Rainbow in the Dark: On the Joy and Torment of Faith
October 17, 2015–January 17, 2016
Malmö Konstmuseum
Malmöhusvägen 6
201 24 Malmö
Sweden
Participating artists: Juan Pérez Agirregoikoa, Mirosław Bałka, Yael Bartana, Magnus Bärtås, Yane Calovski and Hristina Ivanoska, Köken Ergun, Carl Johan Erikson, Etcetera, Michael Kessus Gedalyovich, Tamar Guimarães and Kasper Akhøj, Nilbar Güreş, Michal Heiman, Jonathan Horowitz, Gülsün Karamustafa, Paweł Kwiek, Jumana Manna and Sille Storihle, Honorata Martin, Virgínia de Medeiros, Teresa Murak, Nira Pereg, Lene Adler Petersen and Bjørn Nørgaard, Wael Shawky, Slavs and Tatars, Zbigniew Warpechowski, Nahúm B Zenil, Artur Żmijewski
Rainbow in the Dark: On the Joy and Torment of Faith is an exhibition on art, religious rituals, mysticism, spirituality and faith investigating how contemporary art challenges the outdated opposition between religious and secular societies. The exhibition is set within the context of post-secularism and explores the ways that current art addresses the appeal of religion, mysticism and the irrational.
German philosopher Jürgen Habermas uses the term “post-secular society” in reference to the adaptation of European political consciousness to the increased visibility of immigrant communities and the heightened profile of faith in public debates. The return of religious power, or the entry of religion from the marginal to the mainstream of cultural and political awareness, also applies to the visual arts, hitherto considered fortresses of secular values in society.
Rainbow in the Dark: On the Joy and Torment of Faith is a sequel to the project first presented at SALT Galata in Istanbul, which referred to the socio-political and religious context of Turkey. For the project at Malmö Konstmuseum, a new constellation of works accentuates the context of Sweden’s secularised society and its contemporary challenges related to religious and ethnic conflicts.
The exhibition also pays tribute to the period of six months in 1945 when Malmö Konstmuseum served as a refugee camp and quarantine centre for former concentration camp prisoners. It is known that the refugees built an altar from exhibits found in the museum, an assemblage serving as a place of worship—a powerful example of Duchamp’s “reciprocal readymade”—stressing the intricate relationship between a work of art and a sacred cult object.
Curators: Galit Eilat and Sebastian Cichocki
This exhibition was made possible by generous loans from the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw; the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, Netherlands; Studio Filmowe Indeks in Łódź; and Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen, with additional support from the Polish Institute in Stockholm.
