Anx Kupiainen about their time in Rejmyre: “Chrysalis is a reminder that refuge should only be temporary. If you’re not going to keep running after the escape, something must change before you can leave - the situation outside or yourself. If the haven becomes permanent, it simultaneously turns into something else, a limbo, a prison. Chrysalis is a sanctuary that will encapsulate you and allow you to transform into something else, hopefully better equipped to face the outside world. When you’re ready, you have to get out yourself by tearing apart the membrane that both keeps you safe, but also holds you back. You can’t just stop there, you have to take the leap. Once you are completely transformed and out, there is no turning back.”
Anx Kupiainen has a master’s degree in liberal arts from the Royal Academy of Arts in 2009. They live and work in Norrköping, Sweden. Kupiainen’s art is conceptual and expresses itself in many different techniques and material. In recent years, they have worked on the Making Kin project, where they use arthropods to lift the value of the idea of what experience or experience is. The project has so far resulted in drawings and sculptures, but develop towards interventions and performance.