Simon H. Danielsson

(b. 1997, Malmö, Sweden)

Sällskapsrummet, 2024
The Communal Lounge
Performance and installation: clementines, apples, carrots, graphite
drawing, textile, tissue paper, papier-mâché, video and pencil sketch. A performance will be conducted during the opening
on 24 May (60 min).

In the work Sällskapsrummet [The Communal Lounge], Simon H. Danielsson’s starting point is the aspiration to show empathy and care. From his own experiences in the care profession, he knows the importance of providing security and stability to the care recipient, but also the difficulties in reaching through. The limited room, the cracks between caregiving and cruelty, the monstrously empathetic.

Danielsson often encountered Spanish slugs on his way to work, which in the installation is linked to a delicate encounter between two individuals. One cares, and the other is cared for, over and over again. The meeting occurs in the generally private, where one goes to reach out, extend one’s feelers, eat something perhaps.
The intimacy of the communal lounge. By the window, we see a dead crane.

In Sällskapsrummet, one is welcomed with blankets and food; the caregiver prepares and guides as well as they can. Time must be kept. The heart of the room is the schedule that pumps mechanically. Outside, a queue forms that decides who receives care and who is left without.

Interview with Simon H. Danielsson