NIGHT ALGEBRA – Dreamers have a house

Published: 18 October, 2024
NIGHT ALGEBRA – Dreamers have a house

Johanna Billing, documentation from recording.

November 2 – December 8, 2024

Johanna Billing, Raghad Resres, Jaakko Pallasvuo, Rolf Schuurmans, Saskia Gullstrand and Mark Frygell.

The exhibition also includes works by Karl Schultz-Köln, Giorgi Rodionov, Rädda Jorden Klubben, Lars Hillersberg, Squid Squad in collaboration with Åsa Norman and remnants from the house’s previous guests.

Curators: Erik Viklund & Lisa Grip


Opening on Saturday, November 2, 12-4 pm.
Concert by Clutter. Performance by RJK. Opening speech by Leif Brixmark – active in the Gnesta cultural association that occupied the house 1990-94.


Rolf Schuurmans, from the installation “Magnetosfär”.

For the first time ever, Art Lab Gnesta opens an exhibition that takes place throughout the house. From the punk-sacred exhibition space on the ground floor up through the winding stairs, the exhibition continues and entices the visitor to take part in room after room of the place’s memory, mental space and dreams of other futures.

Mark Frygell, still from “Liminal pawn”.

Six artists have been invited to work freely in dialogue with the house and we are now proud to present a series of newly produced artworks. Among other things, the artists have worked with the adjacent lake Frösjön, young musicians who hang in the house, war notes from the Second World War found in the basement, as well as holes and passages between the rooms from the time when the house was a brewery. During the autumn, the exhibition has come to life in the form of performance, video, sculpture, music, risograph prints and a leaded glass work. Algebra has taken place in the meeting between the invited artists from scattered generations, already existing works of art and the bubbling wunderkammer that Art Lab Gnesta always is.

For decades, the house has been a hangout for squatters, partygoers, artists, and musicians. It is a house that gathers dreamers, where there is room to believe in another world. The exhibition is a celebration, but also a completely ordinary day in this place where connections, associations and dreams are abstracted and added in a nocturnal algebra.

NIGHT ALGEBRA – Dreamers have a house is curated by artists Lisa Grip and Erik Viklund, who have been part of Art Lab Gnesta for a couple of years now. Based on their personal approach to the house, they have chosen to illuminate specific wall paintings and other traces in the house. In the big exhibition hall, they have carved large ring formations out of the floor’s various layers of paint to show the rich history, which always lies just below the surface. The formations are reminiscent of annual rings and become a portrait of time and space, as previous traces coexist in a new, common memory.

For the exhibition, we also present a new publication that highlights the many permanent works that have been created under Art Lab Gnesta’s wings over the years.


The exhibition is shown on Saturdays and Sundays from 12-4pm.
Guided viewing Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m.