marginalia

so while the whole swedish thing was basically a family visit we did manage some time off (esp as we were staying about two minnutes away) to get up to the moderna museet for a general wander about. or so we thought.

we were well impressed with the architecture museum the last time we were there so it didn't take much persuading, esp as i mumbled something about a craft exhibit, for t to go again. and so glad that we did. at last, some sort of arts and crafts that actually blends both the art and the craft! this was easily the best art and craft thing i've ever been to and, sadly, different to anything we see around here. loads to see and think about and a great springboard to enthuse us about projects we want to start over the winter.

on then to the moderna where, along with their permanent collection, they were showcasing 54 of the best in swedish art. sometimes that might make the heart sink a bit but not this time.again, it was fabulous. there was even video work i sat down and watched. and watched. and watched. to pick one work at random there was kajsa dahlberg's a thousand libraries which entailed going round all of sweden's libraries and photcopying any annotated pages of virginia woolf's a room of one's own, then presenting the lot as a limited edition artist's book which can now be found in most of the aforesaid libraries. obviously you'd think being able to read swedish would be an advantage but in the end really not as to be functionally illiterate was to be able to appreciate the emotions in the handwriting, the double underlinings, exclamations marks and other fulminations. it was both beguiling and intriguing.

after all that, the permanent collection was, to be honest, a bit drab although, to be fair, we were kind of hungry by that time and we have seen most of it many times before. i'm still liking the yves klein tho and they had a big display of rodchenko posters that was never going to do less than catch the eye