Sampson Addae has created a series of new installations for the Borås Art Biennial 2026. At the Borås Art Museum, his major sculptural installation Red Cross (2026) welcomes visitors to the exhibition, alongside a work on the wall, Far and Near (2025). At the Textile Museum of Sweden, Addae exhibits a new large textile piece, Giftström (“Toxic current,” 2026) and a group of smaller sculptures, Aliens (2026), made in workshops with local participants.

Used textiles are given a new life through a process of knotting, stitching, weaving, and painting in Addae’s sculptural works. In January 2026, the artist invited the people of Borås to donate used clothes and this material is now integrated into the new works. Addae refers to the collected textiles as "anonymous bodies.” The collaborative process of gathering, remaking, and activating these “bodies” is a key aspect of his work. He always aims to engage people from different generations and cultures, highlighting our collective culpability in the sustainability crisis caused by consumerism and global inequalities.

Addae’s interest in working with discarded clothes was catalysed by his first-hand experience of witnessing the impacts of fast fashion waste in his home country of Ghana. Vast amounts of clothes from Europe are sent to West Africa, often in the name of recycling. Much of the predominantly synthetic, cheap clothing cannot be reused and instead accumulates on the outskirts of cities, eventually spilling into the rivers and the sea.

Through his work, Addae aims to stop and redirect some of this flow of waste. The used textiles he works with serve as both material and medium for social, political, and emotional narratives that weave connections across the continents. He uses slow, manual ways of working to push back against the industrial speed and culture of disposability. The physical labour carries emotional meaning and serves both as a form of repair and mourning.

Sampson Addae (born 1991 in Kumasi, Ghana; lives in Oslo, Norway) is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice challenges the way we think about waste by drawing attention to everyday materials and showing their value in new ways.