POETRY EVENING: Maria Cohut, Simona&Ramona & Angelina Olterman
June 27, 2026, 18:00 – 20:00 More info here
When? Saturday, June 27, 18:00 – 20:00
Where? Galleri Måsen, Fredsgatan 25 in Värnhem
How? The readings will be mostly in English. Drop-ins are welcome, though arriving on time is appreciated.
During the reading, we will speak about language + speak so much language. When exactly does language become punishment?
Living with multiple languages makes us wonder, paraphrasing artist Meira Ahmemulic: Which language will win?
Is it possible to cultivate the fantasy that your mother tongue is a different one? Is it possible to joke in another tongue? Is it possible to invent a mother tongue?
We will read poems and have a conversation about poetry, solidarity and language, in the frame of UNICORN Artists in Solidarity’s project “a solidary world”.
About the participants:
Maria Cohut is a Romanian writer living in Brighton, England. Her writing is haunted by questions of identity, belonging, displacement, and what makes us human. It features in many online and print publications, including the “Borders & Belonging” anthology (Cephalopress, 2022), “The Hellebore”, “The Other Side of Hope: Journeys in Refugee and Immigrant Literature”, and “The Madrid Review”, and has also aired on the radio.
Maria’s first poetry chapbook, “Spatter Pattern” (back room poetry, 2023), explored the issue of gender-based violence by reimagining detective fiction tropes. Her debut poetry collection, “Multiple Exposures” (Flight of the Dragonfly, 2026), is a multi-layered meditation on heredity, multiculturalism, what it means to write in an adopted language, and how to make sense of fractured identities.
Simona&Ramona are an artist duo formed by Ramona Dima and Simona Dumitriu, based in Malmö since 2018. They often use poetry and dialogue writing in videos, performances and digital projects, such as “Bahlui Arcadia” (2015), “The Dacian Apocalypse” (2018), “A Zero Hours’ Worker’s Fate” (2021) or “A Soft Ethnography of Nordic Habits in Plants and Humans” (ongoing).
Besides their artistic and life partnership, Ramona is a lecturer in Gender Studies at Södertörn University and Simona is working as a pedagogue and studying to become a priest in the Church of Sweden.
Angelina Olterman: “I am 22 years old and currently studying Literature and Political Science at Lund University. I was born in Sweden, but raised in Latvia and England before returning to Sweden at age five, so English is my first language. I typically write introspective short stories and poems that address social themes such as sexuality, multicultural family relationships, and class. My language is often described as simple and childlike, while the subject matter can be graphic. I have self-published since 2023 on my website phantom-writer.com and have been published in local magazines such as Kvarter Kultur and LUMOS since 2024. I have also performed at various open-mic events and hosted my own readings since January of 2025.”
About the venue: Galleri Måsen is an artist run not for profit gallery founded in Malmö in the autumn of 2025. During the summer of 2026 the galleri is housed in a space on Fredsgatan 25 by Värnhem, generously lended by MKB.
The poetry reading is part of the project “a solidary world”, made by UNICORN Artists in Solidarity in collaboration with Dawit Isaak-biblioteket, Galleri Måsen, and Malmö Pride and financed by Kulturrådet.
Event image courtesy of Simona&Ramona.
WORKSHOPS with the artists Jinyah Zeng, Shi Tou & Mingming
June 22, 2026, Dawit Isaak Library. More info here
When: Monday, June 22, 1:00 to 4:00 PM
Where: Dawit Isaak Library, Room 13
How: No pre-booking is necessary. Participants are warmly invited to take part in the workshop activities and exercises led by the artists.
The workshops are in English.
In the frame of the exhibition “a solidary world”, UNICORN invites you to a two-in-one event: two amazing workshops completing each other, taking place at Dawit Isaak Library:
1. Animating Women’s Solidarity: History, Location, Technology, Body: a workshop led by Jinyan Zeng
The artist will present excerpts from her film “Outcry and Whisper” and lead a short discussion on the role of animation in storytelling, followed by a few exercises.
Prior to the workshop, participants are kindly asked to select a few images of women engaged in everyday activities from their personal photo albums and to think of a storyline that could connect these images. Bring the images with you to the workshop as an inspiration!
Pens and paper will be provided. The workshop will begin with a short discussion about the stories participants wish to tell, based on their selected images. This will be followed by a hands-on session in which participants create a story outline (storyboard) for a short animation. We will then share and discuss these storyboards together.
2. Live Activation: a workshop of movement and games led by Shi Tou and Mingming.
“In an inverted dimension, the coordinates of gravity vanish, and our sensory systems are completely reset. In this interactive game, we will explore how to connect with others while off-balance.”
