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11/6/2004

Swedish Hearts

Moderna Museet, Stockholm

(Svenska hjärtan)

12 June - 15 August, 2004

What does the Swedish identity look like today? Rather than speak of nationality as origin (natus, born) we need to regard nationality as all the experiences that can be harboured within the borders of a country. The Swedish Hearts exhibition explores the Swedish art scene, focusing on how the story of Swedish identity has been rewritten over the past five years. Swedish Hearts presents 26 artists with different backgrounds and different experiences of what it means to be Swedish.

Experiences such as being in the home guards or the revivalist movement are not unusual today as the starting point for a work of art. The fact that these phenomena were not valid in the art world before simply proves that we have narrow margins for what is considered normal. These restrictions mean that several interesting experiences remain invisible, since we choose not to talk about them. The silence is not due to censorship but stems from a vague yearning to belong.

The words of the Swedish Royal Anthem, "Ur svenska hjärtans djup en gång." (From the depths of Swedish Hearts.) written in 1844, convey a solemn nationalism, while the TV series Svenska Hjärtan (Swedish Hearts) describes everyday middle-class life, with its dramas and intrigues. Both are based on established perceptions of Swedishness, be it the 19th century romantic or 20th century modernist kind. But don't our Swedish hearts harbour more than that? What love, and to whom, and what can be expressed and what is hidden in the depths of our hearts?

Snezana Vucetic-Bohm portrays the dreams vs. reality of a Yugoslavian family who came to Sweden as immigrant workers in the 1970s. With his photographs of baptistries in Sweden the artist Carl Johan Erikson tells of his own upbringing in the Pentecostal Church.

All around Sweden we see artists who engage in a different aesthetic that is neither fastidious nor minimalist, for instance Valeria Montti-Colque or Dimitrios Kiriazidis. These manifestations are obviously nothing new - artists such as Anders A and Carlos Capelán have long been campaigning for a more tolerant aesthetic scene, but have not fitted into the official concept of Swedishness. The emerging discussion concerning a new perception of Swedish identity stems from the fact that experiences of Swedishness other than that of the Pripps Blå beer ads or the DIY TV show Sommartorpet (The Summer Cottage) have gained momentum, and no longer constitute mere exceptions.

On looking closer at romantic depictions of nature, such as the works of Annika von Hausswolff or Juan Pedro Fabra Guemberena, we find another story, one of violence and death. Fia Sandlund's works demonstrate that the community of various groups relies on the exclusion of certain individuals.

Opening June 12

Catalogue: Preface by Lars Nittve. Essays by Charlotte Bydler, Rodrigo Mallea Lira and Magdalena Malm, Jonas Hassen Khemiri, Ylva Habel, Charles Esche, Ximena Narea and Mikael Raattamaa. Price: 140 SEK

Participating artists
Anders A
Dejan Antonijevic
Catti Brandelius
Carlos Capelan
Loulou Cherinet
Kajsa Dahlberg
Anna-Maria Ekstrand
Ibrahim Elkarim
Esra Ersen
Carl Johan Erikson
FA+
Juan Pedro Fabra Guemberena
Annika von Hausswolff
Dimitrios Kiriazidis
Jannicke LÃ¥ker
Valeria Montti-Colque
Torgny Nilsson
Mattias Olofsson
Tsuyoshi Ozawa
Katya Sander
Fia-Stina Sandlund
Anna Sjödahl
Stig Sjölund
Snezana Vucetic Bohm
Chun Lee Wang Gurt
MÃ¥ns Wrange


Exhibition curators
Charlotte Bydler, Rodrigo Mallea Lira and Magdalena Malm

Image:
FA+ TLK, 2004
© FA+
Photo: Gustavo Augerre

Donation to Moderna Museet
The extraordinary suprematist painting White on Black by Kazimir Malevich has been donated to Moderna Museet. The donators, Jelena and Bengt Jangfeldt, received the painting as a gift from the Russian art historian Nikolai Khardzhiev, who died in 1996. The generous donation was made in early February 2004. The work is currently undergoing extensive research and conservation, which will be completed this autumn.

Yinka Shonibare
In connection with the coming exhibition Fashination (September 25, 2004-January 23, 2005) Yinka Shonibare will be presenting his first film.

The theme is the assassination of the Swedish king Gustav III...

Moderna Museet
Island of Skeppsholmen
Stockholm

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