Show and Tell

What is a museum? The exhibition Show and Tell has come to life in light of recent years’ discussions about a new building for the art museum in Malmö. Our aim is to highlight the permanent collection and present a number of artists and works that seem particularly crucial today. How can we understand the world through art and the artists’ perspectives?

The collection of Malmö Konstmuseum now comprises nearly 40 thousand works of art, but most of them have long been secluded in storage, waiting for a chance to meet their audience. Show and Tell reflects a collection in transition and explores aspects such as identity, aesthetics and politics by proposing a number of new groupings and juxtapositions.

The exhibition includes over three hundred works and incorporates a variety of different styles, techniques, and epochs—stretching from the museum’s antique collection and eighteenth century masters to modernism and contemporary art. Here, Kajsa Dahlberg, Kirstine Roepstorff and Carla Zaccagnini are put in dialogue with Gilbert & George, Sophie Tottie and martyrs by 16th century masters; Sonia Delaunay-Terk and Franciska Clausen with Luca Frei and Le Corbusier; Vilhelm Hammershøi with Nan Goldin, Ola Billgren and Carl Boutard. Other dialogues include Carl Fredrik Hill, August Strindberg and Danilo Stankovic; Alexander Roslin, Annika von Hausswolff and Wolfgang Tillmans; Anders Zorn, Ann-Sofi Sidén and Lisa Tan; Christian Andersson, Sahar al-Khateeb, Donald Judd, Alexander Gutke and Kirsten Ortwed; Eva Löfdahl, Torsten Andersson and Lina Bjerneld. The selection reflects an ongoing conversation about the history and the future of the art museum. What role can a museum of art play in the globalized image culture we live in today?

Curators: Matts Leiderstam, artist and professor at Malmö Art Academy and Cecilia Widenheim, director at Malmö Konstmuseum