Gå till innehåll
Sök
meny

1986, Italy, lives in Austria

Photo: Nicole Weniger

In this conversation between artist Gina Disobey (GD), Felicia Bjärmark Esbjörnsson (FBE) communicator at OpenArt and Sofia Gustafsson (SG) producer at OpenArt, the trio explores themes of identity, activism, and art as healing. The dialogue takes place during Gina’s first residency at OpenArt in Örebro, Sweden, where she is developing a site-specific public sculpture rooted in personal and collective reflection.

FBE: What does the name Gina Disobey mean to you?

GD: I started using the name Gina when I was around 16. I would give this name to strangers on the street when I didn’t want to share my real name - and the name just stayed. At first, it wasn’t "disobedient" Gina; it was "happy" Gina, Gina Felice. But when I began doing more workshops, organizing demonstrations, and speaking on panels and performing in public, something changed and I started using the name Gina Disobey. Over time, it has blended with my real identity. By choosing this different name, I gave myself more freedom - to interact with art and to shape my personality. I wouldn’t feel this free if I used my real name.

FBE: What inspired you to become an artist?

GD: I come from a deeply creative family. My Italian grandmother was a seamstress and very creative, and my Italian grandfather was a welder and had a passion for welding art at home. Sadly, he passed away when I was very young. My mother, father, uncle, aunt, and cousin all went to Art Academy, so I followed in their footsteps. My mother is also running a screen-printing workshop, and has done so since I was ten, and she was an art teacher working in youth centers. I grew up immersed in that creative world, I feel very lucky for that, It was always difficult for me to choose between the arts. It was hard to choose. In Italy, art studies are very classical - you pick sculpture, painting, graphic design, or fashion, and that’s it. When I entered Art Academy, I focused on textile art.

FBE: Where did you study?

GD: Near Rome, where I grew up. Then I moved to Austria after graduation to study at university. I had to learn German first, which took a few years, and then I began studying architecture. I spent eight years doing that.

FBE: How was that experience?

GD: I didn’t finish the final exams to become an architect. While I enjoyed working with computers and learning graphic programs and 3D modelling, I realized I didn’t want to sit in an office doing technical drawings for someone else forever. In my classes with 50 students, I was the only Black girl. It became clear to me that it would be difficult to succeed in that environment and stay true to myself.

Activism and Working with Communities

FBE: So, what did you do next?

GD: I returned to screen-printing and began using it to work with communities and social topics. That led me to stop studying architecture and train to be a youth worker. I worked in different youth centers for about five years, building creative spaces and weekly workshops for young people. We won awards for our projects. We worked with a very diverse group, many young people who didn’t speak German or were new to the town or faced other challenges. Doing creative work together helped them connect without needing many words and build trust.

FBE: How is your approach different when you’re working on a short-term project like this residency?

GD: This is my first residency, so I’m still learning! It took me four years just to gather all my past work into a portfolio, and I was surprised by how much I’d done. With Ung Arena (the group that Gina held workshops with during the residency, it consists of young people who have not completed or started upper secondary education and are unemployed) I wasn’t scared. I can get a little insecure at first, but it worked out really well.

SG: It was also the first time for the group - both the leaders and the participants, to do this kind of thing.

GD: Yes, the youth workers seemed a bit stressed, but that’s natural when doing something like this for the first time. I chose a simple screen-printing method that it possible to even do at home with basic materials. That’s important to me. The goal isn’t just the product, but the process - spending time together, getting to know each other, creating something that can be therapeutic. What happened in those workshops is what I love about art.

 

Residency Project: The Elephant

FBE: Can you describe your process from idea to finished piece?

GD: As an activist, my work is rooted in lived experience. Social topics aren’t just concepts to me - they’re personal. Art has always been my way of processing what I’ve lived through, what I carry, and what I witness in the world.

This project began with a dream: a young girl in a small room, trying to pull a giant elephant through a narrow doorway. She wanted the elephant - huge, clumsy, undeniable - to be with her in that confined space. Later, I envisioned her pulling the elephant through an archway, onto a board game. The board game suggests life as a kind of navigation - what’s our next move? What do we carry forward, and what can we leave behind? That image became a metaphor that now anchors the work.

The elephant is our emotional and social baggage - our traumas, how others perceive us, our inherited and lived identities. The arch represents transformation: the moment when what feels impossible becomes possible through action.

Mirrors appear in the installation to invite reflection. They ask: What burdens are we carrying? What are we not addressing? Are we being honest with ourselves?

At first glance, the piece might not seem overtly political. But for me, it is. The personal is political.

