Blogg

Performance, 50 min

In the linnean classification, rationality prevails along with a romantic impulsion and obsession. Knowledge is meditated through a synthetic order, where the world is measured based on the body of the enlightenment man and categorised according to his ideals. Underneath is his longing for intimacy with Nature and a wish to make sense of his surroundings.

observations of the system of natural bodies is a performance predicated on the artist Linnéa Johnels’ research into the 18th century botanist Carl Linnaeus’ work and legacy, where ways of perceiving reality derived from the age of enlightenment and its concept of nature are investigated. Through somatic and sonic attempts to control and order chaotic processes, the dancer Anna Fitoussi and composer Malte Dahlberg meet in an exploration of the relation between embodiment and epistemological desires. 

Concept: Linnéa Johnels

Performers: Anna Fitoussi, Malte Dahlberg

Composer: Malte Dahlberg

Choreography: Anna Fitoussi, Adam Schütt, Linnéa Johnels

Performed at Fylkingen Stockholm

https://fylkingen.se/en/events/observationer-av-naturkropparnas-system

Photo: eurodyke

Video: Ester Bergsmark

Online publication/Lecture performance 

The Linnean scientific tradition in Sweden and its legacy in the Senegambia region are intertwined in this text and lecture performance. Carl Linnaeus was one of the founders of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Specimens were collected for the academy by the disciples of Linnaeus, like Anders Sparrman who collected specimens in Senegambia during the period of the slavetrade, and specimens arrived from European colonial occupational territories like the Swedish colony Saint Barthélemy. The collection became the Swedish Museum of Natural History where my grandfather Alf Johnels later worked.

https://journalofartandecology.com/Linnea-Johnels

Documentation from lecture performance at the Botanical garden in Gothenburg as part of GIBCA Extended 2025.

Research about Carl Linnaeus expedition to Sápmi. Work in progress. 

After a long journey from Uppsala, up along the east coast of Sweden and following the rivers west from Luleå, a 25 year old Carl Linnaeus arrives in Jokkmokk the 29th of June 1732. He was on his first research expedition, appointed by the Royal Scientific Society (Kungliga Vetenskaps-Societeten), to make an inventory of the species of Lappland but also to understand the living conditions in the north. There were also colonial ambitions – how could these landscapes better benefit the Swedish state?  

During the summer of 2024, I followed in the footsteps of Linnaeus from Jokkmokk over the mountains to the Norwegian coast, as I wanted a corporeal experience of Linnaeus expedition. How did these landscapes inform or challenge him in this quest to find the divine natural order? At a residence in Jokkmokk during September 2024, I visited the traces of an exploitative way to relate to nature, like hydropower stations in Lule älv, and the mining prospect site Gallok. 

Stills from an up-coming film about Linnaeus Lappland-expedition, with footage from my hike in his footsteps. Images from his diary from the expedition, kept at the Linnean Society in London.

Multimedia installation, dimensions variable, 25 min video-loop

In May 1950, my grandfather Alf Johnels travelled to the British colony of the Gambia on a research expedition after which the species Chrysichthys johnelsi got its scientific name. With the same camera as Alf used to document the journey, I turned my gaze towards the Swedish Museum of Natural History and the infrastructural conditions as well as the archival traces from the expedition.

Details in the installtion contains The Swedish Gambia expedition 1950 travelog, footage from the Swedish Museum of Natural History 2023, animation based on the syntype of the fish species Chrysichthys johnelsi, sound from Keystone K-8 double-8 camera, excerpt from Notes on fishes from the Gambia River by Alf Johnels, the specimen of the Chrysichthys johnelsi mentioned in Notes on fishes from the Gambia River borrowed from the Swedish Museum of Natural History, names of the only mentioned local assistants and the common names of the Chrysichthys johnelsi fish.

Installation Goldsmiths University and Galleri Alva

Exceprt from videos in the installation

Film 6:46 min

Recorded in the garden of the renowned 18th century botanist Carl Linnaeus, where the plants are ordered following his sexual classification system. A Vitruvian Linnaeus is being observed while sleepwalking among his strict systematics. Linnaeus named the human species, which is indicated by the L. after the name, and he also classified humans in a hierarchical order after their, according to him, inherent characteristics.

Installation at Hypha Gallery in London, Shifting Grounds exhibition 2025

Installation at the Botanical garden in Gothenburg, Roots Unnamed exhibition, as part of GIBCA Extended 2025

Excerpt from video

In my research-grounded installations, films and texts, I approach spectral actors to explore the troubled foundations of western sciences. These historical agents, that still hold power, allow me to understand and engage archival material in critical storytelling. I trace connections, in themes and motifs, from colonialism and enlightenment science to exploitative capitalism. 

My recent projects revolve around taxonomy, categorisation and order, where I investigate knowledge production and the colonial logic embedded in western scientific ways of understanding and relating to the world, as well as the tools, languages, and institutions that sustain this logic. 

In dialogue with the ghost of the renowned 18th century botanist Carl Linnaeus, and his legacy in the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Swedish Museum of Natural History, I revisit places and moments important for the development and traces of his scientific project.

I am based in Stockholm and Västerbotten, Sweden and hold an MA in Art and Ecology from Goldsmiths, University of London, a BA in Philosophy Södertörn University, and a BA in Fine Arts from Umeå Academy of Fine Arts.