‘Chronos, health, access and intimacy’, 2024

group show, Tensta konsthall, Stockholm, curated by Olivia Plender and Cecilia Widenheim

Participating artists: Jessie Bullivant, Cecilia Germain, Melanie Gilligan, Goldin+Senneby, Jakob Jakobsen, Matrix Feminist Design Co-operative, Park McArthur, Olivia Plender, Ihra Lill Scharning, Vård och värde and Constantina Zavitsanos

Whose body standards have shaped the society in which we live? And what can we learn from the disability rights struggles that demand access to the city and the built environment? Borrowing approaches from feminism, disability justice movements and ‘crip’ perspectives, the exhibition takes its point of departure in the architectural practice of Matrix Feminist Design Co-operative – a British group of architects – who in the 1980s and 90s attempted to lay bare the assumptions built into the environments we inhabit. They asked: who is the public space designed for? Extending this line of thinking, the artists and groups in the exhibition challenge the often hidden ‘norms’ of our society, by pointing to some of the disabling barriers that can block access to the public sphere for many, as well as the structural causes of chronic ill health and how they relate to different forms of discrimination. Many of the artworks explore how experiences of vulnerability and dependence allow us to question the high value that our society places on qualities such as self-sufficiency and productivity. How can we change our approach to time, and develop creative new models for mutual care and community?