Artists in residence, Stockholm, 1 November 2023 – 26 April 2024

Hillside Projects is Emily Berry Mennerdahl and Jonas Böttern. Hillside Projects tells stories. Stories about ecological collapses and failed symbiosis. Birds are often the main characters: colorful birds on the brink of extinction, birds killed in airplane crashes, and birds that eat the dead. Hillside Projects thinks about how to tell stories and which stories are who’s to tell. Embracing the absurd, comedic and tragic, tales of disappearances are explored, alongside the inter-related existential emotions and socio-political narratives that arise through these tales. Hillside Projects’ works are manifested as performance, text, video, sound, painting and installations.

Photo: Hillside Projects

Hillside Projects

Performance lies at the core of Hillside Projects’ practice and during their residency at IASPIS this will be explored further. They will set up a temporary office and invite visitors and peers to take part in intimate lecture performances and conversations. Parallel to these ventures, they will continue the development of a larger body of work, “The Scavenger Collapse”. This work includes a guerilla lecture performance and video work exploring stories of eating, fascism, hierarchy and death. Hillside Projects continue to ask: who should be saved and why?

Hillside Projects are based in Stockholm, Sweden. Berry Mennerdahl received an MFA from Concordia University, Montréal and Böttern an MFA from Konstfack, Stockholm. A selection of recent exhibitions, screenings and performances include: “PhotoKathmandu 5” (2023, Kathmandu), “Species, Soil & Successors”, Oyoun Kultur NeuDenken (2023, Berlin), “dhak dhak ho-him ah eekff ii ee” Röda Sten konsthall (2022, Gothenburg), “Memorial for the Lost”, Bonniers Konsthall (2020, Stockholm), “Why Did You Leave?” Dazibao (2019, Montréal).

Recent artist residencies include: PhotoCircle (2023, Kathmandu), Clark House Initiative, (2020, Mumbai), SEA Foundation (2021, Tilburg) and Galleri Box Autumn Studios (2021), Bohuslän. Their videos are distributed by FilmForm -The Art Film and Video Archive and Vidéographe, Montréal.