Opening February 3, 2024.

3 February – 31 March 2024

With the exhibition Colere, Anna Linder returns to what was once the family’s place of residence from 1919 till 1964 in the village of Laisheden, Sorsele municipality, in Västerbottens interior. The project retells the story – full of contradictory sentiments of sorrow, gratefulness, anger and love – about the family household of Stenlunds torp, the ”odlingslägenhet” in western Laisheden. A odlingslägenhet is a plot of land leased by the Crown to whoever could take care of it and who lacked any land of their own. The residents had no right of ownership to the land they cultivated. This is a story of how the family will have to leave the place after decades of struggle to turn the barren land into fertile soil. In recent years, Anna’s visits to the place show us the surrounding area that nature has reclaimed – the birch trees, grass stumps, and the overall meagerness that the settlers never quite managed to conquer. Ruins are all that remains of the settlement that once housed a family of eleven children.

The project also seeks to understand colonization: inhabitation, construction, and cultivation on a close-up plane over a long period. The word colonization stems from the Latin Colere; reside, visit, practice, guard, or respect. In its imperative form, Cole urges respect and reverence towards the earth – the land that sustains us and cherish life. On the other hand, the French word Colére means anger and wrath.