Title: The Nordic Model® Location: Malmö Konstmuseum Date: May 3 – August 18 2013 Address: Malmöhusvägen 6 Open: Monday – Sunday 10 – 17, Wednesday 10 – 19 Artists: Pia Arke, Kajsa Dahlberg, Ewa Einhorn, Annika Eriksson, Goldin + Senneby, Sidsel Meineche Hansen, Marianne Heier, Bo Hultén, Sture Johannesson, Jane Jin Kaisen, Jeuno JE Kim, Joachim Koester, Runo Lagomarsino, J O Mallander, Olof Olsson, Olivia Plender, Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen, Meriç Algün Ringborg, Vassil Simittchiev, Superflex, Magnus Thierfelder, Unnar Örn The Nordic Model® is an exhibition about the Malmö Konstmuseum collection, its history and its future. It features a combination of selected works from the collection, recent acquisitions and three new projects created specifically for the occasion. We want to show how the collection came about through purchases and donations, through private initiatives and local political processes. This project is the initial stage in a future effort aimed at studying how the collection was created, but also how it can be developed in dialogue with the contemporary art scene. In the course of curating, certain questions have been raised: What forces are set in motion when a collection is created and expanded? How can we use the collection, and who is it for? And, not least: What does “Nordic”, the museum’s primary collection field over the past century, stand for today? In December 2011, the Swedish Social Democratic Party registered The Nordic Model as a trademark at the Swedish Patent and Registration Office. This provoked the anger of the Nordic Council of Ministers, which claimed that it is a ”joint Nordic cultural heritage, and cannot be tied to one particular political group”. The case demonstrates how the Nordic region, or rather, the term “Nordic”, is gradually being disconnected from a geographic location but instead is perceived as an economic and political notion or model, or a trademark that can be marketed in a global (continues at p. 3)
The Nordic Model® Curators: Kim Einarsson, Stine Hebert, Cecilia Widenheim Exhibition design: Matts Leiderstam Research: Malin Forssell, Marika Reuterswärd, Marcus Pompeius Press and coordination: Malin Engleson Installation: Anders Smith with Max Emland, Anders Lindsjö, Göran Söderstedt, Bertil Warnolf among others. Texts: Kim Einarsson (KE), Malin Forssell (MF), Stine Hebert (SH), Cecilia Widenheim (CW), Malmö Konstmuseum (MKM) Translation: Gabriella Berggren (sve-eng), Magnus Nordén (eng-sve), Eva Svarrer (da-sve) Catalog design: Research and Development Print: Elanders Fälth & Hässler AB, Värnamo ISBN: 9789185341412 The exhibition is produced by Malmö Konstmuseum in conjunction with Malmö Nordic 2013. Address: Malmö Konstmuseum, Malmöhusvägen 6 Phone: 040 34 10 00 Email: malmokonstmuseum@malmo.se Internet: www.malmo.se/konstmuseum Programme: 4 + 25 May at 3 pm Performance by Olof Olsson “The Nordic Sound”. 17 August Finissage with a performance by Marianne Heier. To book guided tours: boka.museum@malmo.se Open: Monday - Sunday 10 - 17, Wednesday 10 - 19
(continues) economy and under pan-European administration. The Nordic Model can be linked to various discourses, opening the way for a veritable battle over the right to use it, define it and write its history, not least in relation to investments in nation branding. The Economist recently commented on the renewed interest in the Nordic Model, but now as a neo-liberal model, in which the welfare state can be privatised under public supervision, unlike before, when it was viewed as a market-friendly form of socialism. Since 1937, Malmö Konstmuseum has shared its premises with Malmö Museer and their cultural history exhibitions and collections. A visit to the museum island in Malmö often starts in the basement, with the aquariums and live animals, and then proceeds upwards through the building and the fantastic dioramas with stuffed species of Scandinavian deer and elk, followed by exhibits on the prehistory of Skåne and period rooms. In the 1930s, it was natural to integrate the state religion with the worldview that the museum management wished to represent. On the second floor, therefore, the Skovgaard Hall was installed, with a church organ and a model for the monumental mosaic in Lund Cathedral. And then, to crown it all, we find the art gallery at the top of the building. This arrangement can be described as a