iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Recent curtain calls: Hofesh Shechter Company after “Theatre of Dreams” at Dansens Hus; Rebecca Livaniou and Kevin Wedin after “InTension” at Värmeverket; Lilian Steiner after “Exhibition Review” at Konstnärshuset; and Manuel Rodriguez after “Otra cosa que no es una conferencia” at Within Practice

Twelve dancers, plus three musicians wearing red suits, stand together in a line and bow with their arms around each other’s shoulders after a performance. Silhouetted in the foreground are audience members standing and applauding; one of them is photographing the curtain call with their phone. There is haze in the air. Behind the dancers is a heavily draped, gold colored curtain with a ruched valance.

Two artists bow together after their performance on a studio stage in the Stockholm suburb of Bredäng. At left is a dancer with long hair pulled back and a monochromatic, golden brown costume comprised of multiple fabrics with matching shoes. At right is a composer-DJ wearing a loose-fitting ensemble of white and blue fabric with a matching hat. Behind them is vertical pillar of orange light.

A crowd of people stands and applauds one performer in their midst, who bows at the waist and is wearing a black zentai suit with a hood. They are gathered in a gallery filled with work by various visual artists. One work, which hangs from the ceiling above the performer, consists of long, partially woven, grey-blue threads.

One dancer, wearing only pants and shoes, stands alone and bows at the waist with his hands behind his back. The floor is bright white. Behind him are his shirt, suit jacket, and striped tie on a plain side chair. On the floor next to him and the chair are a sheet of paper and a water bottle, tipped over. A plain black curtain hangs upstage. At far left is an exit door. In the foreground are the heads of a few audience members.

000

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Recent curtain calls: at Kulturhuset, Cullberg after “flesh chariot, chariot of flesh,” and Arno Ferrera, Charlie Hession, and Gilles Polet after “Armour”; Sara Hammarström, Lisa Viguier Vallgårda, and Kim Hellgren of Trio Perenne at Galleri Duerr; and Escarleth Romo Pozo after “La Mala” at MDT

Fourteen dancers from the Cullberg ensemble stand onstage in a single line, their arms around each other’s shoulders, and take a bow after the premiere of “flesh chariot, chariot of flesh” by American choreographer Faye Driscoll. Small microphones hang above them from the ceiling on steel cables; behind them is a retracted sheet of fabric, also anchored to the ceiling. Most of the dancers stand on a low dais that rests on the larger stage floor. In the foreground, audience members applaud.

Seen from behind, three men wearing brightly colored wrestling singlets and black kneepads hold hands and bow together after their trio, titled “Armour,” in a studio theater at Kulturhuset in Stockholm. Audience members facing them, seated on risers, applaud their performance. A few more audience members, also applauding, are visible in the foreground.

Three musicians stand and bow together with their instruments after a performance in an art gallery. From left, they are a flutist, a harpist, and violist. Behind them and to their right is a partition painted sage green. At right, in the foreground, is a partial view of four audience members applauding.

The dance artist Escarleth Romo Pozo stands by herself onstage and bows after a performance of her work titled “La Mala” at Moderna Dansteatern in Stockholm. In front of her is a swirl of a pile of brightly colored fabric, which sits at the center of a larger swirl of sand or sawdust on the stage floor. Behind her, and in the foreground, are two red clotheslines; a few garments and piñata-like objects hang from the former, while five clothespins are attached to the latter. There is haze in the air.

110

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Shout out to Anne Carson, Nobelpriset awardee for literature. I feel fortunate to have heard Carson speak twice this year: before the first performances in Swedish of her play “Norma Jeane Baker of Troy,” and after a presentation in Copenhagen of new work in progress based on “Autobiography of Red.”

Anne Carson wears glasses with clear plastic frames and listens to Lars-Håkan Svensson, seated to her right, who translated her play “Norma Jeane Baker of Troy” into Swedish. The play’s director, Olof Runsten, looks also at Svensson, from his seat on a stool behind Carson and to her left. Visible behind all three of them is a wall of white tile and a stove hood of stainless steel.

Anne Carson stands onstage, in a lecture hall at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art outside Copenhagen, after a presentation of a new work of performance in progress based on Carson’s novel, “Autobiography of Red.” A bearded man stands to Carson’s left and holds his right wrist with his left hand. Carson holds with both of her hands a copy of her novel. Post-It notes stick out from between its pages. Carson looks over her glasses, which rest on the tip of her nose, to her right at the actor Ben Whishaw, whose long hair is in a top knot. The entire image is saturated with red lighting used to illuminate the presentation.

030

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

There’s a lot happening through Stockholm Craft Week but still, I can’t get over what Alma Siberov and Hedvig Sved are showing in a basement garage on Kammakargatan in Norrmalm. Sved’s father restores cars; she and Siberov turn errant parts into gorgeous jewelry with fitted stones. bit.ly/4j2FL40

Two vintage automobiles are parked, back to back, in a basement garage. At left is a pale yellow Volvo P1800 partially hidden behind a curtain of translucent plastic. At right is a silver Jaguar E-Type hardtop. Behind the cars, and the curtain, are shelves full of equipment and tools.

A bright red, vintage Porsche is parked in a basement garage, behind a curtain of translucent plastic. Behind the car, but not the curtain, is a door painted grey.

Seen from above, two works of jewelry are displayed on an old car’s rubber floor mat. One consists of a translucent, silicone or rubber tube and rests on a casually folded sheet of vinyl. The other consists of a steel spring and a piece of polished crystal and rests on an aluminium disc.

This is a close-up photograph of a piece of jewelry — a brooch, perhaps? — made out of errant car parts and translucent stone. It rests on a metal box which rests on a panel of steel painted light blue. In the background, out of focus, are a vintage Jaguar E-Type and a man standing with his hands in his pants pockets. Neither his lower legs nor his head and shoulders are visible.

