We are thrilled to welcome the talented artists of the second Local Lab Residency for our project, Turning The Tide. It’s inspiring to see how their work centers on social engagement, fostering meaningful connections within the community. We are also excited about the interdisciplinary nature of their approaches, which bring together diverse perspectives and innovative ideas.

During this residency, the artists will collaborate closely with local communities to address and highlight the pressing water challenges in Stockholm through their art. Their creative process will engage the public in meaningful dialogue, using their work to shed light on these vital issues. At the conclusion of the residency, they will present their final artworks in a public showcase, offering the community an opportunity to experience and reflect on the powerful messages conveyed through their interdisciplinary practices.
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Marie-Andreé Robitaille

Marie-Andrée Robitaille is a circus choreographer who performs, teaches, and researches. Her artistic practice is rooted in live arts and performing arts. Her mother is a digital textile artist and her father is a photographer and sculptor, as such her artistry has always involved an affinity to visual arts, working with material and the creation of imaginary worlds through the use and making of unusual objects that constitute a series of props, costumes, and set designs, which compose the aesthetics of her artistic work. Through her artistic practices, she is developing methods grounded in new materialisms and posthumanism, with a strong engagement for societal and ecological matters.

The main recurring themes of her work from 2010-2019 have been the representation and agency of women in circus arts. From 2014, she studied ways to break the nature/culture and human/non-human divide by exploring the relation between sound and motion through interactive technology. From 2019 to 2024, in her doctoral studies in choreography, and the making and touring of the piece Multiverse, she has explored circus practices through her ageing body, challenging the conventional narrative of an autonomous, independent, anthropocentric circus protagonist, integrating vulnerability into circus performance.

 

“Semaphore Dialogues: Signals of Change”

In her upcoming work, she will be exploring signs and signals through circus choreography and the making of semaphores. The new work explores the potential of circus art’s kinetic and aesthetic modes of transmission for addressing and steering the current ecological paradigm shift with a strong focus on evolving an ethics of movement. Her artistic work as a choreographer and performer is reflected by and simultaneously informs her work as an artistic teacher, supervisor, researcher, and producer in the arts. Through her activities, she is advocating for experimental zones of practices, and through her writing, she is articulating a philosophy of circus that situates the art forms as hopeful practices for the future.

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Ludmila Christeseva
Ludmila Christeseva is an artist and curator focused on gender equality and cultural representation. Renowned for her international weaving projects for peace, she uses collective crafts and baking to unite communities during challenging times of armed conflict and climate change.

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”Jätterena Mälaren”
During my residency at Intercult, I will create a short video showcasing divers collecting hazardous waste—like lead-filled car batteries—from Mälaren, Sweden’s vital drinking water source. The audience will be invited to join in this collective effort, emphasizing the importance of community action in tackling environmental challenges.
This project highlights the urgent pollution issues facing Mälaren. Studies reveal that microplastics harm marine life, with alarming evidence of microplastics even detected in human fetuses. With projections that by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans, we must ask: How do we save water? How can we work together to combat this crisis?
At the end of the activity, we will symbolically cook a fish soup from the collected waste, underscoring the pressing need for action against water pollution.