Moving between the intimate and the collective, the biological and the theatrical, the two spaces reflect the project’s exploration of life as a continuous process of transformation (what the artist describes as a “Theatre of Life”).

Presented as a solo exhibition at Ystad Art Museum in 2026 (and Mjellby konstmuseum 2026–2027), many of the artworks function both as autonomous works and as characters or components within a live performance.

WORKING GROUP
Ensemble:
Jenny Kalliokulju, Ola Paulsen (composer and musician), Martin Küchen (saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, and composer), Lotte Ohlander (singer and midwife), Hör & Häpna (children’s choir under the leadership of Susanne Holmström and Elin Lundström of Ystad-Sövestad’s congregation), Helga Asgeirsdottir (vocalist), Irja Paulson (vocalist), Emma Gudjonsdottir (vocalist), Humle Rosenkvist (artist), Sofia Ivarsson (light artist), Nidia Martínez Barbieri (dancer), Anna Brita Rasmussen, Kerstin Kalliokulju, Rut Kalliokulju och Ada Kalliokulju.

Curators:
Ellen Klintenberg, Ystads konstmuseum
Anne Vigeland, Mjellby konstmuseum

The exhibition is produced in collaboration with Mjellby Art Museum and with support from Region Skåne. Thanks to the Maternity Ward, Postnatal Ward, and Neonatal Unit at Ystad Hospital, and the Ester Lindahl Scholarship Fund.