020

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Shout out to “Rumble in the Jungle” at Botkyrka konsthall, artist Eric Magassa’s first solo exhibition in Stockholm. It’s complex and vibrant and covers every surface in the space, activated on Saturday by movement artist Freddy Houndekindo’s performance, “Prison / Prophet Fantasy” bit.ly/3VjMzjN

On a wall painted bright yellow and adjacent to a large window, three items are visible. At the top is an unframed color photograph of a white plastic armchair on a lush and vibrant green lawn. Below the photograph is a copy of the Angela Davis LP titled “Soul and Soledad” (1971) in a clear acrylic box mounted to the wall. Partially behind and below the box is a black and white photo of a woman mounted flush against the wall.

Movement artist Freddy Houndekindo performs within an art gallery filled with overlapping color and black-and-white imagery. Houndekindo wears black training pants and black sneakers with a heather-grey, sleeveless T-shirt partially soaked with sweat. Both of his hands are wrapped with white tape and he is engaged in boxing practice. To his right is a large sound system comprising multiple speakers with hand-built, plywood cases stacked on a wheeled platform. To his left is a partial view of a white spiral staircase. Assorted items are on the floor behind Houndekindo, next to the sound system.

This is a view into one corner of the exhibition “Rumble in the Jungle.” Two framed color photographs hang just a few inches apart, one in each direction away from the corner. At left is a photo of a person in a yellow and white striped caftan with a painted box on their head, who stands in a parking lot in front of a row of apartment buildings. At right is a photo of furniture and other objects at one side of a street. Additional images paper the walls behind the photographs. One shows frothy white waves breaking against rocks. Another shows multicolored tiles and an illustration of a person either falling or flying.

This is a photo of a framed photo on a wallpapered wall. The image on the wall is of a rocky shoreline. The frame is pale wood and surrounds a color print of a photo of a person wearing a black and white striped caftan with a painted box on their head. The box is painted white with two large, dark circles that look like eyes. The person stands on an asphalt court and in front of a long wall painted bright green with one horizontal white stripe. Behind the long wall are a metal fence and several trees.

010

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Sure was fun to watch Gabriel Itkes-Sznap try to handle Álvaro Enrigue in conversation tonight at Kulturhuset

Writer Álvaro Enrigue, left, and Gabriel Itkes-Sznap sit facing each other on a stage. They sit in black armchairs with chrome frames on a square carpet of hot colors: red, orange, yellow, and brown. A table between them holds water glasses, a bottle, and a copy of “Om imperier drömde du,” the Swedish translation of Enrigue’s book “You Dreamed of Empires.” Behind them are a dark curtain and two zig-zags of red neon.

001

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Had a blast with Toronto band TR / ST at Nalen, my new favorite venue in Stockholm. For a kick, read up on Gustaf “Topsy” Lindblom, the newspaper editor and record-breaking Olympian who bought and cleaned up the seedy dancehall in the mid-1930s, helping it become an epicenter for jazz bit.ly/4hjvJca

Robert Alfons of Toronto band TR / ST stands alone onstage, singing into a microphone held in both hands. The musician is spotlit and wears a long sleeved, black shirt. Two beams of light, one on either side of Alfons, shine diagonally upward and over the crowd. A tight cluster of audience members’ heads are in the foreground, bathed in red light. Behind Alfons is the base of a large, fluted column. Partially visible at the left edge of the image is a bandmate’s keyboard on its stand.

Romain Barry, left, and Robert Alfons of Toronto band TR / ST stand together onstage during their September 2026 concert at Nalen in Stockholm, Sweden. Two large, fluted columns with ornate, Ionic capitals rise high toward the ceiling behind them; an even taller, emerald green curtain hangs between the columns. Barry plays a keyboard while Alfons sings into a microphone, both hands over their ears. Theatrical haze is in the air.

000

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Glad to catch artist Mattias Åkeson’s exhibition “Kom & Gå” (focused, among other things, on employee surveillance) and a wonderful performance by Trio Perenne (Sara Hammarström, Lisa Viguier Vallgårda, and Kim Hellgren, from left) at Galleri Duerr.

“Sändare / Mottagare No. 2” by Mattias Åkeson, 2026, hangs on a white wall in an art gallery. Sunlight falls across the artwork and wall in a diagonal grid delineated by the mullions of a large window out of frame. The artwork shows a cluster of plugs on various cables in the top left corner. The rest of the artwork is negative white space. It is a digital pigment print, Diasec® with matte acrylic.

Three seated musicians play “The City in the Sea,” a 2017 work by Canadian-Finnish composer Matthew Whittall, in a nearly all-white art gallery bathed in sunlight. One freestanding, diagonal wall behind them is painted sage green. Each musician reads her music from pages on a black stand. From left, they are playing a flute, a harp, and a viola.

000

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Shout out to the apartment buildings along Upplandsgatan

This is a centered, full-height view of a six-story apartment building on Upplandsgatan in Stockholm, Sweden. It has six metal balconies — two each on floors three, four, and five — and an intricately carved, stone archway over its double front doors. The building is perfectly symmetrical and painted a soft tint of peach-orange with dark green trim.

This is a centered, full-height view of a six-story apartment building on Upplandsgatan in Stockholm, Sweden. It has two gently projected window bays, each topped with a triangular gable with one small, circular window. The building is painted a soft tint of yellow with sage trim and has two small, metal balconies on the fourth and fifth floors, one directly above the other.

This is a centered, full-height view of a five-story apartment building on Upplandsgatan in Stockholm, Sweden. Each of its four rows of windows is articulated differently; all are heavily trimmed and ornamented in a Renaissance revival manner. The building is painted a soft tint of yellow and has two gently projected window bays, one on each side of its symmetrical façade. At street level are commercial spaces and a sign that reads FRANKLIN in white, capital letters above a striped awning.

