On the Absurd Drama That Is Also Life

ON THE ABSURD DRAMA THAT IS ALSO LIFE
October 26, 2024 – February 23, 2025
Turbine Hall and Loading Dock, Moderna Museet Malmö
Curator: Andreas Nilsson
Exhibition Design: Laura Kaminskaitė

Participating artists: Monster Chetwynd, Karl Dunér, Jenny Kalliokulju, Samson Kambalu, Laura Kaminskaitė, Pope.L, Kris Lemsalu & Johanna Ulfsak, Kira Nova & Ignas Krunglevičius, Filip Vest.

From the Moderna Museet Collection: Eva Aeppli, Enrico Baj, Marcel Broodthaers, René Clair, Karl Dunér & Peder Freiij, Robert Gober, Sigurdur Gudmundsson, Joan Jonas, Greta Knutson-Tzara, Tetsumi Kudo, Kris Lemsalu, Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Francis Picabia, Man Ray, Marion Scemama, Dorothéa Tanning, as well as documentation by Hugo Ball, Tetsumi Kudo, Sophie Taeuber-Arp.

Press Preview Thursday, October 24, 10:00 AM. More info below.

In the exhibition, new productions, works by contemporary artists, and pieces from the Moderna Museet Collection meet. The show features installation, sculpture, performance, film, photography, and painting, spanning across various eras. Many of the works, related to theater and drama, reflect an attitude where spontaneity, direction, or perhaps randomness, collide.

Skåne-based Jenny Kalliokulju’s new work “MAMAN or THE TONGUE” includes large-scale painting and sculpture and culminates in an opera performance in February 2025. It captures the cycles of everyday life, where lament, hope, and deep love coexist. Kira Nova & Ignas Krunglevičius’s new video piece “The Idiots” oscillates between the sensual and satirical. Through a Dadaist sense of humor, socially rigid structures are liberated, and expectations are overturned.

“The exhibition approaches the absurd with an open mind. The artworks are chosen for how they highlight art’s liberating power, using humor as one of its tools. When the subtle meets the expressive, something fragile emerges – a tear in the fabric of the everyday, leading the gaze in new directions”, says the exhibition’s curator, Andreas Nilsson.

The participating artists take us to situations and states beyond reason and logic, while reflecting a time where fiction and reality blur. Together, they present a theater of life’s incomprehensibility on the stage of the everyday, uniting resistance with a quest for freedom.

The exhibition design has been created in collaboration with artist Laura Kaminskaitė, who also contributes with works to the exhibition. A publication will be released in connection with the exhibition opening.

Program during the exhibition period
Performances:
September 27 & 28, 2024: Monster Chetwynd, “Evolution of Cat People”
October 25, 2024 (Vernissage): Kris Lemsalu. In collaboration with IASPIS, the Swedish Arts Grants Committee´s International Programme for Visual and Applied Arts.
November 7, 2024: Filip Vest, “Self Tape”
Theater:
November 28 & 29, 2024: Karl Dunér, “PING och SKALLARNA”
Opera:
February 8 & 9, 2025: Jenny Kalliokulju, “MAMAN or THE TONGUE”

Supported by:
Stiftelsen Längmanska Kulturfonden
In collaboration with:
Lithuanian Cultural Attaché in Sweden, Finland, and Denmark, with support from the Lithuanian Cultural Institute
OCA – Office for Contemporary Art Norway

PRESS PREVIEW ON THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, at 10:00 AM

Curator Andreas Nilsson will present the exhibition in the presence of the participating artists. Coffee, tea, and sandwiches will be served.

RSVP by October 20 to Alexandra Giertz, a.giertz@modernamuseet.se When registering, please mention which newspaper or media outlet you represent.

Moderna Museet Malmö is part of the state-owned Moderna Museet and is funded by the City of Malmö, Region Skåne, and the Swedish government.