Elaine Sturtevant's repetition of Gonzalez-Torres' untitled light display at the Moderna Museet.

I’ve been thinking about an exhibition I saw recently at the Moderna Museet or Modern Museum here in Stockholm. Called Parallella världar or parallel worlds, the exhibition has a myriad of video displays by Finnish artist Eija-Liisa Ahtila. There is an amazing video installation where you sit in the middle of a round room on a chair that spins in any direction you want so that you can see the scenes that are taking place all around you. Where is Where is an amazing and often overwhelming installation that depicts how history affects our perception of reality. Two worlds are shown together, including one where the war 50 years ago in Algeria brings two Arab boys to kill their French friend. This storyline is contrasted with one where a European poet tries to make sense of this event in her writing with the help of the character Death. It’s powerful stuff.

Somehow this show got me thinking in another direction as well, in terms of how when you live as an expat, you also live in parallel worlds. You live in your adopted homeland and try to figure out the nuances of a new culture and language. But you also live in the world where you are from, the world that has shaped and made you who you are. Somehow, you try to make sense of these two worlds and meld them together to become the you that is shaped and changed by both worlds. As a result of this experience, you no longer really fit in with either world.

There are so many things about Sweden that I love, respect, admire and have adopted, but there are also a lot of things I don’t understand and that I don’t like. And what’s more, I don’t think I want to change that thinking too much. I want to keep the American in me, too. It’s not always easy to live abroad, but I like to think that I have been changed for the better as a result of it.

Artist John Daily talks with Nicole.

Learning about the gallery.

Daria and John.

Artist Deborah House and Brooke Decker sample the Prosecco.

For 15 years, I worked for art magazines in the US. Basically, I got paid to talk and write about art. It was a great gig and I still love hanging out with artists. So it was fun last week when I hosted an evening at a local art gallery for the American Women’s Club of Stockholm. The event was held at Galleri Duerr and owner Deborah had arranged a private showing of a group of artists. We had the gallery to ourselves and drank Prosecco and talked art. It was a fantstic way to spend a rainy Wednesday night.

Photos by Robert Corkery.

As I promised in my post yesterday, the penthouse is where the permanent collection is in Sven-Harry’s art museum. Not surprisingly for a penthouse, it has a great view – it overlooks Vasa Park. The terrace has some sculptures and seating. And in the snow with the lights glowing from inside the museum, it looked like a magical place. But I think it might be a better spot to spend some time at in the summer.

The rooftop sculpture garden.

Looking down onto the hockey rink in Vasaparken from the roof.

The Black Box party at Sven-Harry's art museum in Stockholm. Nice food, huh?

Just in time for helping me forget my winter blah’s, I went to a party at a new art museum in Stockholm: Sven-Harry’s. First of all, don’t you love the name? Sven-Harry’s sounds like a great bar or cafe name, not like the konstmuseum or art museum that it is. It was opened last year by architect Sven-Harry Karlsson and houses his own collection of art that was 30 years in the making.

A little champagne, anyone?

The museum also features a gallery and restaurant and interestingly, the permanent collection is on the top floor in a space that recreates rooms in Sven-Harry’s classic 1700s manor house, thus making you somehow feel like you are right at home. The exterior and other floors of the museum are uniquely modern with lots of glass and brass.

Sven-Harry's permanent collection is displayed in his "home."

By the way, I was at the museum on Monday night for an equally cool purpose: a party to celebrate creativity and thinking inside the box for inspiration. The event was put on by Iggesund paper company for their Black Box Project.  It was a wonderful combination of art, food and champagne. And it was definitely a good way to spend a winter night.

Sven-Harry’s is located in Vasaparken in central Stockholm. I will share a few cool photos of the rooftop terrace tomorrow.

Robert checking out the gallery space.

The interior courtyard garden at Tessin Palace.

The not so fancy exterior of the palace.

Like most anyone, I love it when I get the chance to do something special. On Thursday, I had the unique opportunity to tour the Tessinska Palatset or the Tessin Palace as part of the 100th anniversary celebration for the American Women’s Club here.

Completed in 1697, the palace is not open to the public and is the home of the governor of the county of Stockholm. Located on Slottsbacken on Gamla Stan, Tessin has all the things you hope to see in a cool old palace: gorgeous gardens, opulent furnishings and rooms, elaborately painted frescoes, crystal chandeliers. The palace was designed and built by the architect Nicodemus Tessin the Younger as his own home and reflects his inspirations from trips to Italy and France. It’s been beautifully preserved and restored and it really felt quite special to see the place. And even better, since I was helping out with the event, I arrived before the crowd and got to wander around the gardens.

Another garden view.

Looking back toward the entrance.

Inside the palace. All interior photos by Robert Corkery.

Various views of the interior frescoes which were painted with scenes of architects, artists, sculptures and views of Italian landscapes.

Striking a garden pose before the event began.

The entrance to the Fotografiska museum. I loved the stormy skies on Sunday. Photo by Robert Corkery.