This is a centered, full-height view of two matching, five-story apartment buildings on Upplandsgatan in Stockholm, Sweden. Each of its four rows of windows is articulated differently; all are heavily trimmed and ornamented in a Renaissance revival manner. The building on the left is painted a rich shade of red-orange; the building on the right is painted a lighter shade of yellow-orange.

000

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

My husband and I went to support Sofia Runarsdotter, who shot our wedding, freelances as a photojournalist, and is showing at Foto Tallinn, which continues through the weekend at Kai Art Center. Lots to like about the tightly curated fair; each exhibitor’s work was interesting and unique. Solid show

German photographer Saskia Reis creates layered portraits of artists based in Cairo, in collaboration with them. This image from the series is of a graphic designer; multiple shots are combined into one composite with cutouts and incisions. The subject wears sunglasses and a colorful, gold and bright-red shawl, and is shown with a large red rose blossom on her chest. Behind her is a busy Cairo streetscape, also a collage made of multiple images.

Argentinian-French photographer Naguel Rivero could perhaps be described as a kind of “urban Andy Goldsworthy,” in that he builds temporary assemblages out of found objects and then memorializes them through photography. His images layer cultural and political references with style and wit. This photo from his series shows a man in Argentina who wears an olive green shirt with long sleeves. His face is obscured by a large, rectangular bundle he holds on one shoulder and stabilizes with his hand. Partially visible through plastic wrap, it appears that the package consists of multiple bundles of cash. In fact, it is bricks that are wrapped in almost totally devalued cash. The photo was taken outdoors in bright sunlight.

Austrian photographer Thordis Wolf showed two rows of vertically oriented, mostly color photographs. Many are crops or close-ups of people whose faces are not visible; one can see two bare, bruised legs on what appears to be a brown sofa; the rear window of a rain-covered Jaguar sedan; a man with his hand in his pocket who wears a blue shirt with short sleeves and a watch with a white face; a girl or young woman with white stockings and rose-colored shoes; two people holding hands on what might be a wooden sundeck or pier; and a small child being tossed into the air.

Swedish photographer Sofia Runarsdotter stands with curator Ashik Zaman in front of three of her photographs from a series titled “Girl, Battle” which features young women athletes practicing various sports in a gymnasium. They are front-lit studio style in such a way that isolates them against inky black backgrounds, almost making them look like Rembrandt portraits, in a way. Sofia, on the right, wears a white shirt with black pants, and a lanyard identifying her as a participating artist. Ashik, to her right and our left, wears an oversized shirt with vertical stripes over a black T-shirt, a white bolo tie, baggy pants with big blue flowers on them, and running shoes. To Sofia’s left is a simple, black side chair.

030

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Back home from a 26 hour excursion to Tallinn and already, I can’t wait to go back. I’m utterly charmed by its extremely well-cared-for historic city center, much of it medieval, and getting around is a piece of cake. From the airport to the waterfront is a 20 minute tram ride (and costs just 2 €).

This view down the center of a cobblestone street in the historic city center of Tallinn, Estonia features a variety of densely packed buildings three to five stories tall, each painted a lively combination of pastel colors. Some of the buildings have fanciful turrets and weathervanes atop them. The sky is overcast but some rays of sun are breaking through.

This photo of a historic building in Tallinn’s medieval district shows a large clock with a wooden face, painted with a sun and Roman numerals in gold. The clock sits about fifteen feet up a plain white wall. Below the clock you can see the top half of a wooden door with a Gothic-style pointed top. There is a plaque to the left of the door.

Located near the highest point in Tallinn’s historic district, Alexander Nevsky church (1894–1900) rises proudly into a cloudy sky. The Estonian Orthodox cathedral features a tight cluster of onion-domed cupolas and is heavily trimmed in off-white shades. A few cars are parked on the cobblestone streets around the building; at bottom left is a man wearing a yellow jacket and taking a photograph of something out of frame. At bottom right, in the distance, is a pink building with white trim.

The view from Patkuli vaateplats in old Tallinn is justly famous and dominated by the tall spire of Oleviste kirik (St. Olof’s Church). From this high terrace, you can see many of the city’s old stone defensive walls with cone-roofed towers and, in the distance, the waters of Tallinn Bay.

260

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Equally enjoyable, yet diametrically opposed in form and mood, was the following performance by Vienna-based artist Stina Fors. Titled “Answer Me, Pythia,” it was a funny-strange sort of meta-deconstruction of ventriloquism. Both were part of this weekend’s September Sessions. septembersessions.se

010

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Really enjoyed this afternoon’s sliding, slipping, swinging duet “WonderWaves” by Anna Öberg and Elize Arvefjord, danced by Viktor Fröjd and Jon Bugge Mariussen, within the exhibition “The Owl of Minerva” at Stockholm University’s Accelerator.

100

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

A few weeks before September 11, 2001, I stayed with good friends who lived about seven blocks east of the World Trade Center, at 99 John Street. I watched what happened that day from Charlotte NC and was relieved to hear they were safe. I went back to New York that winter and visited Ground Zero.

In this photo I took from the plaza between them, the twin towers of the World Trade Center rise into a blue sky with wispy clouds. The branches of a tree are silhouetted in the foreground, in front of the exterior wall of the near tower. The facing wall of the far tower is brightly lit by the sun.

In this photo I took around December 2001 at Ground Zero, a crowd of people stand closely together behind wooden police barricades painted blue. Most are wearing winter clothing; I remember it was cold that day. One of the only businesses open near the site was a Starbucks Coffee. A lot of visitors carried red, holiday-themed cups from which steam rose, as they walked the perimeter and stared at the wreckage.

