The Moderna Museet has Re-opened.

Following two years of repair work and architectural refurbishment, Stockholm’s Moderna Museet re-opened in February this year. Considered by many as the largest and most comprehensive museum of contemporary art north of Düsseldorf, the current director Lars Nittve is finally in a position to resurrect its reputation and the building’s image.

Just one month into the program a candlelit procession of twinkling lights lined the path from the new waterside entrance (a path that the original architect Rafael Moneo had always intended for) to the first in the Moderna by Night series of art and music events. The evening concluded with a performance by Swedish artist Tobias Bernstrup and attracted a full auditorium of local artists, curators and musicians. People were drinking in a bar set up in the adopted education room, a DJ played continuously next-door and even though the performances were seated, the atmosphere was relaxed and casual. One of Bernstrup’s computer-animated creations - a man repeatedly running around a corridor, to become more and more consumed by grey fog with each circuit - provided an hypnotic backdrop for his entrance. As the artist took his position, clad in a robotic suit, a monocle over one eye and a large barrelled gun by his side, it felt like the Moderna Museet had reopened as a young and hip venue. Even Bernstrup’s finale lyrics: ‘You, You’re only beautiful at night, here in the fluorescent flickering lights’ seemed to say it all.

A second visit the following morning suggested that the new Moderna Museet is still a rather conservative but popular institution, that is attracting a diverse crowd of Tate-like proportions. Admission is now free to all and this, along with the new emphasis on open-plan public meeting space, which incorporates bookshops, cafes and a large day-lit lobby, courtesy Marge Arkitektur practice, has tempted a continuous stream of visitors. An installation of fabric wall panels by Yinka Shonibare counterbalances the minimal quality of the surrounding architecture and is most successful as an introductory work at the waterside entrance. Also located at this entrance is a new interactive Studio Video lounge. Here one can select art videos at choice from the Moderna Museet’s collection and view them via a computer screen or projected on the side wall. It is a great research point, which also enables more discerning visitors the opportunity to view work that is of personal interest, a positive shift to what could be a new era of interactive curating.

There is a strong respect for the Moderna Museet in Stockholm and yet even those working in its shadow are aware that there is a need for more alternative, independent art spaces in the city to balance its strong institutional message. In response to this situation, Jelena Runqvist who had previously initiated the project After Shopping and Ylva Ogland and Rodrigo Mallea Lira who founded the project Modern Talking recently came together to form Konst2. Launched in the suburb district of Skarholmen in an ex-immigration office, activities at Konst2 intend to question and avoid the conservatism associated with the more traditional art institution. The ‘2’ in the title refers to the other facets of art production such as design, fashion and architecture, which Konst2 believe the art world too often perceive as the ‘other’, a situation they are interested to dissolve by integrating all these cultural disciplines within one situation. The space acts as a public working platform, with spaces and offices for artists, designers, curators etc., to work and collaborate on joint projects.

The interior of Konst2 can also be read as one large collaborative project with the most ingenious intervention created by architects and designers Ugly Cute. To soften the previous and current distinction between public and private space, the floor carpet has been extended up to cover the dividing walls. Cuts in the carpet provide visual access between each space and this flexible design allows more material to be cut away at the users’ discretion.

Konst2 have attempted to create a situation where all their activities start from scratch, from the interior by Uglycute, to their graphics – a blank pad of coloured lined papers. It’s a nice utopian concept, but surely it is naive to suggest you can create anything from a starting point of nothing. Another concern is how Konst2 relates to its public. It is essentially a public space, but its activities are diverse and appear quite insular confined to those that they collaborate with and their friends from the local art and design scene. The shop signals at these contradictions. It sells design objects and art concepts– for example you can purchase the instructions to a conceptual art work or a designed object such as shelf or wallpaper. This suggests a registered difference between ideas and objects, the facets of art production that Konst2 endeavour to bring together.

The strong sense of collaboration seen at Konst2 is extremely prevalent in Stockholm. Last November this network was used to its full potential when many of the artist run and independent spaces together organised a public open day. Under the title Southern Comfort and with Index as the main facilitator the following spaces and initatives: Make It Happen, CFF, Sauna, Idi, Konst2, Candyland, Soc, Bondegatan, United networks, Site, Uglycute, Crac, Fylkingen, Studio and The Union along with others, will list their activities and open their doors to the public in a concerted effort again in May. This collaborative condition however active and positive is in danger of internalising Stockholm’s art scene with the same people coming together and relying on one another’s creative support time and again. As the three protagonists of Konst2 also take up artistic directorial posts at Testa Konsthall, their initial aim to create a complex production site as an ambitious response to the form of the institution already seems to have been integrated into the system. With similar local support existing in terms of funding, together these structures hinder the possibility for an alternative underground, mediating even the most experimental new projects into the mainstream.