We present
10th April – 2nd May
Artist
Nike Kero
A Conversation With Torne Valley
About
A Conversation with the Torne Valley unfolds as a dialogue between place, material, and memory—where making becomes a way of tracing a heritage that is both near and distant, visible and obscured.
Here, time flows like the river—slow, persistent, and ever-present. Life is shaped through the meeting of nature, labor, and tradition, where craft carries traces of the hands that came before—objects that serve not only a function, but also hold memory, relationships, and stories.
These works situate themselves within a lineage of knowledge often carried through women’s practices—through repetition, touch, and embodied transmission.
Details
At the core of the exhibition lies a more silent inheritance. During the upbringing of Kero’s mother and her sister, their mother’s Tornedalian identity was almost invisible. It lived quietly, in small gestures: when she counted in Meänkieli, when she took her daughters’ temperature, when she spoke with her siblings. An identity not erased, but turned inward—shaped by a culture of shame that emerged in the wake of assimilation policies in the late 19th century.
Kero’s work approaches this inheritance indirectly. The vessels hold and withhold at once: they suggest familiarity and function, yet remain partially closed, resisting full access. In this way, they become material reflections on something carried across generations—present, but not always spoken.
Date / Programme
Opening reception: 10th April at hours 17-21
Artist talk: date to be confirmed
Closing performance: to be confirmed
Mediums
Working with clay, Nike Kero creates a series of sculptures in the form of teapots, where a utilitarian object is rearticulated as sculptural.
Removed from its immediate function, the teapot becomes a bearer of cultural memory and artistic meaning.Their forms echo wind-shaped snow, softened drifts and the quiet force of climate, while also recalling objects placed over fire, tied to everyday rituals of making, gathering, and care.
These works situate themselves within a lineage of knowledge often carried through women’s practices—through repetition, touch, and embodied transmission.
See more about the exhibition
(recommended reading) Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times, by Katherine May
or some Silvia Plath for the time being
Wintering
This is the easy time, there is nothing doing.
I have whirled the midwife’s extractor,
I have my honey,
Six jars of it,
Six cat’s eyes in the wine cellar,Wintering in a dark without window
At the heart of the house
Next to the last tenant’s rancid jam
and the bottles of empty glitters ——
Sir So-and-so’s gin.This is the room I have never been in
This is the room I could never breathe in.
The black bunched in there like a bat,
No light
But the torch and its faintChinese yellow on appalling objects ——
Black asininity. Decay.
Possession.
It is they who own me.
Neither cruel nor indifferent,Only ignorant.
This is the time of hanging on for the bees—the bees
So slow I hardly know them,
Filing like soldiers
To the syrup tin
I have whirled the midwife’s extractor,
I have my honey,
Six jars of it,
Six cat’s eyes in the wine cellar,Wintering in a dark without window
At the heart of the house
Next to the last tenant’s rancid jam
and the bottles of empty glitters ——
Sir So-and-so’s gin.This is the room I have never been in
This is the room I could never breathe in.
The black bunched in there like a bat,
No light
But the torch and its faintChinese yellow on appalling objects ——
Black asininity. Decay.
Possession.
It is they who own me.
Neither cruel nor indifferent,Only ignorant.
This is the time of hanging on for the bees—the bees
So slow I hardly know them,
Filing like soldiers
To the syrup tin
To make up for the honey I’ve taken.
Tate and Lyle keeps them going,
The refined snow.
It is Tate and Lyle they live on, instead of flowers.
They take it. The cold sets in.
Now they ball in a mass,
Black
Mind against all that white.
The smile of the snow is white.
It spreads itself out, a mile-long body of Meissen,
Into which, on warm days,
They can only carry their dead.
The bees are all women,
Maids and the long royal lady.
They have got rid of the men,
The blunt, clumsy stumblers, the boors.
Winter is for women ——
The woman, still at her knitting,
At the cradle of Spanis walnut,
Her body a bulb in the cold and too dumb to think.
Will the hive survive, will the gladiolas
Succeed in banking their fires
To enter another year?
What will they taste of, the Christmas roses?
The bees are flying. They taste the spring.
Upcoming
Exhibitions
Nike Kero
Opening 9 April - 1 May
At the core of the exhibition lies a more silent inheritance. During the upbringing of Kero’s mother and her sister, their mother’s Tornedalian identity was almost invisible. It lived quietly, in small gestures: when she counted in Meänkieli, when she took her daughters’ temperature, when she spoke with her siblings. An identity not erased, but turned inward—shaped by a culture of shame that emerged in the wake of assimilation policies in the late 19th century.
Kero’s work approaches this inheritance indirectly. The vessels hold and withhold at once: they suggest familiarity and function, yet remain partially closed, resisting full access. In this way, they become material reflections on something carried across generations—present, but not always spoken.
A Conversation with the Torne Valley unfolds as a dialogue between place, material, and memory—where making becomes a way of tracing a heritage that is both near and distant, visible and obscured.
