Artists in Residence, Stockholm, 4 November 2024–25 April 2025

Karin Keisu & Josse Thuresson are an artist duo based in Stockholm who have been working together since 2018 on long-term projects that question the construction of the nation-state and its notions of the desirable citizen. Keisu, born in Tornedalen in 1995, and Thuresson, born in Stockholm in 1992, have Meänkieli and Swedish Sign Language as their first languages, respectively. Their works center on personal and collective experiences of belonging to a linguistic minority and of being queer, through works dealing with opacity, multilingualism, heritage, desire, and beauty salons, for example. Their projects are often research-based and take the form of performances, video, installation, text, and sculpture.

Photo: Karin Keisu & Josse Thuresson

Karin Keisu & Josse Thuresson

During their residency at IASPIS, Keisu & Thuresson will delve deeper into a semi-documentary film project about poetry and art in sign language, which includes collaboration with, and between, two deaf performing artists and sisters. At a time when ideas of normality, assimilation, and medical technology are increasingly replacing deaf people’s access to sign language, Keisu & Thuresson want to focus on the potential of sign language while also exploring unconventional ways of portraying sign language in moving images.

Keisu & Thuresson earned their Master’s degree in Fine Arts from Konstfack University in 2022 and have previously studied at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts, and the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Recent exhibitions include “A Shared Absence” (2024), The Aine Art Museum, Finland; ”Medan eld sätter sig i min hals” (2023), Österängens Konsthall, Sweden; ”Friktionens språk yttras inifrån” (2022), Kin Museum of Contemporary Art, Sweden; Luleåbiennalen 2022: “Craft & Art” (2022), Luleå Konsthall, Sweden. Recent film screenings include “Jack Presents: Back to Back” (2023), Vega Scene, Norway; “Kulturnatt x KunstØrn” (2022), Kunsthall Trondheim, Norway; “Forbidden Beauty” (2020), KINO DER KUNST, Germany. Their works are part of the collections of the Public Art Agency Sweden, The Aine Art Museum, and Kin Museum of Contemporary Art.