Josefin Arnell
Failure is a feeling that exist long before it comes
2019
Josefin Arnell offers an illustrated excerpt from Failure is a feeling that exist long before it comes, an operatic performance that recounts a parasitic love story between a tick and his Mother earth. Previously envisioned to take place in Margate, with local performers and the artist directing, the performance now occupies the space of our imagination. Reflecting on failure paranoia and bacterial diseases, it engages with our complicated coexistence with nature and the dark side of humanity. An earlier iteration of Failure is a feeling that exist long before it comes was commissioned by Antwerp Art Weekend 2019.
Josefin Arnell (b. 1984, Ljusnedal, Sweden) is an Amsterdam-based artist who works across film, performance, sculpture and drawing. With humour and horror, Josefin’s characters navigate the impossible demands of contemporary infrastructures. Building narratives and stories where extravagance influences perception, she generates a tense feeling that oscillates between aversion and interest. Josefin is a graduate of the Sandberg Institute and a former resident at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten. In 2018, she was awarded the Theodora Niemeijer Prijs for emerging female artists in The Netherlands. Her work has been presented at Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; Lily Robert Gallery, Paris; 3HD Festival, Berlin; Auto Italia South East, London; MOSCOW International Biennale for Young Art, Moscow; and Kunsthalle Münster, Münster.