26/9
Shelf Life: An Opera

An experimental opera on surveillance, pattern, and infrastructural absurdity. Shown two times during Malmö Gallerihelg.

Doors: 16.30. On stage: 17.00 and 20.00 (shows.

’Shelf Life: An Opera (26092025)’ is an experimental opera that explores the absurd and often invisible infrastructures surrounding our lives. Through repetition, obsession, and satire, everyday protocols are transformed into a dreamlike landscape where memory, pattern recognition, and surveillance take center stage.

The piece follows characters caught in compulsive cycles: one fixated on expiration dates, another a guard navigating the edge between order and chaos. Their stories unfold in a parallel dimension—a “fourth world”—where ritualized surveillance replaces reality and infrastructure masquerades as public service.

Blurring the boundaries between fiction and reality, performance and institution, the work traverses the surreal, the magical, and the resistant. It is a contemporary opera infused with strong visual and performative elements that weave together art, sound, textile, poetry, and scenography.

Matilda Tjäder is an artist and composer based in Malmö, working across sound, writing, performance, and moving image. She uses fiction as score and conceptual framework to explore social, infrastructural, and emotional landscapes. She is the curator of the live series Scaling and a resident at Retreat Radio. Tjäder holds an MA from Goldsmiths, University of London.

Penny Yiou Peng (彭憶歐) is a Berlin-based scholar-artist who moves between worlds to explore consciousness and intelligence. Drawing on Daoism, posthumanism, biology, and ritual traditions, she works through performance, poetry, and speculative storytelling. She holds a PhD in philosophy and theatre studies from Free University Berlin.

Mathias Tang is a visual artist based in Copenhagen and Malmö. His work spans multiple media with a focus on pictorial strategies, gestures in technology, and translations of natural systems. He studied at the Royal College of Art, Gerrit Rietveld Academie, and University of Amsterdam.

Thibaut Knapp is a fashion and textile artist rooted in Romanticism and deeply connected to nature. Educated at the Royal College of Art in London and raised between Paris and the Black Forest, he sculpts garments as mythological landscapes. His practice merges eco-materials, tech couture, and spiritual design.

Concept: Matilda Tjäder, Penny Yiou Peng, Mathias Tang, Thibaut Knapp
Script: Matilda Tjäder, Penny Yiou Peng
Composition: Matilda Tjäder
Dramaturgy: Penny Yiou Peng
Scenography, light, video, installation: Mathias Tang
Musicians: Angelina Petrovic (flute), Rune Kielsgaard (drums), Niklas Tjäder (guitar)
Sound engineering: Daniel Tjäder
Costume: Thibaut Knapp
Producer: Scaling
Residencies: MARC (Milvus Artistic Research Center), Inkonst, Country Town and Ane-Grete’s Hus in Fox-Amphoux
With support by: Region Skåne

→ matildatjader.com