MARIA KARLSSON Born in Linköping, Sweden. Lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Los Angeles, USA   Maria Karlsson, “Keep Your Laws Off My Body” (detail), 2004. © Maria Karlsson   Maria Karlsson is an artist, who works with disturbances in public space. In projects like “White flag who am I?” (2003) and “Oscars up my ass” (2003) produced in collaboration with section 8, the controlled and surveillance kept shopping malls of Los Angeles got challenged by performative interventions. Karlsson has also been working with the format of walks in the city of Los Angels, i.e. in conjunction with the exhibition Democracy When!? Activist Strategizing in Los Angeles (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, USA, 2002). In addition, as a member of the group SOS (Society for Orgonotic Streaming), she has been giving massage and quasi therapy to Los Angeles Police Department officers. Karlsson is engaged in a queer and a feminist practice as a necessity for survival in a straight, patriarchal blindness. She is currently involved in a lesbian erotic film project together with Female Feast in Copenhagen. Through the character Klara Wallraff, Karlsson has also directly involved herself in action and identification with the otherness within ourselves. Furthermore, she has worked with Butoh dance as a form of protest. Karlsson is presently teaching interactive work strategies to inner city children in Los Angeles. She is currently or has in the past been working with groups like: Vita Vräket (Linköping, Sweden); Corpus Delecti (Los Angeles, USA); Nomads+Residents (Los Angeles, USA); Dispute Resolution Services (Los Angeles, USA); Al Dente (Berlin, Germany); The Open Museum (Los Angeles, USA); A-clip (Los Angeles, USA); Society for Orgonotic Streaming (Los Angeles, USA); and DSLR (Los Angeles, USA).   Contribution: Contribution: Participates with the montages “Customer to Customer” and “Keep Your Laws Off My Body” in Station 4: The Book.