Jonelle Twum (she/they) is an artist and filmmaker using archives and a broad array of media to interrogate issues of migration, memory, materiality, collectivity, desires, the body via Black feminist theories and the quotidian. Twum has shown works at Carnegie Museum of Art (2024), the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen (2023), Malmö Konsthall (2023), Moderna Museet Stockholm (2021), and HotDocs (2021). Twum is the founder and artistic director of Black Archives Sweden, a contemporary archive with a starting point in Afro-Swedish experiences.
Contact: jonelle.twum@gmail.com
Education
2022: MA in Gender Studies, Lund University.
2017: BA in Social Anthropology, SOAS, University of London.
Exhibitions and screenings in selection
2025: Solo exhibition with new works, Krognoshuset.
2024: Group exhibition, We are fluid from all directions from all directions we meet, Botkyrka konsthall
2023: Group exhibition, In the city grows a field, Malmö Konsthall.
2023: Duo exhibition, Konstdetox.
2024: Screening program, Carnegie Museum of Art Film Series.
2023: I think of silences when I think you, screenings at film festivals including Oberhausen, Göteborg Film Festival, Hamburg Short film Festival, Helsinki International Film Festival, Uppsala Short Film Festival.
2022: Screening Program, Spectral Grounds: Black Experimental Film.
2022: Screening program, Gerald Moore Gallery, UK.
2021: Screening program, Moderna Museet, Stockholm.
2021: Screening program, Accelerator, Stockholm.
Curatorial
2018—ongoing: Black Archives Sweden, curatorial and artistic research.
2021: Co-curated with Tawanda Appiah, Sofia Landström and Sara Rydby, (in)visible group exhibition, Malmö Konstmuseum.
Participating artists include (but are not limited to): Prem Sahib, Zanele Muholi, Del LaGrace Volcano, April Lin, and Paul Maheke.
2021: The Weight of Silence, solo exhibition
with artist Ina Nian, Whose Museum.
Lectures and talks in selection
2024: On hold: Frequencies of waiting, Savvy Contemporary.
2023: Guest Lecture, Stockholm University of the Arts.
2023: Black (Counter)Gravity: An epilogue to FLIGHT, Programming and talk, Malmö Konsthall.
2022: Radical Love: Finding ourselves in the archives, Talk. The Swedish Arts Grant Committee.
2022: She Tries Her Tongue, Her Silence Softly Breaks, Performance Lecture, Lund University.
2022: Queerness within/without the archive, Presentation & talk. C/O Berlin.
2022: Global Connection Symposium–Domestic Worldmaking by the Enslaved, Presentation. MIT.
Stipends and Prizes in selection
2024: Deframed Award, Hamburg Short Film Festival.
2024: Swedbanks Ägarstiftelse Skåne, Culture Scholarship.
2023: Film Form Award.
2023: Early Bird Award, Uppsala Short Film Festival.
2023: Talent to Watch, production funding for A message to Ernestina, The Swedish Film Institute.
2023: Travel grant, The Swedish Arts Grants Committee 2023.
2023: Short Film Candidate for the European Film Awards, Nomination from International Short Film Festival Oberhausen.
2023: Tempo Sound Award, Tempo Documentary Festival.
2023 & 2022: Shorlisted for a Guldbaggen Award for I think of silences when I think of you and A Mother’s Body.
2022: Winner of Anna Prize.
2021: Work grant for cultural workers, Malmö stad.
2021: Best short film, CinemAfrica
Filmfestival.
2021: Honorary Mention, Tempo Documentary Festival.
Collections
2024: I think of silences when I think of you, video installation, Malmö Art Museum (since 2024).
2023: A Mother’s Body, video installation, Malmö Art Museum (since 2023).