Theresa Traore Dahlberg is a visual artist and filmmaker who formulates engaging and complex narratives through installation, sculpture, photography and film. Her sculptural works often take a point of departure in the material itself, both as a physical material and as a container of histories, ideas and notions. The artist pays close attention to the production process, working conditions, workers’ identities and personal stories. She also examines value shifting on account of industrial and technological developments, as well as their environmental impact on a local and global level. Traore Dahlberg draws from her own experience of being anchored in two sociopolitical cultures, Sweden and Burkina Faso.
Her installations, glass works and bronze sculptures result from various historically and personally charged materials that have been altered through different processes and thus become imbued with new meanings. More specifically, this can entail hand-spun cotton yarns or industrially produced circuit boards being melted and fused into glass; creating new purpose for the discarded. Inspired by Science Fiction, Futurism and African folktales, Traore Dahlberg’s bronze sculptures of birds and hares instead play with visions of alternative futures and new sociopolitical structures.
Theresa Traore Dahlberg (b.1983 in Värnamo, Sweden) resides and works in Stockholm, Sweden. She studied 16 mm experimental film at the New School in New York and the Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts. In 2017, she graduated with a Master of Fine Art from The Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm. She participated in the group exhibition Rock my Soul II, curated by Isaac Julien and presented in Eva Livijn’s house-gallery in Stockholm (2022). Traore Dahlberg has also had several solo exhibitions, including at Kalmar Konstmuseum, Sweden (2021), Institut Suédois, Paris (2019) and Musée National du Burkina Faso (2019). In 2019, she received Beckers Art Award, which entailed two extensive solo exhibitions at Färgfabriken, Stockholm and Höganäs Museum, Höganäs, Sweden.
Traore Dahlberg has been awarded the Tempo Documentary Short Award for her film The Ambassador’s Wife (2018), which was also shown at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), Berlin Critics’ Week, Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival and Telluride Film Festival. This film was likewise included in the program for Artist Films International and was as such exhibited at Bonniers Konsthall, Whitechapel Gallery, Hammer Museum, Para/Site Art Space, Ballroom Marfa, and Istanbul Modern. Her first film, Taxi Sisters (2011), portrayed the everyday life of a Senegalese female taxi driver, and her first feature-length documentary, Ouaga Girls (2017), depicted the everyday life of a group of teenage girls becoming car mechanics in Burkina Faso. To this day, these films are widely shown internationally.
Education
2022-2023 Post Master, Materialities, Kungliga Konsthögskolan, Royal Academy of Arts
2014-2017 MFA Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm, Sweden.
2008-2011 Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts, Stockholm, Sweden.
2007 6 MM and experimental film production, Parsons The New School of Design, New York, USA
