Conversation in the Collection: The Subterranean Sky

This year, 2024, marks one hundred years since the French poet and writer André Breton wrote the first Surrealist Manifesto. Here, Surrealism was defined as a form of thought beyond the rational, free from aesthetic and moral obligations. For over a hundred years, Surrealism has branched through art history. In the exhibition “The Subterranean Sky – Surrealism in the Moderna Museet Collection”, you can see works from classic Surrealism alongside contemporary artists exploring the subconscious and the irrational.

Participants

Lotta Antonsson belongs to a generation of Swedish artists who emerged in the early 1990s, inspired by postmodern art and theory. Antonsson’s work reflects a fascination with the late 1960s and 1970s, where the distinction between documentary and fictional is blurred, creating a meeting point for social and sexual revolutions. Her collages are part of the collections at Moderna Museet and Hallands Konstmuseum.

Cecilia Germain is from Uppsala, where she recently returned. Rest and sleep are two central themes in her work. Sleep is a way to become unreachable and to connect with one’s inner self, with one’s dreams. But Germain, whose roots trace back to the African diaspora that emerged from the transatlantic slave trade, also shows that sleep can be political. The slave trade enabled rest and relaxation for white people at the expense of other people’s lives. Her photographic series “Rest and Recovery/Silent Resistance”, displayed in “The Subterranean Sky” explores sleep as a portal to dreams but also as an act of resistance. The work has been part of Moderna Museet’s collection since 2021.

Fatima Moallim is a self-taught artist, born in Moscow with roots in Somalia and currently living in Stockholm. She works with performance, digital works, and especially drawing, often using ballpoint pens. Moallim sometimes draws on personal history, such as in her project “Flyktinglandet” (The Refugee Land), a piece involving video and performance, reflecting her parents’ escape from Mogadishu, Somalia to Moscow and Sweden. Her works are also part of the Moderna Museet collection.