Listener

When the biologist Ernst Haeckel first used the word ecology, he combined the two Greek words “oikos”, which can be translated as family, and “logia”, study of/science. Almost exactly one hundred and sixty years later, Art Inside Out visits Laholm with the Listener residency, which takes its point of departures from this pair of words. To study living conditions and to once again understand the entangled families in which we are bound together. To listen carefully for relationships between nature and culture. Between us and other species.

Ongoing climate change, threatened biodiversity and a comprehensive need for global transition demand new methods for observing and understanding the ecological contexts, historical lines and non-human relationships we are all part of. Our ability to see ourselves in mutual relationships with other species and systems that do not distinguish and separate nature from culture is crucial for the future. To get there, we must sharpen our attention and approach that which we humans with our limited senses do not normally perceive – frequencies, signs and vibrations that make up nature’s own voices. The artists we have invited to Laholm all occupy positions where they engage in dialogue with nature: watercourses, plants, rivers and ecosystems. By doing so the artist forms a bridge between non-human communication and our own existential search. Because what does it mean to really listen to nature’s own voices? What sounds, choruses, tones, wills and stories emerge then? What stories do the forests and seas themselves draw? What do they say about us? In Laholm and around the world.

The artists who are part of Listener may not solve any world-shattering problems. But through profound, interdisciplinary and locally anchored artistic methods, they listen, sketch and shape other ideas about an existence in open dialogue and harmony. Perhaps they also point out directions that can frame spaces for action. Suggests other ways of dividing responsibility between individual, collective and societal institutions. Possibilities that arise when we listen for new alliances between us and the ecosystems we are surrounded by.

The finished art works, which all emerge from Laholm’s and Lagan’s specific natural environments, are presented in the form of drawing, installation, performance and video. Between 20 September 2025  and 11 January 2026, the works will be presented in an exhibition at Teckningsmuseet and on sites around Laholm. Former residency artist Pia Rönicke also participates in the exhibition, who in turn invited collaborator Johan Tirén for a joint installation.