The artists will also show the video work “Small steps”, created in 2024 during the participation in the art project Walking as Practice Program in Björkö, Sweden.
Slow down
Crouch down
Look
They walk as they feed
They walk as they make love
They walk as they dance
We walk through forest
We walk among clouds
We walk upon Baltic Sea
The workshops are part of the project “a solidary world”, made by UNICORN Artists in Solidarity in collaboration with Dawit Isaak-biblioteket, Galleri Måsen, and Malmö Pride and financed by Kulturrådet.
Event image courtesy of Mingming and Shi Tou.
a solidary world – round table discussion @ Malmö Pride
July 2, 2026, 05:30 – 07:00 PM @Moriskan, Malmö
More info here
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UNICORN Artists in Solidarity och gäster bjuder in till ett rundabordssamtal om solidaritet som en del av Malmö Pride.
Datum och tid: 2 juli kl. 17.30 – 19:00
Plats: Moriskan, Malmö
Under samtalet kommer vi att diskutera frågor som:
Hur ser solidaritet ut i ett samhälle? Hur ser intergenerationell solidaritet ut, eller solidaritet bland unga? Vilka konkreta förändringar i hur en nation förstår solidaritet ser vi runt omkring oss idag? Och vilka former av solidaritet visar vi varandra inför politiska och ekologiska omvandlingar eller i motståndet mot antigender-rörelser?
Hur mycket kommunicerar olika grupper och institutioner som är verksamma inom mänskliga rättigheter i Malmö med varandra?
Rundabordssamtalet inspireras av Parvin Ardalans initiativ att arrangera rundabordssamtal om solidaritet på Dawit Isaak-biblioteket i Hyllie. Samtalet vill främja idén om att lyssna till och samtala med människor utanför de egna kretsarna – människor som ofta delar många värderingar, erfarenheter av kamp och former av aktivism, men som sällan sitter vid samma bord.
Rundabordssamtalet är en del av projektet en solidarisk värld (17 juni – 5 juli 2026), som består av en utställning och flera programpunkter i samarbete med Dawit Isaak-biblioteket, Galleri Måsen och Malmö Pride.
Projektet finansieras av Kulturrådet.
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a solidary world – round table discussion @ Malmö Pride
UNICORN Artists in Solidarity & guests
UNICORN Artists in Solidarity & guests invite you to a round table discussion on the topic of solidarity, part of Malmö Pride.
Date and time: July 2, 05:30 – 07:00 PM
Place: Moriskan, Malmö
During the round table we will address questions such as:
What does solidarity look like in a society? What does intergenerational solidarity look like, or solidarity among young people? What concrete changes in how a nation understands solidarity do we see around us today? And what forms of solidarity do we show each other in the face of political and ecological transformations or in resisting antigender movements?
How much do the various groups and institutions active in the field of human rights in Malmö communicate with one another?
The round table is inspired by Parvin Ardalan’s initiative of round tables on the topic of solidarity at Dawit Isaak Library in Hyllie and wishes to promote the idea of listening and talking to people outside one’s own circles – people that often have in common plenty of beliefs, struggles and activisms but rarely sit at the same table.
The round table is part of the project a solidary world (June 17 – July 5 2026) consisting of an exhibition and other events in partnership with Dawit Isaak Library, Galleri Måsen and Malmö Pride.
The project is financed by Kulturrådet.
Fragile Decisions: A performance workshop on contemporary strategies of censroship and solidarity. 16 October, 2025, Malmö Konsthall. More info here.
Image credit: Samaneh Roghani, Sarajevo, 2017
WORKSHOP: Free to Forbid / Fritt att förbjuda
Poster by Taylor Filrup Eliasen
Projektet Fritt att Förbjuda/ Free to Forbid riktar sig till tonåringar och ungdomar. Genom workshopen får de testa och utveckla verktyg för att tolka och engagera sig i några av Sveriges och världens mest komplicerade frågor: yttrandefriheten och dess etiska begränsningar, statlig kontroll eller det som är förbjudet i ett samhälle. Hur skulle det vara om vissa friheter som många ungdomar i Sverige tar för givet idag skulle försvinna, så som i en diktatur? Samtidigt, hur påverkas yttrandefriheten av ens etniska bakgrund, hudfärg, tro, sexuell läggning, eller sociala ställning? Vilka verktyg har ungdomar för att visa sitt motstånd och förändra det de upplever att samhället inte uppmärksammar och arbetar aktivt med? Hur kan framtidens konstnärer eller ledare förberedas genom kreativa tänkanden?
