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27/4/2006

Jansson's Temptation

Overgaden - Institute of Contemporary Art, Copenhagen

Artists: Roger Andersson, Jens Fange, Annika von Hausswolff, Lisa Jonasson, Annika Strom, Lisa Strombeck, Johan Zetterqvist, Ola Astrand

Curated by Niels Bonde

It is with great pleasure that Overgaden this spring devotes the whole house to Swedish contemporary art. The Danish artist Niels Bonde presents in the exhibition Jansson’s Temptation a number of central figures on the Swedish art scene and in this way wishes to confront and perhaps confirm a Danish audience’s possible prejudices about what is specifically Swedish. The exhibition project is initiated by the newly established Danish-Swedish Cultural Foundation, and even though the title, a Swedish national dish, implies tradition, the Foundation’s support of the confrontational and transgressive contemporary art is not in the least traditional.

Jansson’s Temptation presents works by eight Swedish artists, Roger Andersson, Jens Fange, Annika von Hausswolff, Lisa Jonasson, Annika Strom, Lisa Strombeck, Johan Zetterqvist and Ola Astrand. They all offer works which in their beauty, poetry and brutality transgress national frames of comprehension and step into the human. A stew of Swedish culture with ingredients covering everything from Abba to the Laser Man, Bellman and Bergman and back again, from the People’s Home (Folkhemmet) million plan and Smaland’s dark forests to Emil of Maple Hills (Astrid Lindgren’s Emil) and the crayfish feast’s obscene snaps songs.

Through these works, Jansson’s Temptation seeks answers for what the Swedes themselves emphasize as being Swedish, but also what Danes understand by the particularly Swedish. In Denmark Sweden is primarily associated with its beautiful nature, the wonderful lakes and forests with derelict farms. And the Swede’s nature is often understood as particularly formal, rational and effective - exactly like a Volvo: "heavy, solid and trustworthy, but a bit boring to drive."

The exhibition will invert these banal prejudices in a time when Danish prejudices benefit from confrontation. Therefore the exhibited works are also selected for their transgressive and explicit expression that undermines any expectation of nice and fine formalities. In Jansson’s Temptation an unrestrained anarchy prevails, which is to effect a sort of counter culture to the picture postcard - an at once melancholic and evil parallel universe that is comprehendible without a phrase book or Swedish- Danish dictionary.

The exhibition is produced by the Danish-Swedish Cultural Foundation and Niels Bonde. The exhibition catalogue is with text by the writer Staffan Boije af Gennas.

The exhibition is supported by the Foundation for Danish-Swedish Cooperation, the Swedish Embassy, the King Frederick and Queen Ingrid Foundation, the Prince Joachim and Princess Alexandra Foundation and the Danish Arts Council's Committee for International Visual Art.

Private view 28 april 5-8PM

Overgaden -Institute of Contemporary Art
Overgaden Neden Vandet 17 DK-1414 Copenhagen K Denmark

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