In 2011, Moderna Museet’s new directors, Daniel Birnbaum and Ann-Sofi Noring, launched a new presentation of the collection. Another Story gives a fresh angle on art history, based on works from the Moderna Museet collection. The museum will start by focusing on photography, which will gradually be given a more prominent position, only to fill the entire exhibition of the permanent collection this autumn.
“We want to show the museum collection from a new perspective, but also to present an alternative art history, not one that is more true, but simply another perspective. We have noted a strong demand to see more of Moderna Museet’s large collection of photography among our visitors. With this venture, we hope to contribute in a way that only we can, and to give the public what they have a right to expect from us, namely the historic dimension. We are also intensifying our research into photographic images,” says Daniel Birnbaum, director of Moderna Museet.
“We are planning to publish four new books about our photography collection together with the German publishing company Steidl. The first book, Reality Revisited, was published in autumn 2010. This will be a ground-breaking project, both for the wider public and for experts on photography. Ours is the largest curated photo presentation ever to be undertaken by a Swedish museum,” says Ann-Sofi Noring, co-director.
Moderna Museet has one of Europe’s finest collections of photography, ranging from 1840 to the present day. Many of the most famous names in photographic history are represented, and the collection comprises more than 100,000 works. The re-hanging of the permanent collection exhibition will be done in three stages. In February, they opened the first part, Another Story: Possessed by the Camera, which presents contemporary photography-based art. Just before summer they opened Another Story: See the World!, presenting the period 1920-1980. This autumn, they look at the early days of photography. Another Story: Written in Light presents the pioneers of photography from 1840 to the first three decades of the 20th century. In autumn 2011 and for the rest of the year, the entire permanent collection exhibition will consist of photography and photo-based art. In 2012, many of our famous paintings and sculptures will, of course, be on display in the exhibition again, in a new presentation of the collection.
