Josefin Arnell

Biography
Josefin Arnell (b. 1984) is Swedish artist and filmmaker based in Amsterdam. Her work explores how violence and social hierarchies shape everyday life. Using humour, she stages fragile and absurd situations in which characters struggle to navigate contemporary systems and their impossible demands. Storytelling is central to her practice, which often unfolds through participatory processes and collaborative encounters. Arnell holds an MA from the Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam and was a resident at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten. Her work has been presented internationally at institutions and events including the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, WIELS in Brussels, Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, the Lyon Biennale, steirischer herbst, and IDFA in Amsterdam. She was nominated for the Prix de Rome in the Netherlands in 2023.

Residency project
At La Becque, Josefin Arnell will develop Back From the Dead Red, the final chapter in a trilogy of vampire films exploring tourism, colonialism, and power through horror and satire. Moving between the Caribbean and Europe, the trilogy follows rebellious female figures surviving at the margins of empire and patriarchal systems. In this final work, the vampire encounters her historical counterpart: the female pirate. By bringing these figures together, the film connects maritime histories of extraction, myth, and resistance through image-driven storytelling and layered voice, approaching the sea as a haunted archive where colonial histories echo in contemporary struggles for power.