140

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Some shots from the exhibition round, which followed the open-cipher warmup pictured in the previous post:

In a roughly cube-shaped room bathed in deep blue and purple light, one breakdancer introduces himself during the exhibition round of a tournament. Spectators and other competitors sit and stand around the perimeter of the room. The DJ’s decks and a poster promoting the event are on a table in the background at left.

In a roughly cube-shaped room bathed in pink and purple light, one breakdancer introduces herself during the exhibition round of a tournament. Spectators and other competitors sit and stand around the perimeter of the room. The DJ’s decks and a poster promoting the event are on a table in the background at left.

000

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

The space — Kulturstudion på Stadsgårdsterminalen — was small but the vibes were great at yesterday’s breaking and footwork meetup called 6steptember. Participants represented Austria, Norway, and Switzerland in addition to Gothenburg and Stockholm in Sweden. bit.ly/46HzJyb

One dancer warms up during an open cipher at 6steptember, a free event welcoming breakers and footwork practitioners. The room is roughly cube-shaped and bathed in deep blue and purple light. At left, a DJ spins music. Other dancers and spectators stand and sit around the space. In the foreground, an attendee wearing a red jersey records the dancer with his phone.

One dancer in a black and red jersey warms up during an open cipher at 6steptember, a free event welcoming breakers and footwork practitioners. The room is roughly cube-shaped and bathed in deep blue and purple light. At left, a DJ spins music. Other dancers and spectators stand and sit around the space.

One dancer hits a freeze, his legs in the air, while warming up during an open cipher at 6steptember, a free event welcoming breakers and footwork practitioners. The room is roughly cube-shaped and bathed in deep blue and purple light. At left, a DJ spins music. Other dancers and spectators stand and sit around the space.

One dancer mid-flare on two hands warms up during an open cipher at 6steptember, a free event welcoming breakers and footwork practitioners. The room is roughly cube-shaped and bathed in deep blue and purple light. At left, a DJ spins music. Other dancers and spectators stand and sit around the space.

100

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Last month, I visited Copenhagen for the first time and I’ll add that its embrace of the waterfronts around Christianshavn, Holmen, and Refshaleøen seems very successful, e.g., at the canal-side café La Banchina, one can order a latte or a glass of wine and jump right into the water between sips.

Looking west from a bridge along Danneskiold-Samsøes Allé, over a canal in eastern Copenhagen, this image shows two people in a white motorboat, one of whom stands on its prow. At right, at the water’s edge, is a traditionally styled, red building now home to a Hart bakery. Across the canal to the left is a partial view of the recently completed Papirøen (“The Paper Island”) development by design firm Cobe — a cluster of mid-rise residential buildings with steeply pitched sides. At far right, in the distance, is the green and gold dome of Marmorkirken (Frederik’s Church).

010

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

As a result for me, this tracks. I grew up in the Colorado Rockies, then spent five years living in Seattle. I also lived in Charlotte and Montréal, each for one year, then Chicago for 23 years but, by then, the cake was baked. My mom’s family are generally West Coasters; my dad’s are CO / KS folks.

Color-coded map of results from an English dialect quiz taken online show Utah and the US West Coast as the “hottest” areas, and the Deep South as the “coolest” areas. There is also a roughly circular patch of “cool” over South Dakota, and a relatively “warm” patch over northeast Minnesota.

010

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Recent curtain calls: “Så tuktas en argbigga” by Farnaz Arbabi at Dramaten; Ben Whishaw, Anne Carson, and ensemble after workshopping “Autobiography of Red” at the Louisiana Museum; Peter Mattei, Aphrodite Patoulidou, and Sveriges Radios Symfoniorkester at Berwaldhallen; and gergő d. farkas at MDT

Ten actors take a bow onstage at Dramaten in Stockholm following a performance of “Så tuktas en argbigga,” Farnaz Arbabi’s adaptation of William Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew.” Onstage behind them is the key setpiece, a cylindrical tower with an open balcony on top. Partially visible in the foreground are applauding audience members and the historic theater’s gilded and ornate Art Nouveau interior.

Seven performers wearing street clothes and bathed in red light stand in a row as they are applauded for their work. At far left is the actor Ben Whishaw and to his left is the writer Anne Carson. To their left are four vocalists and a fifth collaborator. Partially visible above them is the bottom edge of a large, hanging screen.

Members of Sveriges Radios Symfoniorkester are seen onstage at the concert house Berwaldhallen from gallery seats above. They have turned around in their seats to acknowledge the men’s chorus Orphei Drängar. Toward the top of the image are the conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, baritone Peter Mattei, and soprano Aphrodite Patoulidou. Those seated in the front row are visible across the very top of the photo.

Hungary-based dance artist gergő d. farkas bows deeply at the waist, alone onstage at Moderna Dansteatern, following their solo performance titled “rascal” during the tenth annual Wild Flag Festival in Stockholm. Thick haze hangs over the stage and partially obscures audience members seated and visible to the left. A few scenic elements are placed around and behind farkas including an amplifier, a sculpture flat on the floor like a rug, and a roughly triangular painting that looks like a stream winding through a green valley as seen through parted curtains.

140

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Shout out to last year’s addition to Prinsessan Estelles Skulpturpark: Polish artist Monika Sosnowska’s PoMo-Brutalist assemblage “Museum,” in which marble components carved for an art gallery never built nearby are embedded and placed within a raw geometry of cast concrete members

From a distance, the entirety of the sculpture titled “Museum” is visible on its site outdoors. It consists of tall, cast concrete monoliths, plinths, and an archway arranged in a pleasing composition on a circular pad of gravel surrounded by cut grass. Among and within the concrete elements are a handful of carved marble architectural elements, mostly portions of columns like shafts and capitals, both Corinthian and Ionic. Leafy green trees line the perimeter of the site. A few wispy clouds hang above in a blue sky.

A photo taken from within the sculpture shows partial views of two concrete elements and three historic marble elements. In the background are a few trees and a flowering bush with pink blossoms.

