GIBCA: Fogelstad – Art, Community and Citizenhood

A look back at the Women’s Citizens School at Fogelstad and art as a free zone for women, and a look ahead at the relationship between art, society and community today.

The participants are artist Olivia Plender, translator and author Nik Ruth Persson, and Ann Ighe, editor of Ord&Bild.

Olivia Plender is an artist whose practice grounds in social history, and frequently investigates the relationship between gender, power and authority. Several of her works are part of the biennial exhibition at Skövde Art Museum, on view till November 30. Plender’s practice includes drawings, installations, videos and performances, as well as teaching. Plender recently co-curated the exhibition Chronos: Health, Access and Intimacy at Tensta Konsthall in Stockholm, and her own work has been exhibited worldwide at museums and biennials such as the 16th Sharjah Biennial; Kalmar konstmuseum; Zacheta – National Gallery of Art, Warsaw; Centre Pompidou-Metz; 34th Sao Paulo Biennial; Glasgow Women’s Library; 9th Gothenburg International Biennial; 6th Taipei Biennial; Manifesta 8, Murcia; Tate Britain, London; Hessel Museum of Art, CCS Bard, New York; MoMA PS1, New York. Plender holds a PhD in Fine Art from Lund University and Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm.

Nik Ruth Persson is translator and writer, former editor of the journal Ord&Bild. During the last years mainly written about journals and magazines, and the communities around them, e.g. Die Freundin (Germany 1924-33) belonging to the gay/trans movements of that time, Tidevarvet, the weekly paper run by the Fogelstad circle, and in the essay book Hannah Arendts 1940-tal about New York journals like Partisan Review.

Ann Ighe is a lecturer in economic history, a writer and one of the editors of Ord&Bild.

The programme is organized in collaboration by Gothenburg International Biennial for Contemporary Art and Ord&Bild, whose first issue of 2025 was dedicated to the Women’s Citizens School at Fogelstad.