Theme: From Mirage to Oasis

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized (subject to certain rules and regulations).

Virtual Gathering
Online
Solna, Stockholms län, 17177
Sweden

Elena Küssner

Musician

Elena is a first-year Biomedicine student. She is an avid climber (which many don’t expect, being an aspiring musician where the hands are of such importance). For Elena, music means connecting with people on a level beyond words, and taking them on a journey where the stresses of everyday life are forgotten. She'll be playing the violin alongside Xinhe Xing.

Matilda (crazyheadcomics)

Artist & Mental Health Advocate

Matilda is a visual artist and mental health advocate based in Stockholm. In 2018, she created crazyheadcomics, an Instagram account that strives to destigmatize and spread awareness about mental health issues through art. In the last three years, crazyheadcomics has grown at an astounding speed, now reaching nearly 500 thousand followers. Matilda draws from lived experience and creates colorful art, infographics, writing, and comics about her mental health journey with the intention of spreading awareness, breaking the stigma, and helping other people feel seen and validated.

Olle Bjerkås

Social entrepreneur

Olle is a social entrepreneur and artist based in Stockholm with a passion for improvisation and self-organizing systems. He is a co-founder of the participatory festival The Borderland, a guerilla gardening enthusiast, a science communicator, a Guinness world record holder for the world’s largest fractal pyramid, and a member of the Blivande art collective. Working in the cross-sections between science, technology, art, and community, Olle is driven by the exploration of new ways of working, living, and being together.

Paloma Ruiz de Castroviejo Teba

Musician

Paloma is a current Master’s student in Biomedicine at Karolinska Institutet. She loves hiking and camping, and her career plan B would be to open a bakery to sell sourdough bread and cakes. Music is the best tool she has to express herself and she often calls it her daily therapy. For her, it is also a great way to connect with people and create special moments.

Paula Urbano

Visual Artist

Paula Urbano is a visual artist, and one of five founding members of the interdisciplinary collective Mapping the Unjust City. The members of this Stockholm-based collective work in the fields of art, design, architecture, and aesthetics. Their collective work focuses on exploring civil rights in relation to land ownership, with an ambition to promote consciousness and action by visualizing and distributing information.

Tobias Ström

Rainbow Blood Activist

Tobias is the founder and spokesperson of the national campaign “Rainbow blood” (Regnbågsblod) in Sweden. As healthcare personnel, Tobias became aware of the acute low blood supplies repeatedly impacting hospitals. Upon being rejected for blood donation purely because of his sexuality, Tobias started Rainbow Blood with the aim to achieve evidence-based blood donation, and overcome the stigma of donation policies that essentially exclude gay and bisexual men from donating blood today.

Xinhe Xing

Musician

Xinhe is a second-year Biomedicine student at KI, and if that doesn’t work out, she’ll become a streamer or something. To her, music is like rocket science, except harder. She'll be playing the piano alongside Elena Küssner as the duo take you on a musical journey through Latin America.