Arcadia – A Paradise Lost  Färgfabriken co-curates at Nationalmuseum

Collection exhibition 

Nationalmuseum 

Färgfabriken and Nationalmuseum initiated a collaboration during the spring of 2019, focusing on exploring and what historical and contemporary art bears witness to and teaches us about nature resources and climate politics. The experience exchange between these two institutions also clarifies the need of cooperation between different working methods that actively combines a critical and symbiotic thinking. Lastly, it is about a cooperation that comes from the common curiosity, respect and humility towards each others ways of understanding and participating in our time.  

The cooperation between Färgfabriken and Nationalmuseum takes form in different ways. During the fall of 2020 through the exhibition Arcadia – a lost paradise in Nationalmuseum. Through the theme of Hinterland Färgfabriken has choses works from the collections in Nationalmuseum that are tied to questions on natural resources and climate politics. The theme of Hinterland is developed through the examining program and the exhibition Symbiosis in the fall of 2021. 

The exhibition Arcadia – A Paradise Lost tells us about an escape from reality and an eternal longing beyond civilization. It illuminizses myths, poems and love stores, and asked questions about the role of human beings in nature – then and now. The motifs are landscape and nature, but when you examine the pieces more closely you could discover stories drawn from fairy-tales and literature that take place in the glades. 

The more idea-based discussions surrounding the human image of nature are deepened by a collaboration with Färgfabriken. At this point the exhibition left Arcadia to explore the industrialized society’s relationship with nature on the theme of hinterland. A number of pieces from Nationalmuseum’s collections by artists such as Prince Eugen, Axel Sjöberg and Anna Boberg are discussed and displayed based on contemporary discussions on natural resources, urbanization and climate issues. Contemporary photographs taken by Suvra Kanti Das from Bangladesh were also featured there. 

Related

Arcadia – a lost paradise at the National Museum

Färgfabriken’s Symbiosis project and the theme “Hinterlands”.

Delta and Sediment, former exhibition at Färgfabriken with Suvra Kanti Das and others.