Ilmar Laaban was born in Tallinn on December 11, 1921, the yearling of Marcel Duchamp's Rrose Sélavy, who would acknowledge him as her "offspring" many years later. He came to Sweden from Estonia in 1943. The war forced him to flee but at the same time prevented him from continuing further into the world. He became a kind of Swede. Although in reality he was a cosmopolitan.

llmar Laaban wrote regularly in five languages ​​and spoke a few more. About music, art and literature, his own poems, but also as an invaluable translator of others. His texts are spread across all borders, most of them unfortunately difficult to access. Ilmar Laaban is also forever associated with small, avant-garde magazines. He voluntarily and consciously deviated, away from all establishments, to barely trodden tracks in the outskirts of cultural life. He was there, like a lawless scout and pathfinder.

Throughout his life, Ilmar Laaban collaborated with many artists and the exhibition features works by Öyvind Fahlström, Franco Leidi, Sven-Erik Johansson, Bert-Johnny Nilsson and Annila Sterner. 

Text written by Sune Nordgren, member of the Swedish Academy of Fine Arts, who compiled the exhibition.

"Ilmar Laaban is a poet who has always operated in the shadows, without noticeably worrying about the impact his texts might have. In closed circles and in a few places, Stockholm, Paris and Tallinn, he possesses a kind of secret notoriety."

Lasse Söderberg (Pequod 1996)