Anna Odell, Unknown, Woman 2009-349701, 2009 © Anna Odell Bildupphovsrätt 2025

Live at Moderna Museet: Anna Odell

Conversation

21.10 2025

Stockholm

With her breakthrough work “Unknown, Woman 2009-349701” (2009), Anna Odell sparked debate about both psychiatric care and the boundaries of art. Meet her in a conversation about the work, currently shown in the exhibition “The Art of Collecting – Expanding the Moderna Museet Collection”. The conversation will be broadcast live on Moderna Museet’s Facebook, but you are also welcome to participate on site at the museum.

In the programme series Live at Moderna Museet, an artist is invited to talk about a work in the museum collection or a current exhibition. Often it is about their own work, but sometimes about another artist.

In the work “Unknown, Woman 2009-349701” (2009), Anna Odell reconstructed a psychosis on the bridge Liljeholmsbron in Stockholm, which led to her being temporarily taken into compulsory institutional care. The action and its aftermath received great attention and sparked debate about both the boundaries of art and psychiatric care in Sweden. The work is part of the Moderna Museet Collection and is currently shown in the exhibition “The Art of Collecting – Expanding the Moderna Museet Collection”.

Live at Moderna Museet: Anna Odell

Conversation

Date

Tuesday 21 October 2025

Time

17.30–18.00

Place

In the exhibition “The Art of Collecting – Expanding the Moderna Museet Collection”, floor 4

The session will be broadcast live on Moderna Museet’s Facebook

Language

Swedish

Price

150 SEK, 120 SEK for students and seniors (entrance ticket included).
Free for those with an annual pass and other free categories

Buy ticket

Contact: Ulf Eriksson, Moderna Museet

Anna Odell was born in 1973 in Stockholm, where she works as an artist and filmmaker. She graduated from Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design in 2009 and her graduate work “Unknown, Woman 2009-349701” received great attention. Since then, she has continued to create art and film that engages and affects.

Anna Odell’s art raises questions about power, norms and identity. By using her own body and position as an artist, she examines the boundaries of society. Her art moves in the field between the personal and the political, where the boundary between reality and fiction is fluid. With an analytical and at the same time emotional appeal, Odell highlights issues of mental illness, social control and hierarchies in healthcare, education and the public sphere.

Her works have been shown both in cinemas and in art institutions such as Kalmar Art Museum, Kulturhuset in Stockholm and Uppsala Art Museum. She is represented in several collections, including the Moderna Museet Collection. Anna Odell made her directorial debut in 2013 with the feature film “Återträffen”, which won two of the Swedish film award Guldbaggen’s most prestigious awards, and followed up with the drama “X & Y” in 2018.

HOW CAN I WATCH THE LIVE BROADCASTS?

You can watch the live broadcast on Moderna Museet Facebook, and a Facebook account is required to view it. The broadcast begins a few minutes before the scheduled time. You can find it in the event or under “Posts” on Moderna Museet’s Facebook page.