Urgent Sensibilities at Juxtapose

Six artists present aspects of their distinct practices in new formulations and for the first time in conversation with each other.  The presentation brings together the artists' separate, adjacent, parallel, and divergent concerns in a collection of physical, ephemeral, and temporal works that speak of urgent sensibilities.

Elena Thomas (UK): installation/sculpture, sound work

Nightingale and Sage (UK): participatory event, ephemera

Mireia Rocher (SE): collage, installation

Pavel Matveyev (SE): video

Roberto Ekholm (UK): performance, sculpture, drawing, video

Stuart Mayes (SE): assemblage

Nightingale & Sage will lead a walk on Saturday 14th June 2.00pm

Roberto Ekholm’s public performance on Saturday 14th June 4.30pm

Juxtapose is a gathering of more than thirty contemporary artist-run initiatives from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, The Netherlands, United Kingdom, Italy, Serbia, and Ghana.

Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 June, 12.00 – 5.00pm

Juxtapose, Godsbanen Rå Hal, Karen Wegeners Gade 4, 8000 Aarhus

Free entry, all welcome

Elena Thomas’ Rooted features covered twigs that have grown from regimented tally marks into rather more hopeful optimistic figures now reaching out with roots to find their place, and to nourish themselves and each other.  Elena has an evolving multi-disciplinary practice that ranges across drawing, textile, installation, sound, songwriting, and performance.  Her train of thought meanders through relationships with the children that she witnesses as observer and eavesdropper, she refers to her own childhood and to parenthood.  She now finds herself increasingly interested in the way social and political issues affect those relationships.

Nightingale and Sage’s Ways of Walking, Ways of Being is a self-led curated, slow walk discovering spaces of contemplation, solace and resilience amongst the neighbourhoods around Godsbanen. Along the route ‘walking prompts’ inspire observation, reflection and curiosity. Each journey invites inner and outer awareness, and considers the relationship between us and the built environment.  Periods of movement and moments of pause are both important elements of these walks.  Nightingale and Sage bring their care and creativity to the world of walking, and in doing so open up new ways of walking and new ways of being.

Mireia Rocher is a visual artist and storyteller whose interests in language and communication shape her exploration of language, emotion, and vulnerability. Using everyday materials—most lately sandpaper—she crafts intimate narratives through collage, text, and installation. Sandpaper becomes both medium and metaphor: a surface where meanings are revealed through acts of abrasion, evoking memory, fragility, and the imperfect effort to connect. Sandpaper’s texture evokes emotional rawness, while the repetitive, tactile process of working with it speaks to the labor of remembering, forgetting, and healing. Her work invites viewers to read texture as text and to find quiet poetry in the overlooked.

Pavel Matveyev’s Love Letters is a collection of letters that he wanted to write earlier but for various reasons was not able to. Current affairs, both personal and global, lend his project urgency. This work tacitly explores how crises release pent up emotion, and how a declaration of love in all of its complexity might serve as a device for new thought.  From a stranger on the subway in Moscow, to a work colleague in Portugal, and a porn model in a Stockholm gym changing room – the list of addressees encompass three decades and four countries. This highly personal project resonates with shared experiences of attraction, affection, lust, and love.

Roberto Ekholm’s Didactic Breathing & Surveillance of the Form conceptually extracts breathing and sound from popular culture, contemporary events, therapeutic modalities, social media trends, and musical compositions to create a performative experience centred on respiration. Roberto explores the intricate relationship between the seemingly nonsensical and the politically significant.  Dissecting and repurposing language used in the media, he examines metaphors that articulate political ideologies and reflect individual experiences within the realms of identity and medicine.  Amidst the ever-evolving waves of trends, we embrace practices such as breathwork, which cultivate a renewed awareness of breathing and the experience of embodied presence.

Stuart Mayes’ textile heavy and luxurious looking assemblages are created from cast off, discarded and uncared for materials – remnants, rejects, and deadstock.  Seeking attention and aspiring to be something grander than they are, the works invite speculation and even suspicion as to their intention.  Selecting garments and accessories from secondhand menswear Stuart fashions a universe out of other men’s lives, he shifts narratives and suggests other possibilities.  Alongside these pieces are works assembled from articles that are deemed imperfect.  These 'seconds' are furnished with opportunities to be admired – albeit from other perspectives.

Artists' biographies:

Elena Thomas has a Masters Degree in Arts Practice and Education from Birmingham City University’s School of Art. She is a Member of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists where she was the first artist in 200 years to have submitted sound work for her candidacy.  Recent exhibitions include Five, Six, Pick up Sticks, Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, 2023, and Full Circle, The Weeks Gallery, Jamestown New York, 2023.

Nightingale & Sage combine wellbeing, walking and creativity. Leading impactful, socially-engaged projects and innovative ventures – urban strolls, community maps and handbook, walking groups, outdoor art projects in green spaces. They have presented at Greater Manchester Moving, 2025, World Congress of Psychogeography, 2022 and 2024, and the Royal Geographic Society, 2022.  Their Ladybarn Labyrinth is included in Glasgow University’s online #WalkCreate Gallery, 2022, and their artist’s walk features in The Walkbook: Recipes for Walking and Wellbeing, 2022.

Mireia Rocher is a visual artist currently living and working in Uppsala, Sweden. She holds a Bachelor in Fine Arts from HDK-Valand Academy, University of Gothenburg, a degree in Graphic Design from Escola Llotja (Barcelona), and earned a Bachelor's and Master's degree in French Studies from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Mireia’s work can be found in collections including The Public Art Agency Sweden, she has exhibited and performed widely throughout Sweden.

Pavel Matveyev is a multidisciplinary artist currently based in Malmö, Sweden. His work spans photography, sound, and, most recently, text. He studied at Lomonosov Moscow State University, the University of Brighton and Konstfack – University of Crafts, Arts and Design. Pavel is a co-host of Slightly Out of Focus, a podcast about photography and contemporary art. He also organises a series of photo talks at Interbok, a Russian bookstore in Stockholm. 

Roberto Ekholm studied at Goldsmiths University and Laban Centre. He lives and works in London. A member of the Royal Sculpture Society and AICA he has exhibited internationally and has a background as a dancer and choreographer. His works are featured in the Thames & Hudson books by Michel Petry, Nature Morte, The Word is Art and the newly released book Mirror Mirror. In 2023 director Satvinder Bahra produced the documentary BLOOD, a film about Ekholm's life, dance and art.

Stuart Mayes’ practice encompasses installation, assemblage, and live work.  He studied at Dartington College of Art and Slade School of Art, as well as taking two postgraduate research courses at the Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm.  Stuart has been selected for temporary public art projects, exhibited in museums and artist-run spaces, and his work was featured in Mirror Mirror by Michael Petry (Thames & Hudson, 2024).  Stuart founded Glitter Ball in 2018, and has been part of the Supermarket Art Fair team since 2012.