meta-museum. What role does art play when it is set in a cultural history environment? Malmö Museum started as a study collection at a private school in the 1840s. For many years, the Museum relied on donations consisting of historic relics relating to individual people, exotic objects, archaeological findings, rare coins and rural artefacts. The very first museum exhibit, with catalogue number MM 1, was a bottle of smelling salts donated in 1852 by the saddler N. Sjöström. This tiny 1780s bottle was carved out of coconut and is adorned with the Adoration of the Magi and the Madonna and Child. In the 1880s, the City of Malmö took over the Museum collection. There was a powerful movement at the time to support craftsmanship in the face of mass-production. Around the turn of the century, more active efforts were made to collect fine arts and crafts; in the 1920s, the collection
was focused on the Nordic region, largely thanks to the diligent work of the Museum’s Friends Society. Turning to one’s Nordic neighbours was tantamount to an ambition to work internationally, but it was also in line with the idea of the nation state and the romantic nationalism that flourished at the time. The Nordic profile as a collection field was enhanced in 1944, when the industrialist Herman Gotthardt donated 700 works by modernists active in the Nordic region to the Museum. In 2000 Malmö Konstmuseum became an independent organisation, and is now considered to be one of Sweden’s finest art institutions, with a collection comprising nearly 40,000 works. But an art collection requires a context in order to be meaningful – a collection without a context is merely a warehouse of objects. Over the past 25 years, Malmö Konstmuseum has developed one of the largest collections in the world of Nordic contemporary art. The Museum is famous for its excellent collection, but it is not yet accessible or searchable online, and few have had the opportunity to study it in depth. Therefore, the artist Matts Leiderstam has been commissioned to design the exhibition architecture and create a presentation of the Museum’s inventory, which contains data on the 40,000 objects in the collection. The walls of the central gallery in the exhibition space are covered with printouts from the Museum database. The inventory lists spread out in the room like a gigantic tapestry, according to the numerical series that was introduced in the mid-1800s and has been expanded since then. A mottled picture of the institution’s memory unfolds, revealing facts such as the basic economic terms – purchase or donation – relating to each work in the collection. The title of the exhibition, The Nordic Model®, alludes to Malmö Konstmuseum’s Nordic profile, but also to its close ties with the modern industrial society that evolved in the 20th century. A large portion of the collection and the funding for acquisitions were donated by industrialists and their relatives. The exhibition is also an attempt to explore and discuss the Nordic concept and what it means today. The works from the collection that we have selected
for the exhibition were all produced in the past fifteen years, with a few exceptions. We have focused on works that, in one way or another, highlight “Nordic” as an economic and political model. Themes such as the welfare state, consensus culture, Nordic colonialism and alternative social models are at the core, together with the complex issues arising as a consequence of the notion of national identity. In addition, we present works that comment on the role of the art institution, how artists inscribe themselves in art history, and, finally, the terms that govern how contemporary art is produced and mediated. All these elements together are crucial matters for any up-to-date museum with a focus on Nordic contemporary art. In connection with the exhibition, we have decided to make several acquisitions, thereby adding works by Jeuno JE Kim and Ewa Einhorn, Goldin+Senneby, Pia Arke, Jane Jin Kaisen, Olivia Plender and Meriç Algün-Ringborg. We have also invited the artists Marianne Heier, Sidsel Meineche Hansen and Olof Olsson to create new projects, in dialogue with our investigation, all of which discuss the Museum as such and indicate potential paths for the collection and the Museum’s activities in the future. Kim Einarsson Stine Hebert Cecilia Widenheim