Another photo taken from within the sculpture shows partial views of a few concrete elements and historic marble elements. In the background are a few trees and a flowering bush with pink blossoms.

This photograph is of the nearby sign that displays information about the sculpture “Museum” by Polish artist Monika Sosnowska. The text is displayed in both Swedish and English. The English version of the text reads:

“The inspiration for the site-specific work ‘Museum’ is an art museum intended for Rosendal, initiated by King Karl XIV Johan in the 1830s. Despite ten years of planning, the museum never materialised, but hundreds of marble pieces were ordered and have since been stored in a dark warehouse. Eleven of the almost-200-year-old original building blocks will now see the light of the day again when they are integrated into the new concrete elements. Past meets present in a sculpture that lies in the borderland between architecture and art. Is it a room under construction or a ruin of the museum that never materialised? ‘Museum’ was acquired in 2025 by the Princess Estelle Cultural Foundation thanks to a generous gift by Elin Kling and Karl Lindman.”

020

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Really can’t wait to go back and see more. I was in Denmark for barely 48 hours on a super tight schedule. It is also very expensive but a truly magical place to be.

In the distance behind a large, historic brick building, the tallest tower of Tivoli Gardens — The Star Flyer — rises into a partly cloudy sky. The fast-spinning carousel flings riders away from the tower’s steel shaft. The golden sphere atop the ride is an homage to Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe.

The very tip of the spire at Sankt Olai Kirke in Helsingør peeks out above a grassy rampart at Kronborg Slot. In the foreground is a cobblestone courtyard and two pale yellow historic buildings with white and red framed windows. Between the buildings are a few short stacks of shipping pallets.

The lower level of a gallery at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art is seen between the railings of the gallery above. In the middle ground is a partial view of one of sculptor Alberto Giacometti’s tall, slender figures. The far wall is made of glass and looks out toward lush trees and a small pond. A museum visitor, silhouetted, taking a photo through the window is partially visible at the right edge of this image.

Storkespringvandet (the Stork Fountain) stands in the middle of Amagertorv, a slender square on Strøget, Copenhagen’s famed pedestrian mall. The square is busy with shoppers and tourists, as seen through an open window a few stories above, and lined with well-maintained historic buildings.

140

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Because its courtyard is currently under renovation, Helsingør’s M/S Maritime Museum (Bjarke Ingels Group, 2013) looks even more bizarre and incongruously sited inside and around a former dry dock. Nearby Kronborg, of “Hamlet” fame, looks incredible, reflected by the mirror-like surface of its moat.

One of multiple glass-walled bridges of the M/S Maritime Museum in Helsingør, Denmark contains an auditorium whose rows of seats slope in one direction while a walkway slopes in the opposite direction, making a shallow X-shape in section. Visitors walk across the former shipbuilding dry dock, atop the roof of the bridge which lies at grade. Three trees and one tall tower of the castle Kronborg are visible in the distance, at top left.

A large, steel-walled staircase at the M/S Maritime Museum in Helsingør, Denmark descends from ground level into a former shipbuilding dry dock below. Usually a courtyard, the dock is gutted for renovation work. A temporary walkway made of wood lines the perimeter of the void.

The seaside fortress Kronborg rises high into stormy skies above Helsingør in Denmark. One worker wearing safety orange coveralls approaches an entry gate at one end of a bridge that spans the castle’s wide moat. A family of visitors follows a few steps behind.

As seen from across a moat that surrounds Kronborg Slot, Sankt Olai Kirke and the clouds above it are reflected by the surface of the water. Stone and brick walls line the defensive channel. Vehicles including a tour bus are parked in the middle distance.

130

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Denmark, where I went for the first time last weekend, was and wasn’t what I expected it to be. Copenhagen, with about the same population as Stockholm has, feels more dense and urban because fewer waterways cut through it. I was also surprised by how hilly and lush it is up north toward Helsingør.

A large, cylindrical building rises beyond the slope of a grassy hill in the foreground. The sky is overcast and the building has deep-set, rectangular openings.

One side of a seven-story building, with only a couple of actual windows, is covered almost entirely by a trompe l’œil mural. The painting creates the illusion of a tall archway with a coffered barrel vault and a handful of figures who stand in a doorway and on a featherweight scaffolding. The foreground shows an alleyway between low-rise, industrial buildings with back entrances. A few dumpsters and rolling carts are clustered in the center of the image.

A model of a ship with tall masts hangs in front of a Gothic arched window inside a Gothic arched niche inside the church of St. Mary at Helsingør’s historic Carmelite Priory. Neighboring buildings are partially visible through the window’s leaded glass.

The massive dome of Marmorkirken (The Marble Church) rises over the red rooftops of Frederiksstaden, as seen from the rooftop of the movie museum in Copenhagen called Filmtaget. In the foreground are a few large trees in the southeast corner of Kongens Have (The King’s Garden), which surrounds Rosenborg Castle.

181

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Ahead of president Emmanuel Macron’s visit here tomorrow, a 400-foot-long French warship has appeared on Stockholm’s waterfront. Sweden will apparently order four of these defense and intervention frigates from Brittany shipyard Naval as part of a multibillion-dollar deal. bit.ly/4chKz1h

Stockholm’s Gamla stan (Old Town) is seen from the island of Skeppsholmen, across the water to the northeast. At right is the tall steeple of S:ta Gertrud, Tyska kyrkan; at left is a very large, grey warship bearing French and Swedish flags. The sky and water are both grey as well.

000

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

It certainly helps that Dramaten’s productions are consistently interesting and highly polished but let me be clear: If they were trash, I would still go just to spend time in that theater, easily one of the most beautiful on Earth, completed in 1908 and designed by Johan Fredrik Lilljeqvist.