In 1990, I was living in Cincinnati when a photo exhibit by Robert Mapplethorpe titled The Perfect Moment caused a huge uproar. The traveling exhibition was funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and it started a debate about public funding of the arts and defining what is obscene. At the heart of the battle were nude photos of children, as well as some sexually provocative shots of nude men.

Just a few hours after the opening of the show, curator Dennis Barrie and the Contemporary Arts Center were indicted for pandering obscenity. I was then in charge of a group of fine art magazines and went with my staff to rally in support of the arts and the show at Fountain Square, in the center of the city. Later, Barrie and the arts center were acquitted and the show went on.

Me and my bike, just leaving the Mapplethorpe show.

I was reminded of all this on Sunday when Robert and I went to the Fotografiska Museum here to see the
Mapplethorpe show. I recognized a lot of the works and was again struck by how beautiful the images were. And it was amusing to see how people reacted to some of the photos that were deemed obscene over 20 years ago – mostly, people laughed at the well-endowed anatomy and moved on.

Jutta Koether and Kim Gordon performing at the Moderna Museet on Friday night.

For me, performance art tends to run to the extremes. Either it’s really and truly bad and I hate it or it’s amazing and I am energized. Luckily for me, Friday night I saw the latter type of performance. We went to an opening for a show featuring the paintings of German artist Jutta Koether at the Moderna Museet or Modern Museum.

Kim reading poetry during the performance.

Jutta is an all-around creative type and is also an art and rock critic, musician  and writer. For the opening, she played keyboards while Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth played guitar and read poems by Tony Conrad. Maybe that sounds like a pretty Sunday afternoon at the museum kind of combination. But this was definitely anything but that.

Jutta on the keyboards.

The two often collaborate on performance projects such as this one and the result is jarring, electric and powerful. Kim was playing the guitar with a piece of metal, using it like a weapon to make her way through the crowd. Jutta also had a camera mounted on a pole that she would wave over the audience and the images were projected large on a wall. My best description of the music would be avant-garde punk noise. But somehow, it all came together and made for such a great show that we never made it in to see the paintings.

Last night, we went to the Moderna Museum for the opening of their newest show, The Moderna Exhibition 2010. This exhibition takes place every four years and showcases the Swedish contemporary art scene. Thus it is much larger than a typical show, with more artists and more works. In fact, we did not have enough time to see the entire show last night and will need to go back.

There are 54 artists represented in all sorts of mediums, from paintings and sculptures to videos and photos. There are some really good  thought-provoking works, while there were some works that felt more like “been there, done that.” While I don’t think it is the best show that I’ve ever seen at the Moderna, I did enjoy several pieces. From what I’ve seen of the show thus far, I thought the video installation Mitt land (Någonstans i Sverige) or my Country (Somewhere in Sweden) by Ann-Sofi Siden did the best job of depicting the show’s theme of what is the Swedish identity.

I’m looking forward to going back again to see more. The exhibition officially opens on Saturday, by the way. More details here: Moderna.

Music at the ambassador's place. Photo by Lynda Wilson.

“I’d like to have your life,” said Robert to me as I ran out this door this morning. I was on my way to an art/cultural event at the American ambassador’s residence. What could I do but agree, for my  life is good. Thanks to freelancing, I can keep a flexible schedule and partake of opportunities like this one when they come up. As for the residence, we were there to tour an art show there that featured contemporary artists from the US. We had fika (coffee and sweets) and music by a young trio from  the Stockholm music school. It was all an excellent way to start a chilly autumn Tuesday. Now I am back to work and there is drilling going on outside my window that seems to be boring directly into my brain. The peace of the morning is rapidly evaporating.

Checking out the rainy day view from the cafe at the Fotografiska Museet in Stockholm.

Yesterday, we checked out the brand new Fotografiska Museet – a museum that showcases contemporary photography. Not only did I enjoy the exhibitions, I also loved the building itself and the view.

The opening exhibitions featured photographs by Annie Leibovitz, Vee Speers, Lennart Nilsson and Joel-Peter Witkin. Each artist has a uniquely different vision from the others. Leibovitz’s exhibition featured many of her iconic shots for magazines Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone, including photos of Demi Moore, Brad Pitt, Mick Jagger, John Lennon and Bill Clinton, as well as more personal photos of her parents, children and longtime partner Susan Sontag. Given that I knew so much of Annie’s work, I was surprised by how much I did not know and how much I enjoyed it all.

The Nilsson exhibit featured his groundbreaking photos of the human fetus inside the womb. These photos are spectacular not only in what they show, but also in how beautiful they are. The other two exhibitions are also more than worth checking out, as is the building itself. The Stora Tullhuset is an old customs house that has been beautifully restored and makes for a great exhibition space. And the location directly on the Baltic means that the views looking out are photograph-worthy in themselves. Here’s a link to the museum’s web site: Fotografiska Museet. And also a link to fellow Stockholm blogger Anne’s firsthand account of the opening party: Livet Lagom.