Artist in residence in Malmö 8 September–12 December 2026

Ian Waelder is an artist and publisher from Mallorca, living and working between Spain and Germany. He was born in Spain to a Chilean–US family with German and Mexican heritage, origins that have influenced his practice over the years.

Photo: Eike Walkenhorst

Ian Waelder

He works across photography, sculpture, sound, and room-scale installation. Often he unites these elements to create spatially immersive environments that explore memory, trace, and the poetics of the accident. His practice is informed by a deep engagement with archival fragments and language, regularly employing ephemeral and discarded materials in order to examine gaps in historical narratives, the presence and absence of the body, and the psychological weight of what goes undocumented.

Through processes of molding, assemblage, and the recurrent motif of the stain, Waelder creates forms that withhold a sense of time and porosity, translating questions of memory into environments where it is physically felt rather than represented. Central to his work is an attention to how audiences navigate space: the hesitation, the encounter, and the moments when attention drifts, allowing each piece to acquire an autonomy that challenges its original intention and invites further perspectives to enter the work.

In addition to his practice as an artist, Waelder is the founder of Printer Fault Press, a small-scale publishing house and collaborative platform that provides space for the work of fellow artists, curators, and writers.

During his IASPIS residency in Malmö, he will continue working and reflecting on elements that have entered his practice in the past years, becoming the backbone of his work. Observing and thinking about the behavior of the visitor and their attention, how a body responds to particular scale and tension, and how subtle gestures create an awareness and anxiety of the viewer’s presence. He will also study and learn about new technical possibilities that will help him develop the next steps for his upcoming projects, while engaging with the local context in Malmö during the three months).

Ian Waelder (b. Madrid, 1993) graduated in Fine Arts from the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main in 2023, where he studied as a Meisterschüler under Prof. Haegue Yang. In recent years he’s been an artist-in-residence at the Laurenz–Haus Foundation in Basel (2025/26) and at WIELS – Center for Contemporary Art (Brussels, 2024). Recent solo exhibitions include Kestner Gesellschaft (Hannover, 2025), carlier | gebauer (Berlin, 2025), and Es Baluard Museu d’Art Contemporani (Palma, 2023–24), among others. Group exhibitions have taken place at institutions and galleries including Kunsthalle Wien (Vienna), ifa Galerie (Berlin), nsdoku (Munich), Petrine (Paris), Fundació Antoni Tàpies (Barcelona), Delfina Foundation (London), Francis Irv (New York), and La Casa Encendida (Madrid). He has received grants and awards including the basis Hessisches Atelier Programm (2025–29), the DZ BANK Kunststiftung Förderstipendium (2023–24), and the Städelschule Portikus e.V. Graduation Prize (2023). He is represented by carlier | gebauer (Berlin/Madrid) and diez (Amsterdam).

Web: www.ianwaelder.info

Instagram: @ianwaelder

Facebook: @ianwaelder