Olof Marsja

Olof Marsja’s Den underjordiska nattens väktare (The Guardian of the Underground Night) (2019) is displayed together with Sunniva McAlinden’s II The Papess (1992).

The jury for the 2019 Maria Bonnier Dahlin Scholarship, consisting of Bildmuseet Director Katarina Pierre and artist and Konstfack professor Loulou Cherinet, described Marsja’s work as follows:

“With humor and seriousness, Olof Marsja brings together materials and forms in ambivalent and often unsettling constellations. Like a trickster figure, he moves beyond categories such as visual art, craft, tradition, and the contemporary.

In his installations, Marsja creates a sculptural vocabulary where new dialogues and narratives emerge. Rooted in Sámi experiences, his work introduces alternative perspectives into the Swedish art scene. Through playful and intelligent approaches, he explores questions of identity, history, and the present.”

Olof Marsja in conversation with curator Annie Jensen before the opening at Bonniers Konsthall on December 4, 2019

AJ: You describe some of your works as characters and figures inhabiting a mysterious landscape. Can you tell us more about this landscape and its inhabitants?

OM: The landscape my characters inhabit exists in the shadows of fragmented identity politics. I feel drawn to these shadows, and the figures act as guides and protectors within this world. Through them, I try to explore identities that are not fixed or uniform, but instead made up of different materials, images, and histories extending across time.

AJ: Materials seem central to your work. How do they guide your artistic process?

OM: I am particularly drawn to organic materials because of their tactility and history. Materials handled by humans over long periods carry memory and associations. At the same time, I combine them with industrially produced materials because the contrast between them creates tension and different experiences of time.

Reindeer fur, for example, carries both personal and cultural associations connected to Sámi history and identity. When combined with ordinary contemporary materials such as plastic or textiles, the individual meanings become part of a larger coexistence.

AJ: Your work combines playfulness, humor, and darkness. How do these elements relate to questions of identity and colonial history?

OM: I am interested in processing experiences connected to shame, inferiority, and historical erasure rather than directly illustrating colonial history itself. Playfulness gives me space to renegotiate these experiences and reclaim agency. At the same time, colonial histories leave lasting traces in both people and landscapes, which is why darkness remains present in the work.