A slightly off-center photo looking upward from the main floor of the auditorium of Dramaten, an Art Nouveau playhouse in Stockholm, Sweden, shows the arched mural above its proscenium opening and the circular mural that covers most of the ceiling. There are two tiers of balcony seating. Gold leaf is liberally applied to many of the room’s surfaces.

During the intermission of a two-act performance at Dramaten, Marmorfoajén (the marble foyer) is filled with theatergoers. There are large paintings on the intricately carved, white stone walls and balconies from which patrons can observe the busy floor below.

020

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

The long, bright nights of midsummer have passed and we can already feel the subarctic autumn rolling in but, for at least a little while longer, it is beyond glorious here in Stockholm. Everyone everywhere is out and about, making the most of the fading season while they still can.

The brick tower of Stockholms stadshus, seen from the south across Riddarfjärden, rises high above Lake Mälaren while the sun sets to the west. Three boats with white sails drift across the middle ground. Behind stadshuset and to the left is the tall, sharp steeple of Sankta Clara kyrka. In the distance at the far right is the roof and cupola of the Grand Hôtel.

230

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Shout out to when the sun is just about to set and the water is agitated but not so much that it breaks the waves so their west sides get sharp reflections while their east sides get deep shadows

A black-and-white photo of the surface of a body of water in the early evening, in which reflections appear almost like holes in a rippling sheet of smooth silk

150

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Simple, effective choice by curators of new exhibition “The Defeated: The Aesthetics of Resistance” to write the wall text — even about decades-old works — in present tense, presumably to emphasize that certain struggles precede, continue during, and extend well beyond our lifetimes bit.ly/4cK1YQd

Photo of text printed on orange paper and mounted on a steel screen in an art gallery. The text reads:

Gunilla’s Triptych for The New Trial

Gunilla Palmstierna-Weiss makes this collage for ‘The New Trial,’ Peter Weiss’s final play, shown for the first time at Dramaten in Stockholm in 1982, directed by Peter himself and with a set design by Gunilla. The play is a free reinterpretation of Kafka’s ‘The Trial.’ In Peter Weiss’s version, set in his present, Josef K — played at Dramaten by a young Stellan Skarsgård — is a sort of tragic hero: a middle manager at an insurance firm who insists on following his conscience and defending the vulnerable in society. But each time he does what is right, and questions the firm’s immoral practices, he is promoted to a higher position in the professional hierarchy. His morality and his humanism are exploited as alibis for the company’s continued exploitation.

Gunilla Palmstierna-Weiss’s collage is projected onto the backdrop behind the stage in a short scene in the play’s final act. An artist named Titorelli has been commissioned to create a wall painting for the company’s new headquarters. But like Josef K, Titorelli cannot turn his eyes away. He wants to know ‘what the totality looks like, which has shaped us,’ without turning a blind eye on evil and suffering. At the inauguration of the painting he explains to his employers that ‘it was you’ who painted it. He is led away, intoxicated or afflicted with madness.

Photo of a portion of a large, curving fabric artwork consisting of multiple images, in color and black and white, attached to a hanging curtain. Many images are of historical events and political figures from Cuba. One text on brown fabric at left reads, “DON’T MIX THE MAP WITH THE TERRITORY”

Photo of text printed on orange paper and mounted on a white panel in an art gallery. Visitors, one using a wheelchair, are partially visible in the background. The text is in both Swedish and English in parallel columns. The English version reads:

Theatrum Mundi 

‘Is it at all possible to represent the complex connections of our social order in their totality?’ —Peter Weiss, ‘Conversation about Dante,’ 1965

During the second half of the 1960s Peter Weiss works on a gigantic project, a cycle of plays that will together form a mega-play titled ‘Theatrum Mundi,’ the world theater. The play will have a global outlook and depict the period’s different anticolonial and anti-imperialist liberation struggles as one coherent totality. Weiss plans to write sections about ‘Angola, South Africa, Congo, Latin America, Cuba,’ but also about ‘the imperialist attack on the Vietnamese people.’ His research covers many more countries and conflicts. His intention is to show that it is possible to understand all of these different crimes and conflicts as parts of one and the same, unitary system of oppression — and that it is therefore also possible to imagine an organized resistance against it.

For Weiss, it is also essential to show that there is a continuity between these contemporary crimes against humanity, and the crimes committed by the Nazis decades earlier. ‘The fascist regime in Germany was defeated,’ he writes. ‘But the principle of persecuting and exploiting large groups of people, to the limit of annihilation, remains.’

Close-up photo of three metal targets, among many arranged in a single line on a long shelf, which comprise the 2025 work “Krupp” by the artist Daniela Ortiz. Adjacent wall text for the work reads:

These hand-painted metal targets tell the history of the Krupp arms company and industrial group, founded in Germany at the beginning of the 19th century. The company plays an important role in the rise of Nazism. In addition to selling weapons to the Nazi regime, the company exploits slave labor in concentration camps, and has their own factory at the outskirts of the Auschwitz camp. In 1948, Alfried Krupp is sentenced to twelve years in prison at the Nuremberg trials, but is pardoned just three years later. His company is deemed to be necessary for the reconstruction of Germany. Today renamed Thyssen-Krupp, the company continues to sell arms to regimes committing crimes against humanity.

140

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

This aerial photo, by Aaron Chown for the UK Press Association / Getty Images, shows clearly the impact of summer heatwaves on London’s Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. It’s giving Phoenix, y’all.

Seen from above and the northeast, the trees in London’s Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park stand out in stark contrast to the lawns below them, all yellow and light brown from extended periods of extreme heat. The curve of the Long Water and Serpentine lagoon fills the center of the image. In the middle distance are the high rises of Elephant Park. City skyscrapers including the Shard stand in the upper left corner.

