Pressmeddelande -
Art biennial OPENART 2026 in Örebro, Sweden, presents their first four artists
Two local artists and two international artists are now ready for OPENART 2026. Together they constitute the artists who have been selected by OpenArt for a 30-day artist residency in Örebro through the MagiC Carpets network. OpenArt is part of MagiC Carpets 2025–2028, a project co-financed by the EU. The MagiC Carpets platform unites 17 European cultural organizations that create opportunities for artists to carry out residencies in other countries and in their own country.
Participatory workshops together with young people
The artists engage young people in artistic workshops during their residency periods. The target group is young people who have not completed or started upper secondary education and do not have a job. In the activities, the artists also have help from Örebro Municipality's EU volunteers. For example, the participants will get to try screen printing together with the international artist Gina Disobey.
About the artists
Gina Disobey
Through the organization Openspace.Innsbruck in Austria, the multidisciplinary artist Gina Disobey comes to Örebro. Gina Disobey is an Afro-Italian interdisciplinary artist and youth leader based in Austria. With roots in both Nigeria and Italy, she explores themes such as identity, healing and empowerment through her work. Since moving to Innsbruck in 2005, she has run art and culture projects with a focus on intersectionality and social change, in close collaboration with local communities, institutions and grassroots movements.
Johan Ibrahim Adam
Johan Ibrahim Adam is born in Örebro, with roots in both Sweden and Sudan. His artistic practice has evolved from street art to encompass a wide range of expressions, including installations, sculpture, tufting, glassblowing, painting, drawing, and digital art. He is educated at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam and received his Master in Fine Arts from Konstfack, University of Arts, Crafts and Design, in Stockholm, specializing in ceramics and glass. Before his higher education. Adam’s art is characterized by a double vision – shaped by his upbringing in a family with both Christian and Muslim traditions – and a vigilance against structural racism, as well as an interest in rituals, behavioral patterns and interpersonal relationships.
Bahzad Sulaiman
In an Open Call that Magic Carpets had earlier this year, Bahzad Sulaiman was selected by OpenArt to come to Örebro later this year. Sulaiman is a Kurdish-Syrian artist based in Germany. Through visual art, performance and installations, he investigates how memories, identity, and ecological meaning are manifested in bodies, spaces, and everyday objects. With a background marked by forced displacement and a marginalized cultural history, he creates art that illuminates belonging. Sulaiman often works with objects from home environments – appliances as silent witnesses to life experiences – where the objects become poetic stories about care, consumption and sustainability. His practice combines community engagement with cross-sectoral collaborations and invites the audience to listen, remember, and reflect rather than just observe.
Doris Apelqvist
Doris Apelqvist is a young and versatile artist from Sweden who studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm. She works with a range of different media, including painting, sculpture, textiles, video works and music. Her artistry is characterized by an improvisational and intuitive process, where she explores themes such as identity, freedom, everyday observations, and contrasts.
Exhibiting their artworks during OPENART 2026
The four artists in residence have been commissioned to create site-specific artworks for the 2026 biennial. The artists will be on site in the OpenArt workshop during 2025 to develop new artworks to be presented in the city next year.
Contact
Sofia Gustafsson, producer and curator at OpenArt and Magic Carpets
(+46)19-21 46 40
