Lerin/Hystad

Artist duo Lerin/Hystad comprises Simon Torssell Lerin and Bettina Hvidevold Hystad. They have been working together since 2010, in the borderlands between visual art and experimental music. Through their artistic practice, the duo tries to counteract their own plant blindness by going out and meeting plants in their own environments. Central to Lerin/Hystad s modus operandi is a principle of ecological interconnectedness that manifests the undeniable presence of more than human worlds. Lerin connects sensors to the plants that Hystad has carefully drawn in their environment. The sensors register electrical currents that plants produce through their biological rhythms and that form a communicational network with animals, bacteria, and fungi. The electric data from the plants are translated into sounds through sonification – the notes, melodies, and rhythms of the music are determined by the plants themselves.

Lerin/Hystad studied at the University of Arts, Craft and Design and the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm as well as at the Bergen Academy of Art and Design in Norway. During the spring of 2024 they were artists in residence in Stockholm as part of the Swedish Arts Grants Committee’s IASPIS programme. The duo’s work has recently been exhibited at Norrlandsoperan (Umeå, 2026), Arvika Konsthall (Arvika, 2026), Färgfabriken (Stockholm, 2025), Österängens Konsthall (Jönköping, 2025), Atletika Gallery (Vilnius, 2024), Konsthall C (Stockholm, 2024), and Härke Konstcentrum (Östersund, 2023). The duo is represented in the collections of Värmlands museum, Kristinehamns Konstmuseum, Nord-Trøndelag Kunstmuseum, Region Jämtland Härjedalen and Region Värmland, among others. Lerin/Hystad are also active musicians and have toured Europe, China, and Japan.