The Swedish feminist art platform Misschiefs makes its debut in Spain with an immersive textile installation “Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner” by rising Swedish craft artist Maja Michaelsdotter as part of Barcelona Design Week, before embarking on an international tour across Europe and the United States. 

The exhibition transforms the space into an immersive scenographic environment through the use of hand-tufted sculptures, sound, light, and video. At its core is a series of five large-scale, hand-tufted sculptures, replicas of the pills most commonly used by women to terminate a pregnancy, confronting viewers with a powerful reflection on reproductive autonomy.

Twenty-five million women worldwide have an unsafe abortion every year. The consequences are permanent disabilities or death. As abortion is increasingly stigmatised, criminalised and restricted around the globe, Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner aims at raising awareness about women’s reproductive autonomy as a basic human right. Coincidentally, Sweden is historically at the forefront of women’s reproductive rights and so is Spain.

“I have trained my intention to flow freely and independently into my fingers, through the material and onto the canvas. I start from the back, then I shoot the yarn using a hand tool that looks like a rebuilt drill. I feel powerful with my tool. I have tuned up the colours to enhance the intensity of the pills. As my art flirts with function, the pills are cushion-like and fluffy with the size of an imagined adult plush toy. I see them as a friend to be hugged, a woman’s protector. They took me 750 hours to make.” — Maja Michaelsdotter