River Biographies

Lundahl & Seitl

Artwork Description River Biographies reimagines the exhibition as a living ecosystem—porous to bodies, memory, and emotion. Visitors are invited into a multi-sensory ritual of scent, sound, and vibration, where human bodies become part of a tidal, collective choreography shaped by environmental grief, memory, and transformation. The artwork reflects on waterways as exiled parts of the Earth’s body, burdened by what the system can no longer hold. The silence of these rivers mirrors the human tendency to protect against grief, pain, and the sacred.

River Biographies is composed of two interwoven parts: Living Archive: A spatial atmosphere of shifting mist, scent, vibration, and song, echoing the memory of rivers Embodiment: A participatory choreography where groups of up to 40 visitors wear wireless headphones and vision-blocking goggles, allowing smell and touch to become primary languages. Voices guide a mutual choreography of movement and surrender, forming a temporary collective body of water and stone. As part of the site-sensitive adaptation, participants are invited to bring a stone from a nearby body of water—a simple gesture that becomes an act of remembrance, resistance, and reconnection. These stones, placed along the exhibition walls with handwritten stories, hold memory and witness the participants' own embodiment of the river. In Shanghai, access to the Huangpu River was so restricted that touching its water to retrieve a stone became a quiet act of activism. Each stone speaks—a fragment of river, a trace of body, a carrier of what was once felt, held, or lost.

Project Collaborators:

Co-production: River Biographies is co-produced by Liljevalchs Konsthall and West Bund Museum, in collaboration with Chronus Art Center (Shanghai) and Riksteatern (Sweden). Research partner: Southbank Centre, London (UK) Shows Arnsberg Kunstverein, SWAMPING (2024–2026): Ruhr River, Germany Westbund Museum with Chronus Art Centre (2025) Shanghai, China Istanbul Modern (2026), Bosphorus Strait ( IASPIS-funded long-term residency), Turkey Te Tuhi (2026) Aotearoa New Zealand: Research centred on the Whanganui River NIROX Foundation, (2025) South Africa: Soil and Water, group exhibition curated by Basak Senova 4th Karachi Biennale (2024): Research along the Indus River; awarded the KB24 Performance Art Prize Creative Contributors: Choral Composition: NYX – a London-based collective of experimental vocalists and artists. Team: Sound, Light, Haze: Micke Ring, Mikael Israelsson Dramaturgy: Rachel Alexander Microscopic Photography : Joakim Olsson Acknowledgements: Chris Molenaar, Stockholm University Richard Julin Accelerator Funding: IASPIS – Swedish Arts Grants Committee’s international programme Kulturrådet – Swedish Arts Council