In 2005, Susanna Slöör debuted with a solo exhibition at Galleri Helle Knudsen, then located at Södermalmstorg. Almost exactly twenty years later, she returns to the gallery, now on Hantverkargatan, to mark the anniversary. The exhibition is a retrospective of the impulse to draw and tell stories, which for Slöör awoke at a very early age. Snälla hjältar (Kind heroes) is the title of the exhibition, paying tribute to the stories of her childhood.

From the exhibition catalogue:

My first studio was the playpen with its bars raised like lances. Inside, from an early age, I would sit building castles out of blocks and quietly shred weekly magazines. My earliest memories are of being two years old, waking up amid the ruins of blocks with bruises on my arms and legs. I remember my crib and how my hand would slip between the bars. From time to time, I saw my fist against the faintly patterned wallpaper, as if the hand could dissolve into a cloud and pass through the wall.

Then came the writing desk with its endless roll of drawing paper that could be pulled out and filled with long sheets. Around the age of six, at the height of that period, I enjoyed narrating my stories out loud. They could be instantly illustrated like a rolling film before my eyes. I would pace round and round along the border of the fine carpet, double-visioned. Every exciting event could unfold in harmony with the world around me.

A lasting impression at the age of nine was also the encounter with The battle of San Romano by the Early Renaissance master Paolo Uccello at the National Gallery, London. The rearing horses and fallen heroes created a dizzying perspective into the painting's landscape. I began drawing horses early on; in fact, that is essentially what I devoted myself to between the ages of five and thirteen—hence the obvious fascination with the painting's not-so-kind content. In my own imagination, however, kind heroes dwelled, and it is a pleasure to summon them again more than fifty years later.