000

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Four perfect albums from 2000–09

Cover image for Low’s 2001 album “Things We Lost in the Fire” (kranky)

Cover image for Amy Winehouse’s 2006 album “Back to Black” (Island Records)

Cover image for The Organ’s 2004 album “Grab That Gun” (Mint Records)

Cover image for Hercules and Love Affair’s 2008 self-titled album (DFA Records)

010

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Spent this morning crossing southern Sweden by train, from Stockholm to Malmö en route to Copenhagen. Went roughly 615 kilometers in four and a half hours, i.e., at an average speed (including station stops) of 85 mph. What a comfortable, scenic, and pleasurable way to travel.

A long-exposure photograph, taken through the window of a fast-moving train, blurs the landscape of southern Sweden. The sky is overcast, mottled with numerous, grey-bottomed clouds; in the distance is a band of dark green vegetation; and in the foreground is light-green farmland seen through a simple fence, reduced to parallel, horizontal lines.

130

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Having missed Agnes at the Rosendal Garden Party in June, I’m glad I got a second chance to catch her live this summer. I guess my only complaint is that the two songs I wanted to hear most — “24 Hours” and “Here Comes the Night” — came almost back-to-back at the very top of her set. Too soon!

Swedish pop star Agnes holds a microphone, on a stand, in her left hand while reaching toward the audience with her right hand. She wears a pale yellow dress made of latex with matching, knee-high boots. There is theatrical haze around her and she is illuminated by a mix of blue and purple light.

Swedish pop star Agnes holds a microphone, on a stand, in her left hand while reaching straight up with her right arm. She wears a pale yellow dress made of latex with matching, knee-high boots. Her long, blonde hair swings to one side and, behind her, a video screen displays vertical stripes of pale purple and a kind of crinkled-foil texture with pastel shades.

010

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Explored Kulturfestivalen last night and was really impressed. Thousands of people were out on closed roads through Stockholm’s city center, enjoying (tasty and varied) food, DJs, live music, family activities, and more. Only by the water could you escape the crowds. kulturfestivalen.stockholm.se

Looking east from the garden on Helgeandsholmen called Strömparterren, some of Stockholm’s more iconic buildings line the Norrström waterfront. At left, a temporary terrace floats in front of Kungliga Operan and a large sign that reads KULTURFESTIVALEN. Beyond that are the trees of Kungsträdgården and at right, beyond the low span of Strömbron, are Fersenska Palatset and the Grand Hotel.

Seen across the water from Strömgatan to the northeast are Stockholm’s Kungliga slottet and the small island of Helgeandsholmen, occupied almost entirely by Riksdagshuset. Festivalgoers fill the waterfront park called Strömparterren, in front of the Swedish parliament.

120

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

If you’re in Stockholm in mid-August and you’re a little bit lucky, you might find yourself walking down Humlegårdsgatan at sunset.

As the sun sets in front of the camera, it turns many elements of a city scene into silhouettes. In the foreground, a person walks across the street. Behind her, another two people walk together, holding hands. At left, the orange sun peeks through the leaves of a large tree. In the distance, the steeple of a church pierces the somewhat cloudy sky.

As the sun sets in front of the camera, it turns many elements of a city scene into silhouettes. At left is the tall, main gate of Östermalms saluhall, a public food market completed in 1888. A small cluster of people gather on the sidewalk at right. The tall spire of Sankt Johannes kyrka, completed in 1890, rises in the far distance. The sky is bright orange at the horizon and light blue overhead, speckled with small clouds.

030

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

It was fun to be part of a large, festive crowd out to catch the eclipse from Observatorielunden, a hilltop park in Stockholm home to Sweden’s first observatory, completed in 1753. Cloud cover masked the event but it got noticeably dark for a few minutes.

In the foreground, a crowd of people gathers to observe a solar eclipse. In the background, the sun is partially visible through clouds, above a city skyline.

People of all ages gather on a hillside to view a partial solar eclipse from Observatorielunden in Stockholm, Sweden.

020

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Statens porträttsamling at Gripsholms slott, in the Swedish town of Mariefred, is said to be the world’s oldest national portrait gallery. The collection includes more than 5,000 works, some of which — including this profile of Roman emperor Caligula — are painted directly onto the castle’s walls.

020

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Today’s Morning Briefing newsletter (Americas Edition) from @bloomberg.com calls the mayor of New York City “Zoltan Mamdani”

000

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

“Glöm inte att le” — Don’t forget to smile — says some graffiti on a wall of Kungsholms församlingshus, by architect Erik Lallerstedt and completed in 1902.

The southeast corner of Kungsholms församlingshus — Kungsholm Parish Hall — fills the frame of the photograph. Its four-story façade of Gotland limestone rests on a plinth of granite and features detailed relief ornamentation in a restrained Art Nouveau style common to central Stockholm’s architecture of the era (1890–1910). The building’s copper roof is weathered to a blue-green patina. The words GLÖM INTE ATT LE are spray-painted in blue between two basement windows on the building’s south side. The sky is cloudless and on the cusp of dusk.

010

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Throughout the route, boom lifts held folks high above the street, each a paradutropare (parade caller), who sort of emceed the parade as it went by, giving short speeches and introducing the floats, groups, and organizations below.

A person with a rainbow flag stands in the basket of a boom lift, held up between trees on a street on Kungsholmen in Stockholm, Sweden.

Rainbow-flag bunting criss-crosses the streets of an intersection lined with white, Functionalist apartment buildings. People watch the Stockholm Pride parade from some balconies and rooftops. Parade walkers below them carry a variety of flags, banners, and picket signs.

Standing along the Stockholm Pride parade route, a young person holds a sign with a checklist on it. Boxes next to the words Girl and Boy are unchecked. There is a check mark in the box next to the third word, Wrath. In the foreground, someone wearing a backpack and baseball cap takes a photo. Between them is a street sign showing a pedestrian in a crosswalk.

