Bonniers Konsthall

The 1980s is back. Bonniers Konsthall introduces the decade’s return in emerging Swedish contemporary art in the Rummaging exhibition. The group exhibition, which runs from 29 April to 14 June, presents 11 young Swedish artists and their connection to the Swedish artworld of the early 1980s.

Bonniers Konsthall continues to check out the Swedish contemporary art scene and just what characterises our time. Every year Bonniers Konsthall presents a group exhibition, which provides an insight into what preoccupies today’s young artists. In 2007, Bonniers Konsthall scanned the Swedish art academies and discovered the return of romanticism. Last year, Bonniers Konsthall invited its friends to present their favourites on the young Swedish art scene as a way of exploring contemporary networking.

On 29 April, the result of this year’s investigation will be presented in the exhibition Rummaging, revealing a connection between emerging contemporary artists and the Swedish artworld of the early 1980s. Works by 11 artists, all at the beginning of their careers, will be exhibited in the Rummaging exhibition that brings together both the ‘80s and the ‘00s, and form and relationships. The participating artists and their predecessors share an interest in the formal aspects of objects, spatialities, the visual and material. Like in the ‘80s, today’s artists explore art’s closeness to choreography, music and new media as well as art as a possible meeting place. The Rummaging exhibition combines monumental installation, ambiguous sculpture, real-time video and shadow play. As viewers we are invited to step into the physically tangible works in the exhibition.

Camilla Larsson, the exhibition curator:
“I see the exhibition as a creative re-reading that is not just a way of formulating a strong tendency among today’s young artists. It is also a way of retroactively directing attention towards what makes the 1980s into a historic turning point today. For me, its radicality lies in the way that the artists affirmed the unnecessary, the absurd and the tentative. They rejected things that had been formulated in advance.”

The re-reading of our contemporary history is given topical relevance in Rummaging in two ways. Partly through being the connecting thread linking the choice of artists, partly through the programme of accompanying events that spans three Wednesday evenings. Here the ‘80s meets the ‘00s in a series of discussions, performances and concerts. Those taking part include the exhibition artists and leading figures from the 1980s Swedish art scene, such as Cecilia Edefalk, Margaretha Åsberg and Max Book.

Participating artists:

Suzanna Asp, Fredrik Auster/Viggo Mörck, Ebba Bohlin, Gabo Camnitzer, Johanna Gustafsson Fürst, Åsa Norberg/Jennie Sundén, Kerstin Persson, Christin Wahlström and Anna Wignell.

Curator:

 Camilla Larsson

Bonniers Konsthall opened in autumn 2006 in the centre of Stockholm and is a venue for Swedish and international contemporary art. The exhibition is part of Bonniers Konsthall’s commitment to young Swedish contemporary art, which springs from the Maria Bonnier Dahlin Foundation’s tradition of supporting young visual artists and artistic work. The Foundation, which is the basis of Bonniers Konsthall, has awarded grants to young Swedish artists every year since 1985.

For more information and press images, please visit: www.bonnierskonsthall.se

For further information, please contact:
Metta Flensburg, Press Officer Bonniers Konsthall
+46-8-736 42 66, +46-70-280 04 13
metta.flensburg@bonnierskonsthall.se