Cat. no: MMK 9839 Artist: Pia Arke (Thule, Greenland/Copenhagen) 1958-2007 in collaboration with Anders Jørgensen Title: Tupilakosaurus: An Interesting Study about the Triassic Myth of Kap Stosch Year: 1999 Technique: Video transferred to DVD, 9:18 min Purchased: 2013 Description: Original digital copy. One-channel projection. /MKM 2013 Comment: Most of Pia Arke’s works deal with the repression of Greenland’s Danish colonial history and its many repercussions. In the early 1920s, Norway and Denmark fought over Greenland. In 1924, they signed an agreement that East Greenland should belong to the nation that managed to establish a so-called Eskimo colony. Pia Arke, who grew up in East Greenland, came to Copenhagen as a twelve-year-old and studied art there. Many years later, she returned to the island to gather some of the many accounts and life stories that did not make it into the official history books. Donning the role of cartographer and explorer, she scrutinises Western notions of primitive art, Greenland and the “authenticity” of Inuit culture. The video Tupilakosaurus is Pia Arke’s re-enactment of an encounter between ancient Greenland mythology and science, represented by a Danish museum curator. /CW 2013-04-02
Cat. no: MMK 9811 Artist: Kajsa Dahlberg (Berlin/Malmö) b. 1973 Title: Femø Women’s Camp Year: 2008 Technique: Contract, certificate and video projection, duration: 15 min Purchased: 2012 Description: Installation consisting of text and video projection, 15 minutes, giving an intellectual and emotional idea of a feminist project by documenting the agreed conditions (contract) and its actual dismantling (the film). /MKM 2012 Comment: Since 1969, the Danish island of Femø has been transformed into a camp every summer. Today, it is the world’s oldest remaining women’s camp. The film documents the last days of camp, when the participants are packing up. Alongside the film shoots, negotiations are in progress between the participants and the artist, resulting in a contract that serves both as a guideline for the film itself and an agreement between the participants. In addition to rules, the contract contains a documented discussion between the contributors on the terms for participation and production. Crucial themes in this work are the potential and the restrictions for creating a community, and how this community can be represented both as a group and a political movement. Since the work was purchased by Malmö Konstmuseum, it has been complemented with a certificate confirming that half of the purchase sum was transferred to the camp. /KE 2013-03-28
Cat. no: MMK 9838 Artists: Ewa Einhorn (Berlin/Malmö) b. 1977 and Jeuno JE Kim (Berlin/Malmö) b. 1977 Participants: Anna Blomberg, Inga Cristina Campos and Magnus Mark Script: Andreas Jakobsson, Ewa Einhorn, Jeuno JE Kim Animation: Sanni Lahtinen, Joni Männistö Music: Olof Dreijer, Jeuno JE Kim Title: Whaled Women Year: 2012 Technique: Animation, 9:00 min Purchased: 2013 Description: Animated film with sound, light box, neon sign, lamp, 2 posters, display cases. /MKM 2013 Comment: Whaled Women is a political satire about integration, immigration, and unemployment, set in Krabstadt, a small fictitious town in the Arctic. The Nordic countries send individuals who don’t fit into the system to Krabstadt. One day, a group of women with whales on their heads are stranded on the beach, and Krabstadt’s feminist institute summons a group of Norwegian whale hunters to deal with the situation. Ewa Einhorn and Jeuno JE Kim explore a variety of narrative techniques, often combining personal experiences with social, historical and political contexts. In several of their works, they experiment with different “Nordic” clichés, as a commentary on the trend of marketing whole nations. They have also launched a number of fictive organisations, such as United Nations of Norden and New Sweden Society. Whaled Women premièred at the Berlin Film Festival in spring 2013. /CW 2013-04-02