A person wearing an elaborate, sequined costume stands in the basket of a boom lift, held up high in front of the large windows of Kulturhuset in central Stockholm. A fabric banner on the basket reads “Paradutropare.” In the foreground are partial views of a Palestinian flag and a trans pride flag.

040

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Tack och lov for my first Stockholm Pride landing on an absolutely perfect summer day. My crew and I participated for about half the route — anyone can just hop into and out of the parade, whenever — and on Kungsholmen especially, many residents were hanging out of their windows. Flawless vibes 🌈

A person looks skyward while sitting just inside their open window. Rainbow flag bunting spans the street below them. The building is yellow with red trim and relief ornamentation.

Two people wearing shorts sit in a second-floor window during the Stockholm Pride parade, their bare legs and feet dangling over a blue awning. In the foreground are a road sign and a Palestinian flag with text in all caps which reads “NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE”

One person in a third-floor window, wearing sunglasses, waves a rainbow flag at the Stockholm Pride parade below them. In the open window directly below are three adults, one of whom holds a baby.

One person on a fourth-floor balcony holds a homemade Palestinian flag, drawn on cardboard, overhead. The balcony below is packed with people holding rainbow flags. A white parasol shields some of them from the sun. The sky beyond them is bright blue with puffy clouds.

140

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Last night was fun. I went to a Stockholm Pride kickoff party on a boat, M/S Patricia, that was at both Dunkirk and Normandy. www.patriciastockholm.se/history/

Three people sit next to each other on a sofa on the deck of a British boat built in 1938, now a nightclub in Stockholm, Sweden. Rainbow flag bunting hangs in the window behind them. Stockholm City Hall is visible through the window, across the water.

The island of Kungsholmen is visible at night across the water from Söder Mälarstrand in Stockholm, Sweden. The water’s surface reflects the city lights and a faint, blue-green glow in the northern sky.

150

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

TIL my husband caught me shooting up Göran Hälsinges Gränd Sunday afternoon

In the foreground, seen from behind, a man takes a photo up Göran Hälsinges Gränd, a narrow alley in Stockholm’s Gamla stan. He wears a blue backpack and white baseball cap, an orange polo shirt, and purple shorts with red flowers on them. Two people walk toward him down the alley. Visible at the right edge of the photo is the clock and bell tower of Storkyrkan.

The pink-and-white clock and bell tower of Storkyrkan is partially visible above two rows of historic buildings that face each other across Göran Hälsinges Gränd, a narrow and gently curved alley in Stockholm’s Gamla stan.

020

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Someone watched my workout today and made me really uncomfortable

Standing on the branch of a thickly leafed tree, a bird stares straight into the lens of the camera

010

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Spotting two 2CVs in one week feels like finding a penny on the sidewalk, heads up

050

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

I’m transfixed by this photo from a friend visiting Indiana

The sky above an empty parking lot is hazy and pale orange; haze due to wildfire smoke dims the sun. At center and left are a few trees; at right is a decommissioned and windowless JC Penney store

100

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

If I told you how beautiful it’s been here in Stockholm the past few days, you wouldn’t believe me

A view across a small valley near Lake Mälaren in central Stockholm shows the bright colors and lush foliage of Vintervikens Trädgård in the late afternoon, summer sun

A view up a short, cobblestone street on the island of Riddarholmen in central Stockholm shows the warm colors of its well-preserved, brick buildings and, in the distance, one domed turret of Wrangel Palace, now home to Svea hovrätt, a court of appeals

A view from Kronobergsparken, a hilly green space on the island of Kungsholmen, shows two large hares and, behind and between them, a short evergreen tree

There is a cloudless, blue sky behind the openwork, cast iron spire of Riddarholmskyrkan, a medieval church in central Stockholm, partially covered in scaffolding

020

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Recent curtain calls: Akademiska kapellet after Respighi’s “Pines of Rome” at Uppsala universitet; ensemble members after the inaugural Midsommardans festival on Grinda; ensemble members after Chekhov’s “Måsen” at Slipvillan; and Norrdans after Forsberg’s “Pianofavoriter” at Fatbursparken

A stage full of musicians, seen from a house-left balcony, bow with their instruments at the end of a performance at Uppsala universitet in Sweden. The auditorium is an elaborate work of classical architecture; gold leaf highlights many sculptural elements and two chandeliers shine brightly. A heavy curtain at right is pulled back to reveal the view.

Five dancers at the front edge of a temporary stage, built outdoors, hold hands while they bow at the end of a performance. In the foreground, two people applaud while standing and a photographer captures the moment from stage left. In the background are various bushes and trees. The sky is blue with wispy clouds.

At left, seated audience members applaud while six actors bow following their performance of a play based on Chekhov’s “Måsen” on a stage outside an old, red house on the island of Långholmen in Stockholm. A large, horizontal painting of a seagull hangs on the wall behind the stage. In front of the actors, on the stage, is a fake bird.

Eight dancers on an outdoor stage in a city park bow after their free performance. Each wears a unique costume in various shades of pink. Behind them are an upright piano painted deep purple and a ruched curtain of the same color. There are two trees and a large building in the background. One bird flies above.

110

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Three years ago today, while walking through Chartres toward its famed cathedral, my friend and I happened upon the Black and White Brass Band, whose mascot is a panda bear named Elvis 🎺 🇫🇷 🐼

030

Zac Whittenburg @trailerpilot.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

More photos from the Svenska flygvapnet 100 år flyover

One large plane with four propeller engines, followed by four jets, fly together through a cloudy sky in a V-shaped formation

Nine military helicopters fly through cloudy skies over Stockholm, Sweden; the open spire of Riddarholmskyrkan is visible between the forward group of five aircraft and the trailing group of four

Four military jets fly in a tight, diamond-shaped formation through cloudy skies over Stockholm, Sweden

One large military aircraft with four jet engines on its wings flies through cloudy skies over Stockholm, Sweden

020