During my research, I watched “A Swedish Elephant”, a 2018 documentary about immigration and refugee politics in Sweden. It resonated deeply with the themes of the project. It reminded me that the “elephant” isn’t just in my room it’s in your room, our room.

This work aims to create an open space. I’m exploring ways to involve the community - perhaps through participatory performance, a dialogue with local politicians (especially with elections coming next year), or through collaboration with Ung Arena. The project is still evolving, but my intention is clear: to create a space where we can confront what is unspoken - together.

Facing Criticism and Censorship

FBE: Have you ever faced criticism or censorship?

GD: Absolutely. Being an activist and often the only bBlack Queer (we usually take for Black the big B because its not the color black but the position in society“ woman/person in white spaces has led to many difficult situations - criticism, arguments, legal issues. That’s the price of being true to yourself, to your ideal. This isn’t just a choice or belief — it’s deeply tied to who I am as a Black queer person. it’s a matter of survival. It’s about protecting my existence and demanding the dignity and respect that every person deserves.

Absolutely. Being an activist, and an artist - and often the only Black Queer person in white spaces - has led to many difficult situations: criticism, arguments, legal issues. That’s the price of being true to yourself and your ideals. But for me, these ideals aren’t just abstract beliefs - they’re deeply tied to who I am. Resistance isn’t optional for me. It’s a matter of survival. It’s about protecting my existence and demanding the dignity and respect that every person deserves.

SG: How do you handle that?

GD: Therapy, community care. I also got insurance to cover me if anything happens. Art helps too, its like natural medicine. Becoming an activist was a long process, I used to be very shy. Social media helped a lot, connecting me with others with similar experiences. For a long time, I was told, "You’re just imagining discrimination, you are crazy“. At the same time Western Therapy helps to a point, but if society doesn’t change, these experiences will keep happening, my hope is stronger in the community.

Final Thoughts

SG: Your approach sounds very aligned with OpenArt.

GD: Art should be accessible to a broad and diverse public - not just something for wealthy, white audiences to enjoy. In my last project, I worked with the Black community in Innsbruck for two years., organizing events, talks, and workshops in white spaces. It deepened my understanding of what art can be: a powerful tool to connect people, build communities, and bridge the gap between those communities and art spaces.

SG: If I can add - what happens when you work with communities this way, as we do in the Magic Carpets project, might feel small to us as organizers or artists. But for the community, it can mean so much. Jens (OpenArt’s technician) was telling me about one very quiet girl in the group - on the second day, she began to open up and started talking. That’s exactly why we do this. If it makes a difference for just one person, that makes it all worth it.

GD: I was very happy about the outcome of the workshop. I had brought this little booklet with me, showing the screen-printing technique step by step - that really helped break the ice. We folded the booklet together, and even the youth workers were surprised by the progress the young people made. Many of them were already really good artists - painting, creating things. I put all of my hope in the next generations. We really need to take care of them: supporting, nurturing, and creating opportunities so they can thrive and lead in the future. I know it sounds harsh, but sometimes it feels like real change won’t come until the old systems - and the people clinging to them - fade out. We need a shift.

Artist statement

I’m an Afro-Italian multidisciplinary artist, cultural practitioner, and youth worker with a strong focus on intersectionality. I integrate themes of identity, healing, and empowerment into my artistic and cultural practice. Born and raised in Fondi, a little city in South Italy, I’m the daughter of a Nigerian and an Italian artist, which shaped me through a blend of cultures and experiences. In 2005, I moved to Innsbruck, in the heart of the Tyrolean Alps, to study architecture. Over the course of 20 years in Austria, I’ve dedicated myself to art and cultural initiatives aimed at social change, collaborating with communities, cultural institutions, and grassroots movements.

Artivism workshops

Designing and leading workshops at the intersection of art and activism, promoting creative expression

Installation and exhibitions

Participation in exhibitions with large-scale installations and experimental works.

Event organisation

Curating and organizing panel discussions, concerts and interdisciplinary formats in the field of art and culture.

Musical Practice

Performances in artistic and activist contexts, sound experiments as part of performative works.

Socio-cultural commitments

Art education work in youth centers, development of creative programs for young people.

Activism and art in public space

Participation in actions with artistic means, performative interventions

In collaboration with:

Senast uppdaterad:

Publicerad:

Kontakta OpenArt

Politiskt ansvar

Kontakta Örebro kommuns servicecenter

Telefon: 019-21 10 00 

Öppettider: Vardagar kl. 8–16.30

Besöksadress: Näbbtorgsgatan 10

Öppettider: Vardagar kl. 10–16

E-post till servicecenter

 servicecenter@orebro.se