Cat. No: MMK 8670:1-3 Artist: Annika Eriksson (Berlin/Stockholm) b. 1956 Title: Staff at Moderna Museet (2000) Staff at Malmö Museer (2001) Staff at 25th Bienal de São Paulo (2002) Year: 2000-2002 Technique: DVD, 17:00 min, 14:00 min, 10:00 min Purchased: 2000-2002 Description: Staff at Malmöhus (Malmö Konstmuseum, Malmö Museer, Malmö Kulturmiljö). /MKM 2001 Comment: The visitors at a museum usually only see the art, and only rarely the staff who work with it. In Annika Eriksson’s films, the individuals behind the museum facade step forward and become part of the artwork. The staff members present themselves one by one, in no apparent hierarchical order, to the camera. The viewer is tempted to interpret their conscious or unconscious signals. The first video in the series was produced for the exhibition Organising Freedom – Nordic Art of the ‘90s. Annika Eriksson is a pioneer of socially-oriented art, whose performances and projects in the 1990s focused on real situations. In many of her works she explores social structures and human behaviour, while her films highlight relationships and community in groups of people. A recurring element in Eriksson’s oeuvre is how people relate to their work and their workplace, and how their sense of identity is influenced by the nature of the workplace. /MF 2013-03-22
Cat. no: MMK 9837 Artists: Goldin + Senneby (Stockholm) founded 2004 Title: The Discreet Charm, the Malmö Konstmuseum edition with Pamela Carter (Playwright), Ismail Ertürk (Cultural Economist), Anna Heymowska (Set Designer), Hamadi Khemiri (Actor) Year: 2011/2013 Technique: Installation, performance, model, video Purchased: 2013 Description: Video documentation of a performance at the Museum on 3 May, 2013. Presented as a one-channel projection with sound, together with a model of the art gallery in a lecture hall setting. /MKM 2013 Comment: The title of this work alludes to Buñuel’s surrealist film from 1972 (The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie), which parodies the spectacle and self-appointed entitlement of the bourgeoisie. This piece, however, concerns the discreet charm of the banking system, or rather, the infrastructures that are created in relation to capital and finance. Using a model according to scale of the kind frequently used as demonstration material in theatres between the director and actors, or between production teams and investors, an economist – who may possibly be an actor – explains various financial strategies and instruments. The relationship between drama, model, stage and reality is constantly negotiated with the viewer. The perspective shifts between the gallery space we are sitting in, a model of the same space, and the film’s representation of this space. The work is part of a series of projects by the Goldin + Senneby artist duo, using performance and theatre to explore the geography and methods of the financial market. /KE 2013-03-28
Cat. no: MMK 9843 Artist: Sidsel Meineche Hansen (London) b. 1981 Title: Donor Year: 2013 Technique: Print Donation: 2013 Comment: This work examines the terms of production and working conditions in the art world, based on the power relationship between the artist workforce and its employers – in this case the art museum. The prints constitute the first part of a larger project that discusses the relationship between debtor and creditor – on the art scene and in society in general. The project explores the debt economy and scrutinises, among other things, the point of having a collection – by asking questions about what an institution invests in when it buys art or accepts donations, and what this creation of value may look like in the future. These studies will finally result in a series of seminars, which will be held by the artist. /SH 2013-03-28
Artist: Marianne Heier (Oslo) b. 1969 Title: Supernova Year: 2013 Technique: Paperback produced for The Nordic Model®, free Description: Artist book with soft cover. /MKM 2013 Comment: ”A book that is free, some 30 pages, printed in black on thin (cheap) paper, max 3 pictures (also black and white). Cover in some kind of reflective white or silver, title in fluorescent yellow. Passport-sized.” This is Marianne Heier’s description of her work for The Nordic Model® [The Nordic Model]. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and especially after the financial crisis in 2008, new economic power structures have manifested themselves. How are attitudes to immaterial and artistic values affected in these turbulent times? Is everything really for sale? And what agreements govern today’s arts economy? Heier has long been working with concepts such as gift economy and abundance, exploring how the value systems of financial capital and cultural capital often overlap. In 2005, Marianne Heier financed the refurbishment of the museum hosts’ coffee room at the Kunstindustrimuseet in Oslo, and a few years later she donated an asphalt road to the outdoor museum at Lillehammer. /CW 2013-03-25