I slutet av november 2023 ledde vi en likadan workshop på Malmö Konsthall, under Förbjuden Kulturvecka, för samma åldersgrupp, som varit väldigt uppskattad. Den är utvecklad från våra egna erfarenheter av att utsättas för rasism, homofobi, sexism och andra former av diskriminering, samt utifrån UNICORNs tidigare kulturarbete i Malmö.
Workshopen har en spel- och debattstruktur, ägnar sig till grupper av 10-20 personer och är fördelat på två dagar (inom ramen av två veckor), men vi är flexibla:
Dag 1: Del 1, 60 minuter: Vi startar från ett grundläggande scenario som beskriver ett land eller typ av samhälle där starka begränsningar hindrar yttrandefriheten. Tillsammans med gruppen börjar vi skapa ett fiktivt samhälle ur fantasin.
Del 2, 60 minuter, tvådelat: Deltagarna delas i två grupper, som förbereder sig på varsitt håll för att sedan hålla i en debatt. Under debatten står en grupp emot och vill ha förändringar i detta fantasiland, och en grupp vill stödja makten som finns i landet genom olika strategier.
Dag 2: Del 3, 120 minuter sammanlagt: Ungdomarna får studera exempel, från propagandakonst till konst och ord som motstånd från den internationella människorättsrörelsen. Med inspiration från deras debatt och dessa exempel, kommer ungdomarna skapa, tillsammans eller individuellt, skisser av verk i egen vald konstform.
Workshopen är först och främst ett tillfälle för personer med olika bakgrund och erfarenheter att sitta tillsammans och fundera på några av världens svåraste frågor, från deras perspektiv, och skissa ett sorts manus för hur de ska kunna påverka dem. Den stödjer läroplanen för gymnasieskolan inom olika ämnen såsom samhällskunskap, kultur och konst, men vill också bidra till att utforma framtidens konstnärer eller ledare.
Workshopens språk: svenska och/eller engelska. Med stöd av Malmö Stad (Öppna Malmö).
I samarbete med: Stadsbiblioteket Malmö, TiF (Tillsammans i Förening), Teater JaLaDa, Amnesty International, Malmö Latinskola, ABF, Malmö Konsthall.
ARTIST TALK: “Queer home-making: Shitou and Mingming in dialogue with UNICORN”. Place: Malmö Konsthall. Nov. 23, 2024, 18:30.
University. Her research focuses on gender and sexuality, culture and politics, intellectual For over 20 years, artists and life partners Shitou and Mingming have been creating, carving, sustaining and disseminating a home: for them, as lesbians in modern-day China, and for their communities. A home they more than once needed to pick up and take with them on the road, replanting it at the edge of yet another village, carrying the legacy and manifesto of a queer generation from one place to another. Queer women’s stories are often scarce even in more egalitarian historical circumstances, and unmentioned in all others. Life and work partners Ramona Dima and Simona Dumitriu – representing UNICORN – have witnessed this absence for years, as they, through research, unearth smaller and smaller pieces of surviving memories, like shards of broken terracotta, soon like grains of sand slipping between one’s fingers. To know the stories which ground a queer person’s present is a vital step in building a queer home, a hope of community, a chosen family. The talk at Malmö Konsthall reminisce such stories, finding the threads that unite them, attempting to build them a home once again, elsewhere. It will be held in English, translated by Jinyan Zeng.
THE PARTICIPANTS:
→→→ Shitou (born 1969) is a Chinese activist, performer, filmmaker, multimedia artist, and queer icon. She has been active in the Chinese gay scene since the 1990s and was the first lesbian to come out on Chinese television. After starring in the lesbian-themed film “Fish and Elephant”, Shitou directed several films, many in collaboration with her life partner, Mingming: “Dyke March” (2002), “Women Fifty Minutes” (2006) and “We Are Here” (2015). She is one of the initiators of the China Queer Independent Film group (CQIF, 2008).
→→→ Ramona Dima is a researcher in gender and queer studies specialized in South-Eastern Europe. Simona Dumitriu is an art producer, writer and curator.
→→→ Jinyan Zeng is a filmmaker and Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies at Lund identity and social activism, as well as ethnicity, with particular emphasis on China.
We are inviting Malmö’s youth to a workshop of imagination, addressing questions of forbidden culture, freedom of speech, “canceling” and how limitations and consequences of freedom exist in different contexts. What if, all of a sudden, you would become the citizen of a country where something vital to your existence is forbidden? What would that be, and what would you do? What would a society look like where your thoughts were confined? Can creativity thrive within boundaries? Or, have you ever thought about something you yourself would forbid, should you be free to do so? For two hours, you are welcome to join a workshop where such questions, actions and consequences, as well as ethical considerations will be central. Through impassioned debates we are going to experience a land of limitations that will challenge our beliefs and shed light on the essence of freedom. To conclude the workshop we will create collaborative poetic manifestos, offering tools of expression for thoughts and questions that may have long lingered in your mind. Workshop facilitators: Hanna Una Holmquist, Ramona Dima, Samaneh Roghani, Simona Dumitriu. Workshop languages: Swedish and English. More info here: https://shorturl.at/orBHI Image credit: Samaneh Roghani.