Solo Exhibitions
2023/24 IDRIX, Rue Chapon 56 Andréhn shiptjenko, Paris
2022 Andréhn-Schiptjenko, Stockholm, Sweden.
2022 Market Art Fair, Liljevalchs, Stockholm Sweden.
2021 Växlingar, Kalmar Konstmuseum, Kalmar, Sweden.
2019 Usine Seydoni, Institut Suédois, Paris, France.
2019 Theresa Traore Dahlberg – Becker Art Award , Höganäs Museum, Höganäs, Sweden.
2019 Theresa Traore Dahlberg – Becker Art Award, Färgfabriken, Stockholm, Sweden.
2019 Seydoni Pionnier de l’Industrie, Musicale au Burkina,
2019 Musée National du Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
2019 Artists’ Film International, Bonniers Konsthall,
2019 Whitechapel Gallery, Hammer Museum, Para/Site Art Space,
2019 Hong Kong, Ballroom Marfa, Marfa, Texas, USA, Istanbul Modern, Istanbul, Turkey.
2017 System settings, Galleri Mejan, Stockholm, Sweden.
Group Exhibitions
2023.23.01 Loop av Liv, Kulturhuset
2023 Something else, Cairo OFF Biennal, Egypt
2023.12.01 International Video Art festival OVNi (Nice, France)
2023.09.01 Gyeongnam Art Museum,17th BIVAF,Changwon, South Korea
2023.09.01 Space Heem, Busan -screening South Kora
2023.09.01 Ståhl collection
2023 Microcement, Ställbergs gruva, det vidunderliga arbetet
2023 Barbican , Un/Seen Spectres, London, England
2023 The outdoor gallery, Levande Stockholm
2023, The outdoor gallery, Sergels torg
2022, SAK årets konstnär,, Kungliga konstakademien
2022 CAAM - Atlantic Center of Modern Art, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas, Spain.
2022 Rock My Soul II, Curated by Isaac Julieen, Stockholm, Sweden.
2022 Maskinerna är igång, Havremagasinet, Boden, Sweden.
2021 Remixing the Future, Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm, Sweden.
2018 OFF Biennale, Cairo, Egypt.
2018 If She Wanted I Would Have Been There Once or Twice Again, Zeller van Almsick, Vienna, Austria.
2018 Group Show, Andréhn-Schiptjenko, Stockholm, Sweden.
2018 I’m Fine on My Way Home Now, Galleri Gerlesborg, Bohuslän, Sweden.
2018 Ouff Collective, Botkyrka konsthall, Stockholm & Gagnef, Sweden.
2017 Anna-Lisa Thomson-stipendiater, Uppsala Konstmuseum, Uppsala, Sweden.
2017 Folkmusik 2.0, Kulturhuset Galleri 5, Stockholm, Sweden.
2017 Transnational Solidarity (Eros Effekten), Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden.
2017 I’m Fine on My Way Home Now, Allkonstrummet, Mossutställning, Stockholm, Sweden.
2017 Gone Fishing, Gävle Konstcentrum, Gävle, Sweden.
2017 Show Me Your Archive and I Will Tell You Who is in Power,
2017 KIOSK, Ghent, Belgium.
2017 Back to Me, Kungliga Konsthögskolan, Stockholm, Sweden.
2017 Great Expectations, Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm, Sweden.
2015 Into Your Solar Plexus, Kunsthalle Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
Public Art Commissions
2023 Levande Stockholm, Malmskilnnadsbron
2023 Public Commission, Municipal Hall, Sollentuna, Sweden
2022 SAK, Konstakademien
Göteborgs filmfestival, poster art
Grants and Awards
2021 Konstnärsnämnden arbetsstipendium
2019 Becker Art Award
2018 Konstnärsnämndens stipendium
2018 Tempo Filmfestival, Best short film
2018 Africlap Award
2018 Youth Award Beldocs, Belgrad
2017 Stockholmspriset
2017 Diakité and Sachs stipendium
2017 Stiftelsen Anna Lena Thomson Till Minne
2017 Konstakademiens stipendium
2017 Fredrika Bremer stipendium
2017 Ouaga Girls, Prix du CREDIF pour la création cinématographique feminine, JCC Carthage Film Festival.
2015 Taxi Sister, Audience Award, Le Festival international du film lesbien et féministe de Paris.
Public Collections
Stockholm Konst
Caam, Grand Canaria
Lindéngruppen, Höganäs, Sweden.
Public Art Agency, Sweden.
Kalmar Konstmuseum
Stockholms County Council, Sweden.
Uppsala Art Museum, Sweden
Statens konstråd
Göteborg stad
Filmography (selected)
2021 Microcement. Director, producer, editor. Öland, Sweden.
2018 Ambassador’s Wife. Director, producer, editor. Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Film, 16 min.
2017 Ouaga Girls. Director. Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Documentary, 1h 22 min.
2012 Taxi Sister. Director, producer. Dakar, Senegal. Documentary. French and Wolof dialogue, 28 min.
Screenings (selected)
2023.09.08 and 9th Art on screen, Riga Lettland
2023.09.01 Gyeongnam Art Museum,17th BIVAF,Changwon, South Korea
2023.09.01 Space Heem, Busan -screening South Korea
2023 The New York Times-Op-Docs
2022 Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden.
2018 Grassi Museum, Leipzig, Germany.
2018 Museum of African Contemporary Art, Marrakech, Morocco.
2018 Screening and artist talk, Columbia University, New York, USA.
2018 Belfast Film Festival, Belfast, Northern Ireland.
2018 BAM, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, USA.
Film Festivals (selected)
Telluride, USA., Berlin Critics’ Week, Germany//TIFF, Toronto, Canada//Visons du Réel, Nyon, Switzerland
Clermont-Ferrand, France//FESPACO, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso//Göteborg filmfestival, Sweden//TEMPO, Sweden (winner of best short)
IDFAInternational Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, The Netherlands//Leipzig, Germany//ZagrebDox, Croatia.
JCC 2017 Carthage Film Festival (Winner of Prix du CREDIF).
Related activities
Jury work /Boards/Teaching:
2024 Jury, Nordic documentary, Göteborg filmfestival
2024 Jury, short docs Tempo filmdfestival
Story IDRIX in latest Art Journal Paletten
Advisory board, Black archive
2022, 23, Board member, CFF
2022-23, Board member, Tempo filmfestival
2023 Art Consultant
2022 Art Consultant
2022 Lecture, Folkuniversitetet.
2022 Warsan shire book release, (cover)
Jury, International documentary FIPA, Biarritz
Jury, international documentary Stockholm Filmfestival
Jury Cinemafrica
Jury Stockmotion
Teacher in Art and film, Gerlesborgskolan, Berghs, Folkuniversitetet, Konstfack, Royal Academy of Arts