Cat. No: 4911 Artist: Bo Hultén (Kivik) b. 1945 Title: A Swedish Tiger (A Swede Doesn’t Talk) Year: 1970-tal Technique: Sculpture Purchased: 1977 Description: Doll dressed in a grey military uniform without insignia, rope wound round its body tying hands and arms on its back. Has a tiger’s head. /MKM 1977 Comment: A Swedish Tiger [the Swedish has the double meaning of “A Swede Doesn’t Talk”] was created in 1941 by the Swedish National Board of Information to remind the public to keep quiet about anything that could jeopardise neutral Sweden during the Second World War. “Keep quiet about what you know – keep quiet about what you don’t know – is the dual meaning of this slogan. Be on your guard against any kind of gossip. Don’t help spies to solve the puzzle – protect your country.” A Swedish Tiger was drawn by Bertil Almqvist. Interestingly, the symbol has recently been the subject of a long copyright dispute between Beredskapsmuseet [Sweden’s Preparedness Museum] and the Swedish Armed Forces, which regarded the tiger as its trademark and has used it as a symbol for its Military Intelligence and Security Service. Bo Hultén’s tiger in a military uniform with its hands tied behind its back is an ironic yet critical comment on how Sweden wanted to appear as a politically independent nation during the Second World War and the period after. /MF 2013-03-22
Cat. no: MMK 3484 Artist: Sture Johannesson (Skanör) b. 1935 Title: The Danish collection, 11 posters Year: 1967-1969 Technique: Print Purchased: 1970 Description: 11 posters from ‘The Danish Collection’ series, printed in Copenhagen between 1967 and 1969. /MKM 1970 Comment: Sture Johannesson produced several posters in the late 1960s. His choice of artistic technique was congenial with his interest in radical counter-culture. Unlike the unique work of art, a poster was democratic, mass-produced, and could be spread beyond the traditional market for art. “Hashish Girl”, as it later became known, was created when Johannesson was commissioned in 1968 to design a poster for the exhibition The underground will take over Lunds Konsthall at Lunds Konsthall. It was immediately rejected and caused a great outcry. The then director of Lunds Konsthall, Folke Edwards, was forced to resign, Lunds Konsthall was closed for some time, and the printed posters were confiscated by the police. Sture Johannesson made several other posters in the same psychedelic style. Together with the rejected posters, they comprise The Danish Collection series. During this period, Sture Johannesson ran the Cannabis gallery in Malmö, together with Ann-Charlotte Johannesson. The gallery developed into a forum for workshops and underground culture. /MF 2013-03-22
Cat. no: 9834 Artist: Jane Jin Kaisen (Copenhagen) b. 1980 in collaboration with Tobias H端binette b. 1971 Titel: Adopting Belinda Year: 2006 Technique: Video, colour, 8:52 min Purchased: 2013 Description: Original digital file, one-channel projection with sound (in English) and subtitles in English, Korean or Danish. To be presented either as a projection or on a flatscreen in a breakfast TV setting. /MKM 2013 Comment: Adopting Belinda is a fictive documentary in which a Danish film team visits the Anderson family home in Minnesota. The Andersons are an American couple of Asian descent, who have just adopted a child from Denmark. By simply reversing the roles, Jane Jin Kaisen highlights a few of the fundamental rules governing the system of international adoptions, and the racial order that the system risk reproducing. The video was produced in conjunction with the exhibition Rethinking Nordic Colonialism, organised by Kuratorisk Aktion. In recent works, Jane Jin Kaisen has studied how the heritage of militarism and patriarchy in South Korea have impacted on women of different generations: from those who were used as sex slaves by the Japanese army in the 1930s, over those who were forced into prostitution at US army camps to earn their living in the 1950s, to the generation of women who have been given up for adoption and began returning to Korea in the 1990s. /CW 2013-03-25
