Sustainable Societies for the Future

How can we generate new ideas and actions for a sustainable world? How can art act as stimulant for a more sustainable way of living?

The exhibition project Sustainable Societies for the Future springs from one of the most complex and urgent challenges of our day: how to create safe, inclusive, and sustainable societies. 20 artists and artist groups are contributing works to the exhibition, that in different ways encourage dialogue and engagement with sustainability issues of local and global urgency.

Sustainable Societies for the Future highlights three dimensions of sustainability—the ecological, the social, and the economic perspectives. The exhibition aims to demonstrate how these different aspects interact with one another. How do we treat our ecosystems with proper attention and long-sightedness? How can we create a society in which human rights are respected? And how do we satisfy humanity’s fundamental needs, given the earth’s limited resources, without negative consequences for people, plants, animals, or the planet?

The artists in this exhibition are from the Nordic countries and the United States. From photo and video to performances and installations, the artists create a dialogue reflecting on how art can inspire social engagement, leading to a better common future by creating new ways of seeing, thinking, believing, and acting.

Participating artists: Catrin Andersson, Christian Falsnaes, Tue Greenfort, Max Guy, Ilkka Halso, Minna Henriksson, Ane Hjort Guttu, Hesselholdt & Mejlvang, Ingela Ihrman, Toril Johannessen & Marjolijn Dijkman, Mary Mattingly, Floating Museum, (P)Art of the Biomass, Cheryl Pope, Sean Raspet, Michael x. Ryan, Nilsmagnus Sköld, Sophie Tottie, Wang & Söderström and Amanda Williams.

As an opening of the exhibition, Malmö Art Museum organizes the digital seminar “Museums as Catalysts for Change” in collaboration with Expo Chicago, US, focusing on the roles and possible responsibilities of museums in relation to the global and local challenges we face today.

The seminar brings together experts from different fields of knowledge to discuss the potential of art institutions: How we can think and act in a more sustainable fashion and what opportunities and challenges await artists and institutions? By letting artists, curators, researchers and activists in several areas meet in dialogue, we hope to deepen the perspectives and formulate possible ways forward. 

Museums as Catalysts for Change, January 22, 3-6pm (CET)

Introduction (3–3:15pm): Short interview by Tominga Hope O’Donnell, Senior Curator at the Munch Museum, Oslo  with Kirse Junge-Stevnsborg, Director at Malmö Art Museum.   
The potential of Art Institutions Today (3:15–3:50pm): Luise Faurschou, founder of ART 2030 and Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen, artist, Copenhagen, moderated by Tominga Hope O’Donnell.   
Putting the Now on the agenda (3:50–4:25pm): Stephanie  Cristello, curator, critic and founding Editor-in-Chief of the journal THE SEEN, Chicago and Michael Thouber, Director at Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen.
10 minute break   
Perspectives on Public Programming (4:35–5:10pm): Laura Mott, Senior Curator at Cranbrook Art Museum, Detroit and Ulrika Flink, Artistic Director of Konsthall C, Stockholm.
Pushing the Social Sustainable Agendas (5:10–5:45pm): Minna Henriksson, artist, Helsinki, Parvin Ardalan, journalist and activist, Malmö, and Rahel Weldeab Sebhatu, postcolonial feminist and Pan-Africanist, Malmö University.   
End Remarks (5:45–6pm): Tominga Hope O’Donnell  

Seminar info here.

Direct link to the seminar: https://youtu.be/FtTqCk_aGLg 

Sustainable Societies for the Future is an extensive collaboration between Malmö Art Museum and Expo Chicago in the United States. The exhibition is a part of Art 2030, an international organization that unites art with the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainability and its seventeen Global Goals. The project includes exhibitions held during the year in Malmö and Chicago, several performances and digital activities, the seminar Museums as Catalysts for Change, organized by Malmö Art Museum, and the parallel seminar Alternate Assembly: Environmental Impact in the Era of Pandemic, organized by EXPO Chicago. In collaboration with MOTTO Books and THE SEEN, a publication that documents the project in its entirety will also be published. 

The project Sustainable Societies for the Future is curated by Stephanie Cristello, Kirse Junge-Stevnsborg and Anne Thomasen.

The exhibition period for Sustainable Societies for the Future is February 1 until May 23, but the museum is temporarily closed to visitors due to Covid-19. Until we open again, the exhibition will be made available through several digital public events.