About the absurd drama that is also life

"About the absurd drama that is also life" is a group exhibition that invites the visitor to approach the farcical and theatrical, with an open mind.

The exhibition presents artists who take us to situations and states beyond reason and logic, but who at the same time reflect our times. Together, they highlight a theater of life's incomprehensibility on the surrounding everyday stage, combining a subtle resistance with a quest for freedom.

In addition to new productions and works by contemporary artists, such as Monster Chetwynd and Kris Lemsalu, the exhibition also includes artworks from the Moderna Museet collection, for example by Francis Picabia, Ralph Eugene Meatyard and Greta Knutson-Tzara. In this way, the exhibition presents a range of different artistic methods, techniques and eras, and not least works that are closely related to theatre and drama. What the artists have in common is an attitude and approach where humour, provocation, playfulness and seriousness are intertwined - spontaneously, directed or perhaps by chance. A number of performance works will be performed during the exhibition period.

The exhibition catalogue published in conjunction with the exhibition contains, in addition to an in-depth essay by the exhibition curator, a libretto written by participating artist Jenny Kalliokulju, as well as rich visual material.

Participating artists

Monster Chetwynd, Karl Dunér, Jenny Kalliokulju, Samson Kambalu, Laura Kaminskaite, Pope.L, Kris Lemsalu & Johanna Ulfsak, ​​Kira Nova & Ignas Krunglevicius, Filip Vest

From the collection of Moderna Museet

Eva Aeppli, Enrico Baj, Marcel Broodthaers, René Clair, Karl Dunér & Peder Freiij, Joan Jonas, Robert Gober, Sigurdur Gudmundsson, Greta Knutson-Tzara, Tetsumi Kudo, Kris Lemsalu, Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Francis Picabia, Man Ray, Marion Scemama, Dorothéa Tanning and documentation by Hugo Ball, Tetsumi Kudo, Sophie Taeuber-Arp.

Author: Andreas Nilsson, Jenny Kalliokulju, Elisabeth Millqvist (foreword)
Editor: Andreas Nilsson
Binding: softcover
Language: Swedish/English
Graphic design: Varv Varv
Printing house: Printon, Tallinn
Size: 13 x 21 x 1 cm
Number of pages: 148
Number of images: approx. 50

Moderna Museet exhibition catalogue no. 428

ISBN 978-91-988137-4-6 8 (Modern Museum)
ISBN 978-3-7533-0751-0 (Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne)

With support from: The Längmanska Cultural Foundation