Bonniers Konsthall has its origins in the Maria Bonnier Dahlin Foundation, which was founded in 1985 by Jeanette Bonnier in memory of her daughter Maria. Bonniers Konsthall is run by the Bonnier family under the auspices of The Bonnier Group. The Bonnier Group is one of Scandinavia’s biggest media concerns with operations in the daily press, magazines, books, film and television. Its owners, the Bonnier family, have been supporting culture and art for more than two centuries. The founding of Bonniers Konsthall is a continuation of this tradition.
Jeanette Bonnier is the founder of the Bonniers Konsthall , and Pontus Bonnier is its Managing Director. Here they each talk about how the art venue came into existence, about the direction it will go in, and about their relationship with contemporary art.
Jeanette Bonnier on the background and the new buildning
“The background to all this is that, when my daughter died in a car accident, I set up a foundation in her name to award a grant for young artists. I had a gallery in New York, and she went to university there. She painted and had friends who were artists like Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf and others. And now I have been awarding grants for twenty years.”
“When I set up the foundation I primarily wanted to set up a grant that would be awarded to young artists. It was important to me since my daughter was young when she left us, and since all the grants that were being given out at that time – the mid-eighties – went to artists who were already well-known and who already had their own gallerists. I absolutely wanted to do the precise opposite.”
“Right from the start, I saw that I would gradually have to see to it that this foundation was given a solid basis, principally because I wanted to be sure that the work would carry on and that nobody could fritter it away when I am no longer here. I wanted to create/establish an art venue..”
“When we bought the plot of land where Bonniers Konsthall now stands, it was classed as a park on the city map. Because we wanted to create/establish an art venue, the map was redrawn and the city approved the building, with the proviso that fifty percent of it would be reserved for cultural activity. At that time, they didn’t want to build any more offices in Stockholm, which I think was quite right. There were, of course, people who thought we wanted to build Bonniers Konsthall so as to have more offices, but that is not true, in fact, it was a combination of what I wanted and a way of making use of this piece of ground.”
“It was no easy nut to crack when they chose a glass building. I had lots of sleepless nights, ‘How can you make a building for this very purpose in glass?’. But we managed to resolve this, and now I think there are benefits from the glass building and the views – you can see the city, you can see the water, and it becomes something quite different from museums that are built like bunkers. So, in the end, this has become a plus. Besides, I have seen drawings of a hotel that is being built on Norra Bantorget , in the form of a ship with its prow pointing this way. So it is really going to be truly exciting on this sad street, which always used to feel like the Russian tundra.”
Pontus on the plans for Bonniers Konsthall
“The plans for the Bonniers Konsthall became very concrete at the end of the 1980s, when we bought the vacant plot where the whole Bonnier building stands from the City of Stockholm to safeguard the level of ground rent. At the same time, it seemed very natural for us also to build on the ground that was unused, but which was still part of the plot, i.e. this triangle or cake slice beside the Bonnier building. When it became quite clear that we were to try to put up a new building, naturally Jeanette’s idea came up of having an art venue as a part of the building, and this was espoused by me, my siblings and the rest of the family.”
“The project lived on in our minds, but it was not until 2003 that it became completely clear that we could build it. But, already before that, we had concluded that the architect Johan Celsing’s proposal for a building was the most suitable, and besides that one that the City could envisage being on the site. In the continued discussions with the architect, the idea of the Bonniers Konsthall has been the most important, motivating one, since Bonniers has always had a link with art and culture.”
Pontus on the direction of Bonniers Konsthall
“In the beginning there was very much a feeling that ‘it would be cool and interesting to get to run an art venue’, since the family has these links with art. We had no clear-cut direction, but we wanted to show art that has perhaps not been shown before in Sweden. And the track has since been developed further by the Director of the Bonniers Konsthall Sara Arrhenius into the approach we have today, that we will be concentrating on new Swedish and international contemporary art, and that the venue will be a kind of home for the works by Maria Bonnier Dahlin grant recipients, since they form the basis for the operation. Since we are a private art venue and hence have no official mandate, we have the freedom to shape things and to do what we want with all of this. It has to be good, it has to be relevant, and it has to reflect the interesting times we live in.”
Jeanette on her interest in art and art collecting
“This thing about art is a bit mysterious. Maybe there is a devilish little revolutionary sitting inside me somewhere, which makes me think that it is worth life itself to support and be involved in this, to be involved in the time one lives in, and not to come to a standstill and ossify. Many people do this – they start buying art and then start thinking that this art is the only kind that counts – but then you become ossified in your own time, but you are not in your time. This is in fact because, in my view, what is innovative is what is interesting. And it is this line that I have followed and fought for. But, as I said, it is still unclear what and why we feel when faced with art – I can feel happy about this in many ways, and it can get us to live in another way up here in our heads.”
“I began buying art very early on. I bought my first artwork when I was twelve – it was a lithograph by Picasso, and I still have it. I bought an Yves Klein when it cost 5000 Swedish crowns , I bought a Lucio Fontana for two thousand , and so on. I worked with Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg at the start of the 70s on setting up the “New York Collection for Stockholm”, which was presented as a donation to the Moderna Museet when Pontus Hultén left. And I have always been involved in artist circles, everyone I have been married to has been an artist of one kind or another.”
“I cannot say that my parents had a passionate interest specifically in art, but, on the other hand, my dad’s mother came from a theatre family. Dad’s maternal uncle, Per Lindberg, was a director and his maternal grandparents were very well known actors in their day. Per Lindberg’s sister Stina Bergman was married to Hjalmar Bergman and was script director at the SF (Svensk Filmindustri)and taught Ingmar Bergman to write scripts. So there was an atmosphere of art at home, in that way. So there was no socially controlling upbringing, but rather we had a free upbringing. And this meant that I could go my own way.”
Pontus on his interest in art and art collecting
“Personally, I grew up in a family that was always interested in contemporary art, and which has collected it. My father was a big collector and active in the Friends of Moderna Museet, of which he was Chair for many years, and I myself have followed in his footsteps. I went with my dad on rounds of the galleries and to the Moderna Museet, and, when I was a bit older, we travelled quite a bit together and looked at art. So my interest came very naturally, it was never imposed on me, but was a very enjoyable part of my upbringing. And it is to be hoped my children will feel the same way. It is clear that art is something that we have to ‘learn’ a little, it is not something that comes directly, but through living with it and being active in imbibing the expressions that are around, we benefit from things and constantly get a greater understanding. And this is massively exciting and massively cool.”
Annika Wretman