Cat. no: MMK 7901 Artist: Joachim Koester (Copenhagen/New York) b. 1962 Title: Day for Night, Christiania II Year: 1996 Technique: Slides Purchased: 1998 Description: 39 different images and three texts. /MKM 1998 Comment: In several works, Joachim Koester has documented the layered narratives that are embedded in a specific place. Instead of attempting to create a comprehensive image with traditional facts, however, Koester operates with a personal mapping of atmospheres and moods, which often gives rise to contradictory stories. In Day for Night, Koester portrays Christiania, a borough of the Danish capital Copenhagen, which was founded in 1971 by a group of activist squatters. Christiania has long epitomised a utopian, alternative social model in the Nordic region, with, for instance, its own collective economic system. Over the years, Christiania has become one of the world’s largest anarchist communities, a city within the city. The slides from Christiania are toned with a blue filter, the day-for-night technique used in the film industry to simulate night-time darkness when filming in daylight. Slowly, the viewer is drawn into a narrative that is set between the past and the present, between night and day, between society and sanctuary. /CW 2013-04-02
Cat. no: MMK 9264 1-11 Artist: Runo Lagomarsino (São Paulo/Berlin) b. 1977 Title: Las Casas is Not a Home Year: 2008-2010 Technique: Installation Purchased: 2010 Description: Installation in mixed media: Photographic collage, objects, sculptures, video, drawings, prints, shelves. /MKM 2010 Comment: Runo Lagomarsino’s installation Las Casas is Not a Home is a story in several parts about Spanish colonialism, language and identity. The story oscillates between the past and the present, and the title plays with concepts such as home and place. Las Casas is not a home. Las Casas means dwelling place in Spanish. Is not a dwelling a home? In other words, home is somewhere else. The title is also a reference to the Spanish Dominican priest Bartolomé de las Casas, who was one of the first to oppose the violence of the European colonisers in the 16th century. With his installations, sculptures, images and films, Runo Lagomarsino offers perspectives on historic, political and cultural power structures that differ from those that have informed history writing. His works are often based on the colonial heritage that remains within contemporary Latin American culture. /MF 2013-03-22
Malmö Konstmuseum’s archives and library Artist: J O Mallander (Aijala, Finland) b. 1944 Title: Kekkonen Year: 1962 Technique: Audio file 6:31 min Purchased: 2013 Description: Audio file from CD /MKM 2013 Comment: J O Mallander’s first audio work from the early 1960s can be described as conceptualism with elements of humour. His way of looping and manipulating existing sounds presaged contemporary musical practices. Extended Play was released in 1968 and consists of two works, where one soundtrack comments on the re-election of Finnish president Urho Kekkonen in 1962. Kekkonen was the dominating politician in Finland for many years in the post-war era (1956-1982). Since the USSR was dependent on Finland remaining a neutral buffer zone during the Cold War, the Finnish election in 1962 was a crucial event with Kekkonen in the leading role. J O Mallander began experimenting in the borderland between audio art, performance and poetry early in his career and was soon a unique ambassador in the Nordic region for the international Fluxus movement. His gallery Cheap Thrills became a forum for underground culture in Helsinki. /CW 2013-04-02
Artist: Olof Olsson (Copenhagen) Title: The Nordic Sound Technique: Performance Year: 2013 Comment: In two performances, each taking place during the exhibition period, Olof Olsson will present meditations on “the Nordic sound�. The artist describes himself as a product of the charter tourism that flourished in the 1960s and led to his Dutch mother meeting his Swedish father on the holiday island of Mallorca. Shaped by his upbringing in Helsingborg, where he devoted the late hours of the night to listening to pirate broadcasts on his transistor radio, and his subsequent exile in Denmark for many years, Olsson has made observations on the specifically Nordic sound. Olsson creates performance art in the borderland between lecture, stand-up comedy and silent movies. /SH 2013-03-28
