LO·CO·MO·TIVE builds on Lokstallet’s tradition of bringing together different artistic practices and allowing them to enter into dialogue with one another. In this exhibition, the exhibition space itself has also been invited into the artistic process as an active participant. Drawing on the building’s unique architecture and history, a cross-disciplinary conversation has emerged between the artists Sophie Tottie, Rita McBride and Lokstallet itself.
In preparation for the 2026 exhibition programme, the idea arose to produce an exhibition that would engage with the concept of site-specific art. That is, art created in dialogue with a particular place, where a work’s form and content actively interact with the material and cultural conditions of its surroundings.
Lokstallet’s exhibition producer, Jesper Andersson, invited the artist Sophie Tottie, who in turn proposed a collaboration with the artist Rita McBride. The project has brought together two artistic practices with a long-standing interest in how artworks take shape in relation to the spatial conditions of a site and the social structures that underpin it.
Alongside their shared interest in site-specific processes, Sophie Tottie and Rita McBride also share a professional relationship that dates back to New York in the 1990s. During this period, they shared a studio in TriBeCa, Manhattan, and participated in several exhibitions projects. Both artists have also combined their artistic careers with significant pedagogical work. Sophie Tottie has held professorships at Malmö Art Academy and the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm. While Rita McBride has served for many years as Professor of Sculpture and later Rector of the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. In both of their practices there is a strong belief in experimentation, learning as a method, and art as a space for investigating how materials, architecture, and social structures shape the ways in which we understand and experience the world. Several decades later, a dialogue between these two artists is now being renewed. Two practices that have developed in parallel, yet within different geographical and institutional contexts.
The exhibition has evolved through a process that includes ongoing video call conversations, a shared residency at the Artists’ Collective Workshop Bohuslän (Konstnärernas Kollektivverkstad Bohuslän) and close collaboration before and during the installation period at Lokstallet.
Lokstallet’s own history has therefore played a significant role in the development of the artists’ ideas. The building was originally constructed for a specific industrial purpose, where movement, mechanics, locomotive maintenance, and the logistics surrounding them defined the primary function of the space. Although its use has changed, the original logic of the architecture remains present in its structure and materials. Railway tracks beneath the gallery floor, metal trusses suspended overhead, and oversized red doors continue to shape the character of the venue. In LO·CO·MO·TIVE, however, these architectural features become more than a backdrop; they are activated as elements that are highlighted, appropriated, and incorporated into the artistic works themselves.
/ Jesper Andersson – Exhibition Producer and Curator
Sophie Tottie (born 1964) is a Swedish artist, who after many years living and working in cities including New York and Berlin, is now based in Stockholm. Working across media such as painting, drawing, objects, photography/printmaking, and video, Tottie explores subjects shaped by site-specific, existential, political, and historical references, examining the relationship between the individual and larger structural systems. Her work often develops both in direct response to the particular indoor or outdoor spaces, in which it is presented, and the methods where the traces of the hand, the tools, repetition, and the concentrated working processes are embedded in the works, leaving visible marks of their making.
For more information about Sophie Tottie, visit sophietottie.info.
Rita McBride (born 1960 in Des Moines, Iowa) is an artist who lives and works in Southern California and Düsseldorf. Her practice operates at the intersection of sculpture and architecture, encompassing large-scale sculptures, site- and space-specific installations, performances, and text-based projects. McBride’s work includes examining how the social and functional elements of urban environments and how these shape our interaction with public space.
In 2003, she was appointed Professor of Sculpture in the Integration of Art and Architecture programme at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, where she taught for two decades. From 2013 to 2017, she also served as the academy’s Rector.
For more information about Rita McBride, visit ritamcbride.net.
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to Arctic Paper and Tanum Sails for their generous material contributions to the exhibition.
Thanks also to Pontus Bonnier for additional financial support.
We are grateful to Konstnärernas Kollektivverkstad Bohuslän (KKV Bohuslän) for supporting the residency programme, and to Miriam Ekeholt for her assistance in KKV’s printmaking workshops.
Lokstallet Konsthall is a non-profit contemporary art venue in Strömstad, Sweden. The gallery space is situated in a renovated locomotive shed built in 1903. Now the space is used for presenting exhibitions of contemporary art during the summer season. The programme is operated by the Municipality of Strömstad and supported by funding from the Västra Götaland Region.
The art gallery is staffed by the exhibition producer Jesper Andersson (60%) and a team of hourly-paid gallery attendants and technicians who support daily operations, visitor services, and exhibition installation.
