Transfeminist Perspectives on the Collection

In 2025, the slogan “Protect the Dolls” went viral after celebrities in the US wore T-shirts with the phrase. It refers to the necessity to defend trans women in particular, who, in a slang expression from queer ballroom culture, are sometimes called “dolls”. In a time of growing anti-trans movements in many countries, including Sweden, transgender people are subjected to attacks and suspicion by politicians, in the media and in public discourse. At the same time, queer and trans culture is flourishing, with roots in the avant-garde of the last century and their resistance to the emerging fascism of the time.

Against this background, Andria Nyberg Forshage provides transfeminist perspectives on the Moderna Museet Collection. Through unexpected angles, we gain insight into how gender and sexual political conflicts, and questions of embodiment and desire, are raised in surrealism and contemporary art.

Andria Nyberg Forshage

Andria Nyberg Forshage is a writer, poet and curator who works interdisciplinary with transfeminist and queer political aesthetics, perception, desire and survival. She/they is part of the editorial team of Paletten Art Magazine, curates exhibitions and symposia in Sweden and internationally, and teaches Text as an Artistic Medium at the Royal Institute of Arts and Index – The Swedish Contemporary Art Foundation.

Andria Nyberg Forshage is educated at CuratorLab at Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design and holds a master’s degree in Aesthetics from Södertörn University. Her/their texts can be read in several magazines, anthologies and catalogues, including Frieze, Kritiker and an upcoming anthology published by Routledge.