Kiswanson started from the history of the Steinway Victory Vertical, a piano that was parachuted to soldiers in Europe during the Second World War to bring comfort and closeness. From the original shipping crate he made three objects: a coffin, a cocoon and a cradle. Together they evoke a cycle of death, transformation and birth. For Kiswanson, the moment after rupture is as significant as the rupture itself: it is the space in which something begins again. In the historic refectory, where the Norbertines ate together until 2012, beneath Hansche’s baroque stucco ceiling, the work brings together departure, loss, care and hope.

About the artist

Tarik Kiswanson is a Swedish artist and writer of Palestinian origin, based in Stockholm. He makes sculpture, installation, performance, film and text about displacement, inheritance and transformation. His forms often seem suspended, in a state of becoming. Kiswanson represented Sweden at the 60th Venice Biennale and has exhibited at Palais de Tokyo, Lafayette Anticipations, Bonniers Konsthall, Salzburger Kunstverein and Museo Tamayo.