Cat. no: MMK 9836 Artist: Olivia Plender (Berlin/Stockholm) b. 1977 Title: Advertisement for an Absurdist Play on the Theme of England and Iceland Being at War, from the Aadieu Adieu Apa series Year: 2009 Technique: Print Purchased: 2013 Description: Poster with black text and illustration on a white background. /MKM 2013 Comment: This poster is part of the Aadieu Adieu Apa (Goodbye Goodbye Father) series, which comprises a total of five satirical works. With distinct references to various kinds of mass-produced printed matter, they highlight absurd historic events that in some way relate to nationalism, trade and consumption. The title was inspired by The Chairs (1952) by Eugène Ionesco, a pioneer of absurdist theatre. In the form of a drama, Advertisement for an Absurdist Play on the Theme of England and Iceland Being at War acknowledges a recent event: when the British government called on anti-terrorist laws to confiscate Icelandic bank assets during the latest financial crisis. This work is linked to other works by Olivia Plender exploring sovereignty in relation to economic and political systems. /KE 2013-03-28
Artists: Olivia Plender (Berlin/Stockholm) b. 1977 and Unnar Örn (Atlanta/Reykjavik) b. 1974 Title: The Gods Present to Us the Artefact Year: 2012 Technique: Installation: audio file (31:34), two photographs. Comment: The guide in The Gods Present to Us the Artefact is a contemporary ethnologist lecturing on the Icelandic writer, antiquarian and folklorist Jón Ólafsson – a figure who lived in the early 19th century and is said to be one of the founders of the Danish National Museum in Copenhagen. Like many of the works by Olivia Plender and Unnar Örn, this piece focuses on historiography as narrative and interpretation, where fictive and documentary stories are interwoven. The character Jón Ólafsson is used to represent 19thcentury nation state building, the romantic fascination for religious mysticism and Nordicism, and the fervour for categorising and collecting at the time. As an avid panScandinavian, he searches for facts that can confirm his world view. The work comments on the strong relationship between artefacts and historiography, but also on the prominent part played by museums in nationalist projects. /KE 2013-03-28
Cat. no: MMK 9052 Artist: Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen (Copenhagen) b. 1970 Title: The Artist’s Song Year: 2007 Technique: DVD, 3:52 min Purchased: 2007 Description: Digital file, single-channel video projection, colour, sound (English). The video was modelled on the music video. /MKM 2007 Comment: The artist, with white-painted skin and wearing a white suit with attributes sewn onto it, appears like a living sculpture as she moves between the frozen classical sculptures at Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen. As she walks through the museum, to a simple musical accompaniment, Cuenca Rasmussen sings about the hierarchies and power structures of the art scene – and asks questions about how artists inscribe themselves in canonical art history. In a style closely resembling that of a rock video, she utters a succession of slogans from representational politics, combining them with references to art scandals over the ages. In the middle of this bastion of art, surrounded by historic masterpieces, the live artist challenges the relationship between that which is included in the history books, collected by museums, preserved for posterity – and that which never achieves visibility. /SH 2013-03-28
Cat. no: MMK 9835 Artist: Meriç Algün Ringborg (Stockholm/Istanbul) b. 1983 Title: The Concise Book of Visa Application Forms Year: 2009 Technique: Object Purchased: 2013 Description: Artist book with blue hardcover, and a matching box. The book is an encyclopedic collection, holding a range of visa application forms in alphabetical order from all over the world. The object may be presented on top of a table where it can be handled by audience wearing white gloves. /MKM 2013 Comment: Are you a tourist? Are you travelling for work, studies or for medical reasons? Who will be providing for you during your visit? Meriç Algün Ringborg’s collection of visa application forms from all over the world is a thick volume. These documents determine whether the world is open or closed to travelling citizens. The Concise Book of Visa Application Forms provokes the question of how migration relates to concepts such as “nation state” and “citizenship”. Who are the winners and losers of migration? And in what ways can migration challenge the traditional nation state? Meriç Algün Ringborg explores themes such as nationality, translation and belonging. Her works often deal with how subjectivity is created in the interaction between language and normative systems, in the form of books, translations and archives. /CW 2013-03-25