HOME / Craft Days
Opening 7th May
In an era where the home has largely become a status symbol – a place where interior design, design and choice of accommodation act as markers of identity, creativity and social position – the personal space has been given a new charge. It is no longer just about having a good time, but about staging a lifestyle through thoughtful choices.
Towards this end, Hemma / Home investigates the relationships that arise between objects and homes. What value do objects have in everyday life? When do they become symbols, when do they remain objects of use – and when do they begin to resist?
Artists:
Elin Flognman,
Vilda Kvist,
Sandra Österling
&
Lisa Andersson Andersson
The exhibition is curated by Ellinor Augustini and Anna Maria Hedman.
Writing residence with Klas Ekman
starting 29-31st May
Syntropia Art Space, in collaboration with Linda Spåman, is implementing a smaller writing residency to create a space for writing where literature meets other artistic practices.
Artistic direction:
The work is led by author Klas Ekman (The Cousin, The Capable), an established and multi-published author whose work has recently gained international attention through the sale of screenplays for film adaptations.
The program consists of three parts:
– A kick-off weekend in May at Syntropia Art Space– A digital all-day meeting during the summer– A concluding residency weekend in August
The work combines your own writing with shared conversations, readings and response sessions.
More info on open call entries and admissions fee, or email to mark interest.
Summer residency
Dates to be confirmed
Syntropia Art Space, in collaboration with Mothers in Residence. More info will be announced
More info on open call entries, or email to mark interest.
Previous
Exhibitions
2025
See Exhibitions
14-15th of January
Picnic of Direction HDK-Valand interim show
19-20th of december
11-19th of december
The Castle is a Trap, exhibition with Sofija Pašalić collaboration with Longest Night
8th- 29th Nov
13th- 17th Aug
12th- 18th May
8th- 11th May
1st Feb
Conversations w/ film directors, writers, mask designers and artists during Gothenburg Film Festival.
31st Jan- 2nd Feb
Pop up Tankfilm; hologram boxes and short films.
16th- 17th Jan
PICNIC of DIRECTIONS – HDK-Valand BA design students; collab w/ Svensk Form Väst.
4th Jan
New Times Ahead – fortuneteller performance curated w/ Linda Spåman.
2024
See Exhibitions
21th- 29th Dec
Episodisk Baluns; curated w/ Flick; large group exhibition.
19th- 11th Dec
Perverskroki 'In salute to Horror' w/ Linda Spåman & Jeanette Månsson.
13th- 17th Nov
Pop up shop w/ Pass It On (sustainable vintage).
12th- 15th Nov
AIRC – Olivia by Pablo Encinas Alonso & Yana Deliyska.
25th- 28th May
Perverskroki 'In the Shadow of Book Fair' w/ Linda Spåman & guests.
18th- 22nd Aug
Pop up shop weekend by Silverfabriken & Pap Made in Sweden.
10th- 14th Aug
'Linda Spåman's Cabinet of Curiosities' exhibition.
21st- 30st Jul
Exhibition with Alice Jordebo.
3rd- 13th Jul
'Offbeat Oeuvre' curated by Adrian Hobnik & David Boman.
18th- 23rd Jun
'Venus Transit' – Tilda Ottosson.
14th- 18th Jun
Yoga/Somatics/Self-dearmoring workshop w/ Emma Andrea.
3rd- 5th Jun
'Gigas Futurism' performance project.
25th- 27th May
'Inbetween Konst/Design' – KV Konstskola.
10th- 16th May
Exhibition by Klara Collin.
29th- 31st Apr
'Mudfields' graduation exhibition – Karin Lindgren; performance w/ CULT.
18h- 24th Apr
Seed Swaps with Garden Loops.
12h- 14th Apr
Forest Garden lecture w/ Freja Food Forest & Katarina Svanegård.
11h- 16th Apr
'Veganträdgård' workshop by Peter Albreecht.
18h- 24th Mar
Lecture on syntropic agriculture by Joseph Winter.
12h- 15th Mar
Fermentation workshop w/ Lisa Palm.
8th- 10th Mar
Edible acorns workshop w/ Ola Schubert.
19th- 23rd Feb
'Mothers in Residence' exhibition.
6th- 8th Feb
Woodwork workshop 'Snedskuret'.
3rd- 6th Feb
Lecture by Ola Schubert; collab w/ Stadsnära Odling.
22nd- 25th Jan
Intro to syntropia.space for HDK-Valand master students.
16th- 20th Jan
Photo exhibition by La Mer Nordique.
2023
See Exhibitions
13th- 17th Dec
Christmas fête by Mothers in Residence.
6th- 8th Dec
Fermentation workshop.
21st- 25th Nov
Release party for Viic Woods 'The Water Between Us'.
14th- 18th Nov
'Running Underground' conversation on artist-run spaces.
29th- 31st Oct
'Zelous' group exhibition.
18h- 24th Oct
Workshop w/ Värt & Odlingsbolaget Svalan.
18h- 24th Jul
Mural painting by Jonathan Josefsson 'Ollio'.
12h- 15th Jun
Exhibition with photographer Lily Ray.