Guest accommodation in Paris, Swedish Institute, 2–29 December 2026

Ida Rödén is an artist whose practice unfolds in the space between imagination, history, and scientific observation. Her drawings and sculptures are shaped through dialogues with imagined companions. She’s drawn to the traces of knowledge that have slipped through the cracks – a fungus, a bone fragment, a stone, a story – small things that have a lot to tell if we learn how to listen. Her first companion, Jonas Falck, emerged by a lake in northern Sweden in 2014. In 2023, Jon/Joanna Brandt joined her during an expedition aboard the Swedish icebreaker Oden, opening pathways into speculative geographies.

Photo: Ida Rödén

Ida Rödén in her studio.

In Paris, Ida Rödén will continue to follow Jon/Joanna Brandt, a fictional 18th-century naturalist inspired by Jeanne Baret, the first woman to circumnavigate the globe. Working near the Jardin des Plantes – where Baret lived before her voyage and where the herbarium she helped build is still preserved – Rödén will engage with historical material. Through speculative narratives and artistic research, she explores women’s often overlooked contributions to science. Paris becomes a site where history and imagination merge seamlessly.

Based in Stockholm, Ida Rödén holds a BFA from the Academy of Fine Arts in Umeå, an MFA from California College of the Arts in San Francisco, and an MA in the history of art from Stockholm University. She is the editor of the online art magazine Volym, which focuses on art in northern Sweden, and she is active as a curator at the cultural house Slipvillan in Stockholm.

Over the past three years, her work has been exhibited at Linnæus University in Kalmar and Växjö (2025–26, Arctic – Stories from the Edge of the Ice), Engelska Magasinet in Rejmyre (2025, Re-orienteering – Atlas of Diagrammatic Imagination), Wij Trädgårdar in Ockelbo (2025, Bland svärmare och bepansrade blötdjur), Slipvillan in Stockholm (2024, Ishav), Galleri Hörnan in Falun (2024, Iakttagelser från en tidsutdragen värld av is), Sundsvalls Konstmuseum (2024, Iakttagelser från en polarexpedition), Bærum Kunsthall in Norway (2024, Jon and Jonas – Fellow Travelers among Waves and Rocks), Galleri Verkligheten in Umeå (2023, Öar i verkligheten), Södertälje Konsthall (2023, Fynden i Solhem), and Flygeln, Fullersta Gård in Huddinge (2023, Kotträkor och märlpaddor). She is also part of the traveling exhibition Expedition Art, featuring artists who have participated in polar expeditions, shown at Hallands Konstmuseum (2025), Lidköpings Konsthall (2025), and Luleå Konsthall (2023). Rödén has published two books with Arvinius + Orfeus Publishing: Artis of Melt (2024) and Jonas Falcks vetenskapliga iakttagelser (2022).

Webbsite: https://www.idaroden.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/idaroden/