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INSTALLATION/PERFORMANCE

Pleasure Garden (Twilight)


2026
Performance (35–40 mins), wooden structures, costume, sound, tour guide system and sixteen artworks from the museum’s print collection. Made in collaboration with Khamlane Halsackda.

In Pleasure Garden (Twilight), the body, desire and botany from the art museum’s graphic print collection are interwoven with queer narratives from Kungsparken both as a physical and historical site. The park has a long history as a sanctuary for nocturnal lovers and cruising, where men in search of casual intimacy with other men would meet, from the late 19th century onwards. At the turn of the last century, the building also housed a stage for the era’s touring male and female impersonators, who gave highly acclaimed performances. Together with mobile wooden structures and a subjective and associative selection of sixteen graphic works from the collection, a scenography for a performance is created.In collaboration with the Malmö-based choreographer and dancer Khamlane Halsackda, the mobile structures come to life in dialogue with the graphic works and narratives reflected in the park. The acts move between various bodies—the gardener, the flower, the female impersonator, the poet, the artist, the cruiser, the scientist, the actor and the park. Pleasure Garden (Twilight) has two modes. During the day, the installation is displayed in bright daylight streaming in through the large windows. But on four occasions, at twilight, the room is filled with bodies as the light transitions from the golden hour to the blue hour. The first of these four performances takes place on the spring equinox.

Installation view, Malmö Art Museum in Kungsparken, 2026. Photo: Helene Toresdotter/Malmö Art Museum.
Installation detail, Gunnar Norrman Skymning, Malmö Art Museum in Kungsparken, 2026. Photography: Helene Toresdotter/Malmö Art Museum.
Performance with Khamlane Halsackda, Malmö Art Museum in Kungsparken, 2026. Photo: Henrik Hellström/Malmö Art Museum.
Installation detail, Per Wizén Trespasser I and Charlotte Johannesson, Identity #30, Malmö Art Museum in Kungsparken, 2026. Photography: Helene Toresdotter/Malmö Art Museum
Installation view, Ester Fleckner Jag navigerer i kollisioner, nr 12, Matteo Rosa Untitled (Cruiser), Ota Hilding Nobu, Untitled, Malmö Art Museum in Kungsparken, 2026. Photography: Helene Toresdotter/Malmö Art Museum.
Performance with Khamlane Halsackda, Malmö Art Museum in Kungsparken, 2026. Photo: Henrik Hellström/Malmö Art Museum.
Performance with Khamlane Halsackda, Malmö Art Museum in Kungsparken, 2026. Photo: Henrik Hellström/Malmö Art Museum.
Performance with Khamlane Halsackda, Malmö Art Museum in Kungsparken, 2026. Photo: Henrik Hellström/Malmö Art Museum.
Installation detail, Jean Cocteau, Il a fui les ignobles, Il a foudroyé la Sottise, Malmö Art Museum in Kungsparken, 2026. Photo: Helene Toresdotter/Malmö Art Museum.

CREDITS Performer: Khamlane Halsackda. Script, Costume & Structures: Conny Karlsson Lundgren. Choreography: Khamlane Halsackda & Conny Karlsson Lundgren. Technicians: Jan Pagh Hansen, Robert Kapos, Anders Lindsjö. Light: Adrian Kautsky. WORKS Featuring sixteen graphic prints from Malmö Art Museum Collection: Flower studies, late 19th century , Barbro Bäckström, Utan titel (Händer), 1977, Jean Cocteau, Il a fui les ignobles, Il a foudroyé la Sottise, 1959, Kelley Ellsworth, Cyclamen II ur Suite of Plant Litographs, 1964–65, Ester Fleckner, Jag navigerer i kollisioner, nr 12, 2014–15, Antonio Frasconi, Porträtt av Garcia Lorca, 1953, Ota Hilding Nobu, Utan titel, 1977, Charlotte Johannesson, Identity #30, 1983, Gunnar Norrman, Skymning, 1981, Helmtrud Nyström, Tvekande, 2012, Pablo Picasso, Le danse des faunes, 1957, Olivia Plender, Urania, 2015, Matteo Rosa, Untitled (Cruiser), 2002–2010, Gert Sparr, Att pinas outhärdligt av bristen på ömhet i världen, 1967, Annika Wide, Kärleksbrev, 1974, Per Wizén, Trespasser I, 2019   ABOUT The work is part of the project Husera omtänkande i samlingar led by Grafikens Hus and carried out in collaboration with Malmö Art Museum, Botkyrka konsthall and Dalarnas Museum, with support from the Swedish Postcode Lottery Foundation. 

The duo exhibition Husera omtänkande i samlingar at Malmö Art Museum also featured (Re)Mapping Freedom Through Colonial Lines, an installation by Joanna Johnson in collaboration with Black Archives Sweden. The exhibition was curated by Macarena Dusant, Anna Johansson and Linda Holster.   EXHIBITIONS Malmö Art Museum in Kungsparken, Malmö SE.

 ©MMXXVI Conny Karlsson Lundgren