Cat. no: MMK 7563 Artist: Vassil Simittchiev (Malmö) b. 1938 Title: Ironing the Bulgarian Flag Year: 1990-1997 Technique: Installation Purchased: 1998 Description: Ink drawing in box shows how the parts should be displayed. 5 colour photos in the box show the artist creating the work. The Bulgarian flag is ironed with a Moulinex Jetplus 1100 iron. The ironing board has a metal stand. The objects used in the performance are packed in the box and padded with styrofoam. The box is locked with two small padlocks. The flag was ironed during a performance on 26 November, 1990, in Jordan Vamporov’s home on Christo Beltchev Street in Sofia. The box contains all the objects used in the performance. /MKM 1998 Comment: In a performance on 26 November, 1990, in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, Vassil Simittchiev ironed the Bulgarian flag before folding it and placing it on the ironing board. It is tempting to interpret this as a political action, since the performance took place after the dramatic events in Bulgaria in 1989-90 that induced the Communist Party to relinquish its power monopoly and paved the way for democracy. But the work can also be read as a ritualistic act. When the communist regime fell in 1990, the old flag was reinstated, and the flag of socialist Bulgaria, with its red star, was no longer used. Vassil Simittchiev left Bulgaria and came to Sweden as a refugee in 1975; he has lived and worked for many years in Malmö, where he rapidly became prominent in the field of installation art and conceptualism. Over the years, he has carried out numerous projects, often in public spaces. Simittchiev was professor of sculpture at the University College of Arts, Crafts and Design – Konstfack in Stockholm from 1986 to 1996. /MF 2013-03-22
Cat. No: MMK 9714 Artist: Superflex (Copenhagen) founded in 1993 Title: Foreigners, please don’t leave us alone with the Danes! Year: 2002 Technique: Silkscreen Purchased: 2011 Description: Framed poster, black text against orange background. /MKM 2011 Comment: The artist group Superflex describes its projects as “tools” that can be used to develop alternative economies, production relationships and distribution channels. The poster Foreigners, please don’t leave us alone with the Danes! was created as a comment on Denmark’s restrictive immigration laws that have been severely criticised in both Denmark and in international media. It was displayed in public spaces in several European cities, and in Mexico and South Korea. The group’s focus on the use of commercial symbols and trademarks, and on “nation branding”, has often led to legal battles. This exhibition also features the work Rebranding Denmark from 2006, where the Danish trademark Dannebrogen (the Danish flag) is burned. The work was produced in connection with the political crisis after the publication of the Mohammed Drawings. The group has also explored the copyright concept by remodelling a copy of the Danish designer Arne Jacobsen’s chair to make it conform with the original design. /CW 2013-03-25
Cat. no: MMK 9060 1-7 Artist: Magnus Thierfelder (MalmÜ) b. 1976 Title: Who here among us still believes in choice Year: 2007 Technique: Installation Purchased: 2007 Description: Floor based installation consisting of seven black chairs, covered with black fabric and tied with ropes. Install according to instructions. /MKM 2007 Comment: Magnus Thierfelder’s work consists of seven black chairs seemingly robbed of their original purpose as furniture to sit on. Perhaps this collection of chairs could be seen as a group of people who have lost their individuality and characteristics. The chairs are covered with black fabric and tied with ropes, as if their capacity and their function had been taken from them. And yet, it could be seen as the chairs is speaking up for themselves as a group, rebelling against their original purpose as furniture. In several of his works, Magnus Thierfelder highlights the everyday objects that surround us but which often go unnoticed. Blending humour and reflection, he comments on notions such as normality and functionality, aiming our attention at the complex systems and social norms that constitute societies and their values. /MF 2013-03-25