Nils Dardel, Reception (Reception), 1914, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Foto Tobias Fischer Moderna Museet
With Karen Michelsen Castañón (art mediator and artist) and Tanja-Bianca Schmidt (art mediator and art historian)
In the early 20th century, Swedish artists attended Henri Matisse’s art school in Paris. There, they developed new forms of artistic expression, challenging representations of the body, nature, and society that reinforced social norms. At the same time, their work was shaped by projections onto Islamic art, as well as by exoticizing, sexualised, and racialised ideas. In this workshop, we will explore the art of Swedish Modernism with a critical awareness of power relations and discrimination. We will reflect on our own perspectives and explore methods of critically examining artworks.
During the workshop, we will address the following questions: From which position do I speak? What ideas about otherness, nudity, nature, role models, and difference does the work convey? What (hurtful) effect does exhibiting this artwork have on you? To what extent does your experience guide your perception? How does adopting a different attitude towards the work change your perception?
The workshop is process-oriented and involves various exercises and methods that use participants’ life experiences and self-observation as an important resource. The exercises are done individually, in small groups, or in full-group sessions. No prior knowledge is necessary.
Karen Michelsen Castañón (born in Lima, Perú) is a visual artist, filmmaker, and freelance researcher. Her work deals with the way (colonial) stories are told and includes short films, photographs, and textiles. She questions how both hegemonic and invisible stories are restaged in our everyday lives and how this relates to current social events.
Tanja-Bianca Schmidt studied art history in a global context. Her areas of focus are critiques of power, Black identity, and postcolonial theory. As a freelance political educator, she advises various museums in Germany on diversification and decolonisation strategies. Schmidt regularly organises workshops on discrimination-sensitive approaches in art history. She is currently completing her PhD in the DFG-funded research project “Image Protests on Social Media” at the TU Dresden (Dresden University of Technology).
We are committed to respectful interaction. Discriminatory behavior has no place at our events.
Due to the limited number of participants, please register here. Participation in public events is included with the museum admission. Meeting point: ticket counter in the foyer.