Klara Lidén
14 May–9 October 2011
Curator: John Peter Nilsson
Public exhibition opening—everyone welcome!
Stockholm, Friday, 13 May, 6–8 pmExercisplan 4
111 49 Stockholm, Sweden
www.modernamuseet.se
The overall concept is a ghostly labyrinth with an unexpected secret chamber, designed especially by Lidén for Moderna Museet. The entrance to the exhibition has also been moved, to stress the many ways in which a building can be used.
Architecture and urban planning are central to Klara Lidén’s oeuvre. She originally studied architecture at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm in 2000-2003, but then went to Berlin for a year. There she switched to art and enrolled at the University College of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm, where she studied between 2004 and 2007.
In her work, but also in her activism in urban spaces, Klara Lidén reminds us of the complex interplay between the individual and the collective. She challenges our most fundamental perceptions of private and public spaces, and explains:
“I am partly the poor architect dealing with the problem of existing structures in a city, and partly the amateur dancer or performance artist who wants to convey ideas about rhythm and construction, or about reclaiming our built environment.”
In her installations, visitors often have to literally negotiate her constructions, which insist on being acknowledged. Now, she is going the full monty and “disturbing” the habitual museum experience with her labyrinthine enactment.
“Every day, all over the world, people travel by underground or bus, wait at crossings, stand in queues or drive on the correct side of the road. It is astounding that this communality actually works. Klara Lidén’s art reminds us, however, of how fragile this community is. Sometimes it is even forced upon us. She makes me feel uncomfortable about my deceptive longing for perpetual security,” says the curator, John Peter Nilsson.
