Nationalmuseum’s Slow Art exhibition goes to Paris

In the spring and early summer of next year, Slow Art will be on show at the Swedish Institute in Paris. An international audience will now have the chance to see this exhibition of carefully crafted artifacts by Swedish artisans, which has already toured to various museums in Sweden. After Paris, the exhibition’s next stops will be Gävle and Jönköping.

Produced by Nationalmuseum, Slow Art was highly acclaimed by visitors to the museum during its initial run in 2012. The exhibition focuses on technique, materials and labour-intensive processes, presenting select artifacts from the past three decades produced by Swedish artists working in glass, ceramics, textiles, metal, wood and paper. The emphasis is on making pieces well rather than quickly, on valuing quality over quantity.

“Slow Art focuses attention on a marginal phenomenon in the contemporary design world that is all about putting time and production processes in perspective,” said Berndt Arell, director general of Nationalmuseum. “In an increasingly fast-paced world, this is a very topical issue. The exhibition is a fabulous opportunity to put Swedish artisans and Nationalmuseum’s contemporary craft and design collection in the international spotlight.”

“We are excited to bring Slow Art to the quality-conscious Paris audience right here in a neighbourhood where milliners, silversmiths and embroiderers, and other masters of the gentle arts, still practise their artful, time-consuming craft,” said Mats Widbom, director of the Swedish Institute in Paris.

With the Nationalmuseum building closed for renovation until 2017, the museum is able to loan out artworks from its collections to a greater extent than usual, both within Sweden and worldwide. Selected pieces from the collections are on display in temporary galleries at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts (Konstakademien) in Stockholm and in exhibitions co-produced with regional museums and art galleries across Sweden.

Slow Art has also been exhibited at Kalmar Castle and Falkenberg Museum during the past year. After its Paris engagement, the exhibition will return to Sweden, appearing at the Gävleborg County Museum in autumn 2014 and the Jönköping County Museum in spring 2015.

Slow Art will be on show at the Swedish Institute in Paris from 10 May to 13 July 2014.

Further information
Hanna Tottmar, press officer, hanna.tottmar@nationalmuseum.se,  +46 767 23 46 32
Gunilla Norén, communications officer Swedish Institute in Paris, gunilla.noren@si.se, +33 1 44 78 80 15

Nationalmuseum is Sweden’s premier museum of art and design. The collections comprise older paintings, sculpture, drawings and graphic art, and applied art and design up to the present day. The museum building is currently under renovation and scheduled to open again in 2017. In the meantime, the museum will continue its activities through collaborations, touring exhibitions and a temporary venue at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts, Fredsgatan 12, Stockholm. Nationalmuseum collaborates with Svenska Dagbladet, Fältman & Malmén and Grand Hôtel Stockholm. For more information visit www.nationalmuseum.se.

Located right in the heart of Paris, in the Marais district, the Swedish Institute, Sweden's only cultural center abroad, offers a rich, multi-faceted program. With the mission to present Swedish contemporary culture to the French public, the Swedish Institute organize every year several art and design exhibitions as well as concerts, film screenings, literature evenings, Swedish language classes, children's activities and debates on cultural and social issues. More than 100,000 people visit the Swedish Institute annually. For more information visit www.institutsuedois.fr.