Curator's presentation of the exhibition 
When: Saturday, November 12 at 14 p.m.
When: Sunday, November 13 at 14 p.m
Location: The halls, floor 2.

Is postmodernism a style?
Conversation between John Peter Nilsson, one of the curators of the exhibition, and Lars Nittve, former museum director of Moderna Museet, Tate Modern, Louisiana and M+.
When: Tuesday, November 15, 18–19 p.m.
Location: The halls, floor 2.
The Art Academy's cafe: Open extra hours 17–20 p.m.

Free admission, no pre-registration required.

There is a strange misconception that right-wing populist ideas about, for example, “alternative facts” have their roots in a postmodernist view of society and knowledge. There is also a certain lack of loyalty in Swedish cultural life. Reports of record prices at auction houses have become more important than what is actually happening in the art world. The media prioritizes selling headlines without delving into the profound implications of art for society or existence.

The idea for “When Postmodernism Came to Town” comes from two lines of reasoning. A new generation has taken up the torch since the turn of the millennium. It is time to give a glimpse of what happened during the turbulent years from the late 1970s and a decade or so onwards, something that coincided with the introduction of the term postmodernism.

During these years there was no dominant style, but rather the heterogeneous diversity that characterized the spirit of the times. This side of the so-called postmodern condition was popularized by, for example, Jean-François Lyotard in 1979 in the book “The Postmodern Condition”. Instead of an idealized idea of ​​unity, progress, meaning, depth and liberation, the emphasis was rather on deconstruction, the dissolution of accepted boundaries, play, surface and distance. If modernism had solidified in a utopian view of history as an eternal progression towards ever greater human liberation without end, postmodernism was critically self-reflexive in its retrospect with the clarity of dystopia as a recurring theme. In this time of repetition, the scenery feels eerily relevant.

Around 20 artists are participating. The selection is not made based on any art-scientific accuracy but rather on an art-historical feeling for the time. Not everyone who exhibited during these years can be shown, but the aim is that incomplete parts can create an inspiring whole. The works come directly from the artists, friends and acquaintances, and from the occasional private collection. The exhibition seeks to capture the feeling of breaking away from the provincial cautious – now “the sky is the limit” was the rule…

A free tabloid with notices of events and exhibitions between 1979 and 1994 will be published for the exhibition, as well as a dictionary of postmodern concepts compiled by Sven-Olov Wallenstein. Participating artists are: Lars Andersson, Lotta Antonsson, Kristina Abelli Elander, Ernst Billgren, Ola Billgren, Max Book, Maya Eizin Öijer, Cecilia Edefalk, Leonard Forslund, Rolf Hanson, Håkan Rehnberg, Jan Håfström, A. Karlsson Rixon, Eva Löfdahl, Lars Nilsson, Truls Melin, Paperpool International Corp., Stig Sjölund, Knut Swane, Erla Thorarinsdottir, Wallda, Måns Wrange, Martin Wickström, Dan Wolgers, Fredrik Wretman.

The exhibition is compiled by Carl Fredrik Hårleman, John Peter Nilsson, Lars Nilsson

Producer: Helen Karlsson, Academy of Fine Arts