My name is Jon, my pronouns are they/them and I’m ashamed to say that I am a Swedish artist. In this time and age where fascism is lurking (or mostly just exists in plain sight) this country is getting more and more difficult to navigate. Both as an artist and as a part of any so called minority group.
Therefore I was very happily surprised to stumble upon the new initiative, project, collective MAAPS (Mapping Asian Art Practices in Sweden). Which is run by four Stockholm-based curators with roots across Asia. MAAPS is bringing together stories, art works and community for Asian people in Sweden.
I met Yul Cho, Letian Lois Ding, Ruoxi Gao and Ifra Shariq online in June 2026 for a conversation. They all studied the International Master’s Programme in Curating Art at Stockholm University. They studied in different years but found each other and connected through being the only or one of few Asians in the class.
I grew up in the early and mid 2000s and experienced racism before I had the words to describe it. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the faces when the white kids squinted, pulled their eyes to the sides with their fingers and said “Mamma kines, pappa japan, stackars lilla barn”. People of all ages have asked me if I eat dogs or frogs or not even asked, just assumed, mocked me, looked at me with disgust. There also seems to be a “game” people love to play when they shout different things after me to see if I would confirm their prejudice. “Ni hao! Konichiwa!” or simply “China! Thailand!”. Sometimes racism connects with homophobia/transphobia and I get to hear ”creative” comments like “ching ching faggot”.
Why I’m mentioning so much about my own experiences of racism in Sweden is because this has formed me as an artist. I have made a lot of art about racism but now I’m trying to think more about who I want my audience to be – and it’s not for white people. But sometimes in safer spaces I’m still trying to reclaim the racist/homophobic/transphobic/ableist words and violence I experience and use it in my art – when I have the energy and capacity.
My hope is that what MAAPS is creating will be a space to charge energy and lust to reclaim words and experiences that have previously hurt us. I want us to together use art as a space to exist: both rest and resist. To be a whole person, a whole artist, and not only a body that can be mocked, threatened, sexualized and so on. MAAPS describes the project as initiated from a context where Asian and diasporic art practitioners often exist in fragmented and disconnected spaces within Sweden’s art field, with limited shared platforms for coming together. MAAPS responds to this by creating a space where these practices can be encountered in relation to one another. We are many Asians in Sweden that really wish for more events and moments in the art world where we can see ourselves and exist on our own terms.
MAAPS creates a space where I don’t feel like an alibi for so-called diversity. But we also talk about the divide we see in the art world even between ourselves – how there are a lot of Asian artists in Sweden that don’t know each other or don’t work together. We hope that that can change! MAAPS is about building relationships and if you are reading this and you are an Asian artist in Sweden please reach out to MAAPS.
We are also joking about white Swedes being so hard to befriend:
“I don’t get the white people friend:ing style.”
“What is that?”
“I still haven’t figured it out!”
And I ask if they have recommendations for people who are new in Sweden and are looking for friends and community. They tell me that living in student housing with shared kitchens has helped them. And it has helped to push yourself to be extroverted – to say “yes” to every social situation – “even though you don’t like the person asking, it might lead to meeting people you do like”.
Another thing I asked MAAPS was their definition of “Asian”. We discussed it for a while but the best summarized explanation can be found on their webpage (beautiful visual identity by Nanna Li!):
“We use Asia in its broad, messy, contested sense, as the word was never neutral to begin with. It was a term of convenience historically used in the Western context to label the vast regions to their east. In Sweden, the term “Asian” often carries narrow and racialised associations, most commonly connected to East and Southeast Asian identities and experiences. These histories and communities are central to MAAPS. At the same time, Asia is made up of many geographies and diasporic trajectories that cannot be contained within a single definition.”
We talk more about the definition and Yul, Lois, Ruoxi and Ifra all agree that it’s not a fixed category and that that was a collective conclusion. The term holds so many more stories and experiences and MAAPS wish to stay with the complexity of it all. The word “art” is in the traditional sense also often limited and I wish to see beyond the traditional (white and/or male) lonely genius-stereotypes. I wish for us to create new definitions and new archives.
We also talked about how easy it is to burn out when you have a passion project but you don’t get paid. I’m privileged to not have to worry about the struggle with VISA permits and such bureaucracy and uncertainty. MAAPS is telling me about the extra layer of discouragement when the country you exist and work in doesn’t respect you. When you are doing this important job for the art scene and society at large but you don’t even know if the country will let you stay.
I remember the 2010 election when the people took to the streets after the Sweden Democrats (SD) entered the parliament for the first time. When I say took to the streets I mean people were standing still in a square, because Swedes are not fond of marching, especially if there is no permit for arranging a public event… The signs and banners read “We are 94 %”. 94 % who didn’t vote for SD. After the next election the signs read “We are 87 %”. And so on…
After the 2018 election I’ve put my energy elsewhere than party politics. I’ve focused more on grassroot organising. I’ve focused on community building where we look after one another when we don’t feel welcome anywhere else. Both in my everyday life and in my art practice. In my art practice I want to use the platforms I get to invite the queer and/or BIPOC community in Sweden and that is something I think about every day, it’s always ongoing. Yul, Lois, Ruoxi and Ifra agree that MAAPS is also a long term project because there are so many people to talk to, so many stories to be told. So let’s get to work.
By: Jon Aagaard Gao @suedi_alien
MAAPS exists within a wider ecosystem of initiatives asking similar questions from different positions in Sweden. We recognise and appreciate platforms such as:
3,5%: A counter-reaction to the white norm that prevails within contemporary art, by highlighting a different perspective, the concept breaks up the homogeneous perspective that still governs the art scene today.
Amber Eons: Artistic platform for choreography and experimental performing arts with artists of the Scandinavian East-/Southeast Asian diaspora in Malmö.
Black Archive Sweden: A contemporary archive on Afro-Swedish experiences.
Congee: A community of people in Sweden with East and Southeast Asian roots, meeting up for study circles, social gatherings, activities and other events.
Hej vännen: An ongoing visual and written project by Nanna Li exploring embodiment, memory, and becoming through fragments, images, and personal reflection.
Konst Detox: An association for/by BIPOC working in Sweden’s art field.
Mångkulturellt Centrum: A municipal foundation that works for a society where diversity is reflected in the national self-image and where migration is a natural part of the Swedish cultural heritage.
Sino-Queer Sweden: A community for diasporic sinophone queer/feminists in Sweden. Sino-Queer aims to connect, support, and empower women and LGBTQ+ diasporas by building safe spaces and fostering dialogues within and across communities.
Southnord: An artist-run platform dedicated to the vast and varied artistic expressions, approaches and narratives the Afro-Nordic experience gives birth to.
MAAPS is also inspired by similar practices outside Sweden. We are appreciative of Asia Art Archive, Asia Contemporary Art Forum, Asian American Arts Alliance, Asian American Women Artists Association, Asian Film Archive, Connecting Asian Women Artists, and Northeast Asia Art Archive.