Films
As part of GIBCA Extended, The Nordic Watercolour Museum presents video works by artist-in-residence Cristian Quinteros Soto. In his practice, Quinteros Soto delves into collective experiences, focusing on themes such as migration, in-betweenness, and care. Through interventions, performances and workshops, he explores how intimate encounters can be sustained, documented, and facilitated in public spaces.
Each screening features two short films. Read more about the individual works below.
To exfoliate is to remove. To cleanse a surface of what is old, what is dead, what has already been used. In order to make the new visible. To clean, to tidy. It is a repetitive practice. What was once unexposed becomes wrinkled by time and touch, only to be washed away again. What was once new becomes old, replaced and scrubbed off again and again. Never finished, always in process. Exfoliation is cyclical or circular, much like a dialogue or the unfolding of history itself. To reinvent, revise and repeat.
Admission free, no pre-booking required
Duration: approx. 12 minutes
In Sauna Sessions, Cristian Quintero Soto explores the sauna as a platform for meditating on the unease caused by social change and, paradoxically, how collective care can serve as a method for collective reflection. The sauna becomes a sanctuary where vulnerability can be transformed into strength, fostering mutual respect, empathy, and equality. It is a space where we can shed societal labels and exist both as individuals and as part of a collective whole.
“The sauna is my favourite thing. The intense heat followed by the sharp cold of the water. What fascinates me most is the shared care we show one other in the sauna, and how naturally equal it feels. All bodies blend – becoming everything and nothing at the same time. What if we could take that kind of care, the way of seeing bodies, and extend it to the whole of society?”
Would you like to take part in Sauna Sessions? The artist will be holding two sessions at The Nordic Watercolour Museum during the week. Read more
Duration: approx. 11 minutes
Swimming Season is a series of artistic interventions centred around communal bathing throughout the year in Sweden. These bathing experiences are documented through video, sound, photography, and text, offering insight into the shared experience of bathing together.
Our bodies carry the weight of society’s prejudices and hierarchies. Through these bathing rituals, Cristian Quintero Soto seeks to demystify the initial reactions often associated with nudity, and instead to highlight the poetic and utopian potential of people meeting free from prejudices tied to gender, age, body size, ethnicity, socioeconomic background, or other power structures.
The experience shifts with the seasons – each part of the year offering new ways of encountering both nature and one another.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Cristian Quinteros Soto’s artistic practice explores collective experiences, migration, in-betweenness, and care. Through interventions, performances, and workshops, he investigates how intimate encounters can be sustained, documented, and facilitated in public space. Cristian received his master’s degree from the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm in 2021, and has exhibited work at venues including Liljevalchs, Södertälje Konsthall, The Royal Academy of Fine Arts, The Swedish Sports Museum, Botkyrka konsthall, Marabouparken, and Tensta Konsthall.
WebsiteAbout
Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art (GIBCA) is a contemporary art project taking place every two years in Gothenburg, Sweden. Each biennial consists of several major exhibitions. This year, in 2025, the title is “a hand that is all our hands combined". In times of war, polarization and authoritarian tendencies, the biennial aims to investigate how art can facilitate dialogue and reflection and make resistance possible. Can we think beyond Us and Them? How can we act from a spirit of solidarity? And how do we preserve artistic freedom in the face of rhetoric characterized by exclusion?
Read moreAbout
GIBCA Extended is a network and public programme that has developed around the biennial since 2013. The network brings together the local and regional art scene in Västra Götaland. Its participants – individual artists, artist groups, galleries and art centres – create their own programmes and exhibitions during GIBCA, which deepen and provide new perspectives on the biennial’s themes. The Nordic Watercolour Museum has been part of GIBCA Extended since the very beginning.
Read more8 OCT 6.00 PM & 11 OCT 9.00 AM • Sauna Sessions is an artistic project exploring the sauna as a space for care, reflection, and community. The event is led by Cristian Quinteros Soto, artist-in-residence at The Nordic Watercolour Museum in 2025. Participation is free of charge, but pre-registration is required.
11 OCT 3.00 PM & 12 OCT 3.00 PM • On two occasions, The Nordic Watercolour Museum presents video works by artist-in-residence Cristian Quinteros Soto. In his practice, Quinteros Soto delves into collective experiences, focusing on themes such as migration, in-betweenness, and care. Through interventions, performances and workshops, he explores how intimate encounters can be sustained, documented, and facilitated in public spaces.
25–26 OCT 1.00–5.00 PM • How do we communicate without words? Over the course of two days in two different locations, we will, together with AiC Orust and Pernilla Glaser, discover something new together – through experiences that one cannot be prepared for in advance. You are welcome just the way you are. Curiosity is what matters most; previous experience is irrelevant. We will gather to explore how we can meet and engage in dialogue across our differences, shifting perspectives, and varying needs.
