The Shape of Control: On Identity and Power
Inspired by Britta Marakatt-Labba’s artwork ‘Nightmare’ at Kunsthalle Mainz (2026)
Rats move in circles, disrupting the powerful sleepers in the quiet of the dark. NIBBLE NIBBLE Symmetry takes form, encircling the dreamers, quite like a dream on a loop. The sleeping beds look tender, like little capsules in sweet slumber. Could they have been lucid dreaming, half-aware of the circle forming, of the terror drawing closer? Oh, to see the cosy world you built being destroyed brick by brick, and not be able to move... To wake and find the shape already fixed, Isn’t that the worst kind of nightmare, the worst torture? -Menorca C, @europediariesblog
Exhibition Context
This poem was written in response to Nightmare, a work by Sámi artist Britta Marakatt-Labba, presented as part of her solo exhibition Stitched Tracks at Kunsthalle Mainz.
Through delicate threads on textiles, she engages with Sámi history, mythology, environmental struggle, and the shifting contours of political authority. Her embroidered compositions , often marked by repetition, procession, and circular symmetry, explore how identity persists within structures that attempt to define, contain, or reshape it.
Rendered with remarkable precision and restraint, Marakatt-Labba’s works transform embroidery into testimony. Each stitched narrative carries memory forward, quietly asserting presence in the face of historical and political pressure.
Britta Marakatt-Labba–Stitched Tracks
Kunsthalle Mainz
30 January 2026—26 July 2026
More information: Kunsthalle Mainz
Riegádahttin | Giving Birth, 1983, hand embroidery and appliqué on linen, wool yarn, 29.2 × 45.5 cm. Courtesy of the artist and KORO – Public Art Norway, Oslo
Bajilčállaga haga | Untitled, 1968, linen tapestry, 38 × 29 cm. Courtesy of the artist
Giron I – III | Kiruna I – III, 2018, hand embroidery and appliqué on woven linen, each 150 × 140 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Sveriges Radio Förvaltnings AB, Stockholm
På väg III | On the Way III, 2018, hand embroidery and appliqué on linen, 35 × 165 cm. Courtesy of the artist and private collection
Deattán | Nightmare, 1984, hand embroidery on textile, 73.7 × 73.7 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Region Gävleborg
Jorbabeavde čoahkkin | Meeting Around a Round Table, 2000, hand embroidery and appliqué on textile, 32 × 28 cm. Courtesy of the artist and the Kiruna Municipality Art Collection
Ráđđehallame | We Negotiate, 2023, hand embroidery and appliqué on textile, 44 × 46.3 cm. Courtesy of the artist and the National Museum of Norway, Oslo
Giddejuvvon riekkis | The Circle Is Closed, 2000, hand embroidery and appliqué on textile, 40 × 42 cm, courtesy of the artist and private collection
Giddejuvvon riekkis | The Circle Is Closed, 1995, hand embroidery and appliqué on textile, 41.5 × 42.5 cm. Courtesy of the artist and the Kiruna Municipality Art Collection
Photo: Norbert Miguletz
Garjját | The Crows, 1981, hand embroidery on linen, 41 × 102 cm. Courtesy
of the artist and KORO – Public Art Norway, Oslo
Photo: Norbert Miguletz
Vuovdi suddje eallima I – III | Forest Protects Life I – III, 1987-88, Hand embroidery and appliqué in cotton and linen on textile, 132 × 132 cm | 134 × 129 cm | 136 × 141 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Region Norrbotten‘s Art Collection, Sweden, Luleå
Photo: Norbert Miguletz
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