Wednesday Program: The Mother in Two Parts (and an Appendix on Shivers)

Join us for a performative reading in Lap-See Lam’s exhibition Dreamers’ Quay, Dreamers’ Key with the writer, poet and professor of art Mara Lee Gerdén, and the curator, activist and writer Samuel Girma. For the comprehensive catalogue produced in conjunction with the exhibition, Lee Gerdén has written the essay The Mother in Two Parts (and an Appendix on Shivers), about the mother figure, the metaphor and shivers as means to understand her history. The performative reading based on this text will move to different parts of the exhibition and open up for a dialogue with Lam’s works.

Mara Lee (b. 1972) is a poet, writer and professor of art, specialising in art theory and art history. She has held teaching posts at Biskops Arnö’s creative writing courses, the Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, the Umeå Academy of Fine Arts and the Valand Academy – where she doctored in creative writing. She has also translated the Canadian poet Anne Carson into Swedish. After publishing two volumes of poetry, Kom and Hennes vård, Mara Lee made her debut as a novelist at Albert Bonniers Förlag in 2007, with the internationally-acknowledged Ladies, followed in 2011 by the critically acclaimed Salome, for which she was awarded the Svenska Dagbladet literary prize and the Per Olov Enquist prize. In 2014, she published Future Perfect, also critically acclaimed, and in 2018 Kärleken och hatet, which won the Gerard Bonnier poetry prize.

Samuel Girma is a curator, activist and writer based in Stockholm. Girma is the co-founder of the anti-racist, intersectional and feminist movement and platform Black Queers Sweden. 

In Swedish, parts in English. Entrance fee to the exhibition is included in the price. Limited admission.

Image 1: Mara Lee Gerdén. Photo: R. Thord
Image 2: Samuel Girma