Drawing on the experience of living with multiple sclerosis, the exhibition’s title, Flare-Up, refers to a treatable aspect of the disease. While the gradual progression of the condition offers limited options for intervention, the sudden flare-ups have attracted significant interest from the pharmaceutical industry, paving the way for lucrative treatments. Flare-Up also alludes to the volatile, inflammable nature of pine resin, which has fueled investment in genetically engineered pines as a potential source of green energy.

Since 2018, Goldin+Senneby has collaborated with fiction writer Katie Kitamura, blending their artistic practice with her narrative craft to explore themes of autoimmunity—the fraught notion of a body at war with itself—and the stakes of reengineering life to defend against biological or environmental peril. Goldin+Senneby’s research, experiments, and performances have inspired Kitamura’s fiction, which, in turn, has influenced the duo’s artistic output. Flare-Up is also the working title of their collaborative novel, commissioned and edited by Triple Canopy.

Flare-Up premiered at Accelerator, Stockholm University in the spring of 2025. A second iteration opens at MIT List Visual Arts Center in October 2025.

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Selected reviews:

Arrhenius Hagdahl, Nora. ”System Failure”, Kunstkritikk, March 18, 2025

Allerholm, Milou. ”Tallkåda, citrustagg och barkborrar i överraskande hopkopplingar”, Dagens Nyheter, April 2, 2025

Dunér-Axelsson, Tobias. ”Det plågade ljudet av robotar som lurar din sjukförsäkring”, Arbetet, March 10, 2025.

Rosenkvist, Adam. ”Ett ton kåda har hällts ut i rummet”, Expressen, March 31, 2025

Ruin, Otto. ”Bland det vackraste som visats på länge”, Svenska Dagbladet, March 11, 2025

Stahre, Ulrika. ”Klimatprotestens mos gör mig på gott humör”, Aftonbladet, March 13, 2025.

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Making Flare-Up (Behind the scenes at Accelerator):