Discover the story behind the new Art Film Festival Stockholm
Silvana Lagos shares the ideas shaping Stockholm’s new Art Film Festival.
This weekend, together with Artlover Magazine, Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg will launch the first edition of Art Film Festival Stockholm, taking place in an unused office building on Hudiksvallsgatan, right in the heart of Stockholm’s Gallery District.
Curated by Silvana Lagos, the inaugural edition is centred around the theme of SHAME and takes place from 6–9 November, featuring site-responsive interventions across the venue.
“The idea for the festival began about two years ago, out of a shared feeling that something was missing. Not just in what we were seeing in other shows, but in how deeply we were connecting to the works themselves,” says Silvana Lagos, curator of the festival.
The inaugural theme of the festival, SHAME, is conceived as both a public spectacle and deeply embedded as a social construct, and reflects a fractured, chaotic world.
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Silvana Lagos. Photo Martin Kieslling. -
Paul McCarthy with Lilith Stangenberg A&E, Adolf & Eva / Adam & Eve, Mother, 2022/2025 [video still] Lilith Stangenberg as Eva Eve Paul McCarthy as Adolf Adam © Paul McCarthy. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photos: Alex Stevens.
“SHAME felt like the right starting point: it’s personal yet collective, intimate yet political. It sits at the root of so many of our experiences, what we conceal, what we carry, and what we wish to transform. The festival invites audiences to confront and reframe shame, to find beauty or truth in what we often turn away from. It’s about dissolving barriers between artist and viewer, connecting through emotion, vulnerability, and courage. The program spans from emerging voices to pioneering figures, and together their works create a dialogue that is raw, empathetic, and deeply human.”
The participating artists work with moving images in diverse ways, blending performance, animation, digital systems, and documentary to explore complex social and emotional terrains. Confirmed participants include Lotte Andersen, Cory Arcangel, Alex Da Corte, Raf Fellner, Abdulnasser Gharem, Julian Knoxx, Paul McCarthy, Pipilotti Rist, Ryan Trecartin, Kara Walker, and Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg.
“The selection was about bringing together artists who might not usually be seen side by side, each one pushing the language of the moving image in distinctive, unexpected ways. Every artist approaches storytelling differently: some through performance, others through surreal animation, digital systems, or documentary. What connects them is the way they manipulate image, sound, and emotion to reveal something essential, to slow us down in a world that constantly demands our attention. Each work invites the viewer to look longer, to feel more deeply, to think differently about what it means to witness.”
“The selection was about bringing together artists who might not usually be seen side by side, each one pushing the language of the moving image in distinctive, unexpected ways.”
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Kara Walker Testimony: Narrative of a Negress Burdened by Good Intentions, 2004 [video still] © Kara Walker. Courtesy Sprüth Magers and Sikkema Malloy Jenkins
The choice of venue, an unused office building neighbouring galleries such as Coulisse Gallery, Cecilia Hillström Gallery, and Larsen Warner, is part of the effort to remove art from the white cube.
“Removing art from the white cube has always been part of both Nathalie and Hans’ artistic language, and my curatorial approach as well. Whether in their stop-motion worlds or in public sculpture, they create portals into other dimensions: spaces that are familiar yet strange, where emotion and imagination take the lead. Transforming an empty office into the festival’s site gives us that same opportunity, to reimagine what a space of viewing can be.You enter something both intimate and uncanny. The experience unfolds across two floors, allowing audiences to move through time and atmosphere rather than chronology. You don’t just see the works; you inhabit them.”
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Abdulnasser Gharem The Healthy Sin, 2015 [video still] (Aniconism) © Abdulnasser Gharem Courtesy the Artist.
When asked about the festival’s contribution to Stockholm’s cultural landscape, Silvana Lagos highlights the fresh perspectives from artists whose work has rarely been seen in the city.
“We want to bring to Stockholm works that haven’t been shown here before, artists who challenge what moving image can be, who expand the narratives we see on screen. Our goal is to spark curiosity, to make people think, and to make them feel. One that nurtures dialogue between local and international voices, and between artists and audiences. To make Stockholm a place where experimentation and emotion coexist.”
The inaugural edition of the festival takes place this weekend, 6–9 November, with hopes for future editions in the city.
“Intimacy is at the core of SHAME. It’s not about scale, but about depth, about creating encounters that linger. We want audiences to slow down, to step inside a world they might not have considered before. That said, we see it growing organically, in dialogue with the city itself, what matters is that each edition remains honest, alive, and daring.”
Art Film Festival Stockholm
6–9 November, 2025
Hudiksvallsgatan
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