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alex/alexandra sofie jönsson


is a socially engaged artist, educator and organiser working with social praxis, pedagogy and feminist approaches to digital culture and public space.

Working collaboratively across formats of public intervention, participatory sculpture, new media, workshops, and performance, her work has been shown at Art Center Nabi (SKR), Tate Modern (UK), Kunsthal NORD (DK), Museum of Contemporary Commodities (UK). She is the co-founder of lím collective, a platform based in Aalborg exploring artistic practices at the intersections of health and care. She was a former organiser of Goldsmiths University collective The Open System Association, Autonomous Tech Fetish (ATF), and The Body Recovery Unit.
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blue synnyt



blue synnyt (2024)
Vestre Fjordpark, Aalborg, Denmark
Installation, F-eks.
Photos: Rikke Ehlers Nilsson


blue synnyt is a new site-specific public art project by Alex/Alexandra Sofie Jönsson.

blue synnyt is an performative audio-visual guide to posthuman relations exploring how colors mediate between bodies and the environment. The work draws on Karealian knowledge practices of synnyt - a mythical aetiology practiced by tietäjät, the ancient healers, who worked with spells to connect phenomema to their origin contexts. Presented as a temporary outdoor audio-visual installation with swimming, sauna, and acollective listening moment, blue synnyt temporarly reframes the public water spaces of Vestre Fjordparken along Aalborg’s Limfjord.  

The project examines the aesthetics of bodily (dis)comfort, in an attempt to dismantle numbness towards natural ecologies, and open up for new agencies as a temporary form of eco-surrender and solidarity. Can water - with its currents, coldness, ice, and waves - momentarily reorganize the body? blue synnyt focuses on care and temporality that centers practice-based forms of knowledge - such as hydro feminist and queerfeminist perspectives - in which knowledge is not to be uncovered, but relearned in bodily, material, and social contexts in which it can nurture new relations. 

blue synnyt was created during two seasons of ice swimming in the Limfjord - the same location which is currently endangered by a planned motorway connection bridge. The project draws on a range of embodied knowledges co-created with local ice swimmers, activists, family members, and (more than human) friends - highlighting ecological bonding experiences in the nearby area through audiovisual material, underwater footage, and soundscapes.

Special thanks to Tanja Schlander, Nina Wöhlk, Caro Gervay, Liisa Annikki Jönsson, Katrina Louise Jönsson, Elisabeth Thomsen, Clara Dybbroe Viltoft, Helle Nygaard, Sara Hagins, Limfjorden, Nikolaj Kühn, Tine Steensgaard Bach, Käte Vestergaard Pedersen, Jens Bugay-Hougaard, Julianne Concepcion, Nikolaj Skjold, Simon Bendix Borregaard, Sackit, Isbjørnen and its iceswimmers for their contributions, and to The Danish Arts Foundation, Huset i Hasserisgade, Vestre Fjordparken, and Aalborg Streetfood for additional support.


The research is kindly supported by The Danish Arts Foundation. See more at F-eks. 

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