About the exhibition:
Sentences are becoming harsher and the Swedish prison system is expanding at record speed, but what is life like on the inside? American artist and activist Jesse Krimes, Petronella Petander and Isaac Grünewald meet Magnus Bärtås and six anonymous inmates from Kalmar Prison in a group exhibition about crime, punishment and imprisonment.

At present, one of Sweden’s largest prisons is being expanded in Halltorp outside Kalmar. This forms part of the most extensive prison expansion in the country’s history, increasing capacity from today’s 9,000 places to 29,000 within ten years. The need to incarcerate people is growing, yet in public debate about crime and punishment the perspectives of inmates are often absent. How do they experience life in prison? How do they view their lives and their future?

The group exhibition ‘Det sista straffet [The final punishment]’ brings together Swedish and international artists with personal experience of deprivation of liberty. The exhibition’s central work is based on Kalmar konstmuseum’s co-creative art project ‘Från anstalten till museet [From prison to the museum]’, in which artist Magnus Bärtås worked together with inmates from Kalmar Prison.