UNICORN participates in Aliens Network, a transnational effort established by Verdensrommet to gather tools, exchange knowledge and bring answers to crucial challenges faced by non-EU/EEA creative professionals working in the Nordics.
For the first assembly of the network, Verdensrommet is presenting this open conversation with representatives of the six grassroots organizations in the Nordic region. More details here.
Welcome to a discussion on queer, feminist, antiracist and antifascist organising in different lands. ▶︎ This a hybrid event: offline hosted by Amalthea Bokkafé in Malmö, and online. Our guest speaker, Ruxandra Costescu, plays a fundamental role in queer, feminist and animal rights grassroots organising in Romania. Ruxandra will share her experience in several different countries on two continents, and across different ways of practicing activism. The ensuing discussion may touch upon topics such as intersectional experiences, the effects of gender essentialism on today’s activism, or how to organise in the Swedish context if compared with other contexts. In the frame of IDAHOT, which strives to be a grassroots alternative to mainstream Pride, what are the possible ways to organise, and be aware of each other’s position and experience, in resistance or in solidarity? Co-organisers: UNICORN Artists in Solidarity, IDAHOT-kommittén and Amalthea Bokkafé.
SmallTalks is a collaboration between RåFILM and UNICORN – Artists in Solidarity – a project bringing art, film and their methods to people’s everyday life and political discussions. In collaboration with ABF Malmö and funded by Malmö Stad. Read more about the project at https://smalltalksmalmo.wordpress.com/.
(EN/SV) Idahot-Kommittén in Malmö and Unicorn artist collective invite you all to a THREE DAY TREASURE HUNT! Link to the treasure hunt: https://idahotmalmo.wordpress.com/ This Quest is another form of march or demonstration, but made to meet safely, digitally and with physical distance, to play and discover new, maybe unknown things about malmös queer underground gems. All you need is at least one smartphone that can read qr-codes and a prefered way to move around the city, by bike, walking, wheelchairing or any other. headphones might be a good idea and remember to charge your battery! Let’s share our sweet spots, our political demands, enjoy movies and antifascist meditations, learn about our city’s queer corners and get inspired to agitate and organize! All the generous contributions to this year’s IDAHOT have been made or shared for free – we are thankful and respectful of that. /// Låt oss mötas tryggt, digitalt och med fysiskt avstånd när det gäller. Låt oss leka och upptäcka nya, kanske okända rikedomar i malmös queera undre värld. Allt du behöver är åtminstone en smartphone som kan läsa qr-koder och ditt bästa sätt att ta dig runt i stan, det kan vara på cykel, promenadvägen, rullstolsrullande eller något annat. Länk till skattjakten: https://idahotmalmo.wordpress.com/
Första eventet inom ramen av FRIIS FRAME blir på Internationella dagen mot homo-, bi- och transfobi. IDAHOT-kommittén Malmö tillsammans med Unicorn konstnärsnätverk presenterar ett filmpaket bestående av Los muchos triangulos rosas och Mes Chéris.
Better safe and sorry is a new collaborative work by Malmö-based artist Bahareh Mirhadi and Tehran-based artist Arash Mirhadi, constructed and performed as part of the Weekly Mass exhibition at Skånes konstförening. They are siblings and are this year’s recipients of the Unicorn Artists in Solidarity residency grant. Simona Dumitriu and Tawanda Appiah, curators of Weekly Mass, will moderate the Artist talk with Bahareh and Arash Mirhadi at Moderna Museet Malmö. Their projected work was centered around collaboration, family memories, control and the differences that distance constructs. When Arash Mirhadi’s visa application and subsequent appeal were rejected, distance became enforced onto them as a method. Furthermore, the power and control that institutions exert became the starting point of their installation and performance. Control and institutionalised distrust breaks relationships and reaffirms, again and again, the pyramid of power. Schengen/EU use profiling as a tool to hinder mobility and access when requested by residents of countries framed as “a risk” in migration law terms. What is more important, freedom or security? This is one of the key questions asked by the artists in the ellusive room of the installation. It is also one of the key questions framing their talk. Moderated by the two curators of Weekly Mass, Simona Dumitriu and Tawanda Appiah, the talk will address Bahareh and Arash’s most recent work in the wider logic of their solo and collaborative practices.
Unicorn Artists in Solidarity 