Josefin Arnell
Artist in Residence, Stockholm, 4 May–25 October 2026
Josefin Arnell (born 1984 in Sweden) is an artist and filmmaker working between Amsterdam and Sweden. Her work addresses the aesthetics and politics of violence and social hierarchies. She uses humour and the monstrous to unsettle the ways in which these structures affect the individual. Her loosely structured narratives stage fragile or absurd realities in which characters attempt to navigate contemporary infrastructures shaped by impossible demands. She is interested in how storytelling can function as a sociopolitical activity. Her practice often unfolds through participatory processes.
Photo: Manuel Gorkiewicz
Josefin Arnell
During her stay at IASPIS, Josefin is developing research for a new film project. The work
centers on two figures: Kära Mor, a phantasmagorical, religiously charged presence from
18th-century Funäsdalen in Härjedalen, and a specific farmstead that has shifted over time
between a guesthouse inn and the site of Sweden’s first county museum. Drawing on local
essays, gossip, family letters, and archival material, she traces a history of transformation
across generations, shaped by conflict, loss, and reinvention. The project explores feminist
and emancipatory struggles in rural and peripheral environments, intertwined with the rise of tourism and new forms of economic and cultural control.
Josefin holds an MA from the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam (2014). She was a resident
at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten (2015–16), received the Theodora Niemeijer
Prize for emerging female artists in the Netherlands (2018), and was nominated for the Prix
de Rome, Netherlands (2023). Her work has been presented at institutions and festivals
including Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, WIELS Brussels, Cell Project Space London, Index
Stockholm, UKS Oslo, Van Abbemuseum Eindhoven, Frac Normandie, Sissi Club Marseille,
Athens Biennale, Auto Italia London, Kunsthalle Münster, Nordic House Reykjavik,
Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin, Riga International Film Festival, and International
Documentary Festival Amsterdam.