Blå Stället Konsthall
Photo: Hendrik Zeitler
Banats
Ortenbrudar, guzzar, banats.
Banats is the story of growing up with responsibility that never pauses. Of being expected to be strong, loyal and capable, often at your own expense. Of navigating the demands and expectations of the world around you while being made invisible.
Blå Stället Konsthall
Grabbar
Nabila Abdul Fattah
Photo: Hendrik Zeitler
Grabbar
Sweden is living through an epidemic it does not want to acknowledge. Fatal shootings have become an everyday occurrence, and the only things up for discussion are longer sentences and the eviction of families. A young, racialised man is the one at greatest risk of being killed by gun violence. Whether he is a victim or a perpetrator, the public treats him as one and the same. Rhetoric along the lines of ”they brought it on themselves” is not unusual, as if anything they had done could justify being executed in the open street.
Trasten vårt kvarter
Nabila Abdul Fattah
Trasten, vårt kvarter was a participatory art, culture and democracy project in Gislaved, 2018–2019, led by Kulturplatån in Gislaved.
It took the Trasten housing estate as its starting point and set out to use culture to build belonging, strengthen local participation, and close the distance between the people living there and the town’s cultural institutions.
A central principle was that residents, above all the young people, would shape the content of the project themselves. Together with Mohammed Ryback I worked with young people from Trasten in creative processes where their experiences, ideas and images of their own neighbourhood were placed at the centre.
The work resulted in, among other things, a collective exhibition during Konstrundan Gislaved 2019. It showed both the young people’s own work and portraits I had made of participants in the project. The exhibition set a visitor record for the art trail.
Trasten, vårt kvarter was about who gets to make culture, which places are considered cultural spaces, and what happens when people are given the chance to tell the story of where they live themselves.
BLAND VÅRA HJÄLTAR FINNS INGA VITA MÄN
Which people get written into history, and which are left out?
The history books are full of kings, explorers, political leaders and revolutionaries. The people held up as heroes are usually white men, while many of those who changed the world have remained unknown or been reduced to footnotes.
Together with the artist Lejla Harbas I made the exhibition “Bland våra hjältar finns inga vita män” to turn our attention towards some of the women whose actions, knowledge and resistance have shaped history.
The exhibition consisted of illustrated portraits alongside texts about the lives and struggles of the women depicted. Among them were activists, organisers and other historical figures from different parts of the world.
The project was both a tribute and a question to the viewer: which people have we been taught to see as heroes? Whose stories count as history? And how does our understanding of the world change when more people are given room in it? The project was made with support from Mångkulturellt Centrum.
Selected works
Dhikr på spårvagnen mot Angered – 2024
Drawing and coffee on paper. Shown at Liljevalchs vårsalong 2024.
Stolthet och fördom – 2022
Fineliner, pointillism and instant coffee. Shown in the group exhibition En miljon blickar at Konsthallen Blå Stället in Gothenburg, 3 December 2022–5 February 2023.
The Artist – 2019
Portrait from the work with the young people in Trasten. Shown at Konstrundan in Gislaved/Gnosjö 2019.
Tugg och tro – 2018
A drawing about hybridity, faith, place and belonging. Shown in the group exhibition Havet at Konstfack in Stockholm, 25 October–3 November 2018.
Hammarkullen Urban Art – 2017
A mural in tribute to Hammarkullen and the neighbourhood’s history of activism. Made for the street art festival Hammarkullen Urban Art, organised by Urban Konst and Hammarkullen 365 in Gothenburg, 3–13 August 2017.