Swedish Ecstasy

In the spring of 2023, all eyes will be on the far north. We know Sweden mainly for its pragmatism, great engineers and entrepreneurs. But there is an important yet lesser-known aspect of the nation’s spiritual life, visible in its art and literature. Bozar, Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels, is therefore staging an exhibition that brings together a number of figureheads from the Swedish art scene. Mysticism and esoteric speculation runs like a thread through their work.

Bozar will be showing work by some of the country’s most important literary figures, from the 18th-century Emanuel Swedenborg to the turn of the 20th century with August Strindberg, who is known as a writer but who also created wonderful drawings and paintings. In the same period, we find visual art by visionaries such as C.F. Hill, Ernst Josephson and Hilma af Klint. Up to this day, these visions continue to inspire contemporary artists like Carsten Höller, Christine Ödlund, Daniel Youssef, Cecilia Edefalk and Lars Olof Loeld.

Swedish Ecstasy brings together some 130 works by Swedish artists who found inspiration in the spiritual and who expand the borders of spiritual consciousness in their art. A central figure in the exhibition is Hilma af Klint (1862-1944), a pioneer of abstract art. She secretly developed a radical oeuvre that was far ahead of its time and that was only discovered after her death. In recent years her work has been a revelation in the international art world and can now be viewed for the first time in Brussels, together with the exceptional VR experience of her “temple.”

The exhibition offers a world premiere with the very first presentation of the recently discovered work of Anna Cassel, artistic soulmate and lifelong friend of Hilma af Klint. Swedish Ecstasy thus puts the spotlight on a selection of female artists and artists sometimes labeled as 'outsiders' who were long confined to the fringes of the art world. The exhibition offers an at times almost psychedelic trip through groundbreaking works of art and eccentric figures.

Curator Daniel Birnbaum: “I was the instrument of ecstasy,” wrote Swedish painter Hilma af Klint, who today is celebrated all over the world. Af Klint was not alone. This exhibition puts her work in context for the first time. In fact, mysticism and esoteric speculation are central themes in the creations of some of Sweden’s most important cultural figures, historically and today.

With: Emanuel Swedenborg, August Strindberg, Carl Fredrik Hill, Ernst Josephson, Ivan Aguéli, Hilma af Klint, Anna Cassel, De Fem, Carsten Höller, Christine Ödlund, Lars Olof Loeld, Daniel Youssef, Peter Cornell, Joakim Forsgren and Cecilia Edefalk.

Tickets: 14 EUR
Production: Bozar
Partners: Nationalmuseum, Stockholm
Support: Flemish Government, Belgian Federal Government Department of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, NextGenerationEU, IASPIS Konstnärsnämden, The Swedish Arts Grants Committee’s International Programme for Visual and Applied Arts, ArdAzAei
Structural partner: Chancellery of the Prime Minister of Belgium, Nationale Loterij/Loterie Nationale

VR experience Hilma af Klint: The Temple
Hilma af Klint’s life’s work was the subject of a “temple” in the form of a spiral designed to house her works and bring “a spiritual message for humanity.” For this ambitious project she produced 193 paintings in various series. Thanks to the VR installation this temple has now assumed digital form, enabling the public to embark on a 12-minute cosmic journey through her universe.

Around the exhibition
Bozar, Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels, is organising a number of events in connection with the exhibition, including lectures by international speakers (Gary Lachman, Magnus Florin, Briony Fer,Daniel Birnbaum, Hedvig Martin and Kurt Almqvist) (15.02), nocturnes on the last Thursdays of the month with Dominique De Groen (30.03 and 27.04) and Jeroen Olyslaegers (19.04), and the Belgian premiere of the recently released biopic “Hilma” by Lasse Hallström (26.04).

Press contact: Leen Daems, Press Expo & Coordinator Bozar Press Office, press@bozar.be
Press images