Jenny Kalliokulju

The Long Nose of Life, or the Prophylaxoratorium

9 May—1 November 2026

In this spring’s major exhibition at Ystad Art Museum, visitors are welcomed into a gesamtkunstwerk created by Jenny Kalliokulju and her ensemble. "The Long Nose of Life, or the Prophylaxoratorium" is an existential and humorous odyssey through life’s origin and the power of breath. Inspired by the achievements of trailblazing midwife Signe Jansson, Kalliokulju weaves the story of the conditions for life using painting, sculpture, installation, music, song, and theater.

In the everyday existence of days off from work to care for a sick child and nights filled with wakefulness instead of sleep, Kalliokulju finds humanity’s largest questions about time, memory, and co-existence. The experience of giving life to and nurturing one’s child is positioned in relation to social change and ideological traditions. Kalliokulju uses what she calls multi layered storytelling, where both histories and forms of expression are dissolved in each other. The exhibition at Ystad Art Museum plays out simultaneously in the ocean in the early stages of oxygen replacement, and within the human body, in the labor and delivery room, at the mother’s breast, and on the theater stage.

Kalliokulju’s art projects often take form through actual and fictional collaboration with other artists, authors, thinkers, and mystical creatures. "The Long Nose of Life, or The Prophylaxoratorium" is an exhibition and a musical performance that creates a choir of voices. One of these voices belongs to the midwife, an ancient support figure at the threshold of life on Earth. We also hear the artist’s maternal grandmother, Brita, who was born on the kitchen table before formal birthing care was institutionalized in the Scanian countryside. The breath tells its story as a part of the prophylactic method that Signe Jansson popularized during her time as midwife at Ystad’s maternity ward, but also as a basic precondition for our life on Earth. In Kalliokulju’s largest exhibition to date, the long nose of life dances and the protozoans play ocarina!

Jenny Kalliokulju was born in Bjuv, where she also lives and works, in 1986. Kalliokulju works both as a pictorial artist and poet and was trained at Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main and the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm as well as the Creative Writing Program at Lund University. Her work has been presented and shown at such venues as Bonniers konsthall in Stockholm, Moderna Museet Malmö, Kiasma in Helsingfors, and Galleri Thomas Wallner in Simris. Kalliokulju has published "THE STONE IS INDEED" in 2021 (Hello dust), "The Relationships of Disappearance - a mobile collection (Försvinnandets förbindelser - en mobil samling)" in 2020-2021 along with artist Sigrid Sandström, and "RODINIA" in 2016 (CLP Works).

The musical performance is presented in the exhibition at 14:00 on October 24 and 25. Admission is free, but pre-registration is required. Please contact the museum for more information.

Ensemble:
Jenny Kalliokulju (artist and poet), Ola Paulsen (composer and musician), Martin Küchen (saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, and composer), Lotte Ohlander (singer with both opera and musical theater in her repertoire, as well as midwife), Hör & Häpna (children’s choir under the leadership of Susanne Holmström and Elin Lundström of Ystad-Sövestad’s congregation), Helga Asgeirsdottir (vocalist), Irja Paulson (vocalist), Emma Gudjonsdottir (vocalist), Humle Rosenkvist (artist), Sofia Ivarsson (light artist), Nidia Martínez Barbieri (dancer), Anna Brita Rasmussen, Kerstin Kalliokulju, Rut Kalliokulju och Ada Kalliokulju.

Curators:
Ellen Klintenberg, Ystads konstmuseum
Anne Vigeland, Mjellby konstmuseum

The exhibition is produced in collaboration with Mjellby Art Museum and with support from Region Skåne. Thanks to the Maternity Ward, Postnatal Ward, and Neonatal Unit at Ystad Hospital, and the Ester Lindahl Scholarship Fund.

Watch our meeting with Jenny kalliokulju in her studio!

At the opening on May 9, dancer Nidia Martínez Barbieri performed the performance "The Nose", which can be seen in its entirety here.