The Art of Collecting

Moderna Museet has one of Europe’s foremost collections of international modern and contemporary art. Over the past five years, over 2,000 artworks have been added to the collection.

The exhibition “The Art of Collecting” presents around 40 of the new acquisitions – including paintings, installations, video works and sculptures, spread across the exhibition’s 660 square metres.

Growing in new directions

The artworks and practises that visitors encounter in the exhibition are examples of how the Moderna Museet Collection is growing in new directions, with new voices and different perspectives.

Here you will find Outi Pieski’s textile installation “Beavvit II” (2021), which brings to mind the changes in the sky and was created with inspiration from duodji – a Sami aesthetic expression that has both a functional and spiritual dimension –, Hans Haacke’s “The Road to Profit Is Paved with Culture” from 1976 – a montage that critically examines cultural sponsorship as a strategy to strengthen brands and deflect criticism –, and Anna Odell’s acclaimed video installation “Unknown, Woman 2009–34970”, which depicts forced care in Swedish psychiatry through a staging.

Other examples are works by Peter Geschwind, Deana Lawson, Jockum Nordström, Rose B. Simpson and Iiu Susiraja.

The artworks’ path into the collection

What determines whether an artwork should and can be included in the collection or not? What does the decision-making process look like? What stories and voices should the collection contain? What gaps should be filled and what new stories should be included?

In the exhibition’s audio guide, the audience gets an insight into the museum’s often “invisible” work with the collection – the work that is done behind the scenes. The visitor is invited, through the perspective of various museum professionals, to explore the journey artworks make as they enter the Collection and are prepared to go on display in an exhibition: from considerations before a purchase or a gift, the curator’s perspective and the conservator’s analysis of a work, to the artwork’s placement on the shelf of the depository and its final position on display in the exhibition space ready to meet the audience.

Curator: Asrin Haidari