In a world where design is often celebrated for its role in advancing humanity, it is important to also question this narrative through a critical lens. In her doctoral thesis, Anja Neidhardt-Mokoena investigates the role design has played in sustaining discriminatory and patriarchal systems.
![© Aron Landahl, from the picture book Alla äter alla [Everybody Eats Everybody], 2023. Courtesy of the artist.](https://mnd-assets.mynewsdesk.com/image/upload/ar_16:9,c_fill,dpr_auto,f_auto,g_auto,q_auto:good,w_746/kmka4uvzowjeq7qeynye)
On 15 March, an exhibition opens with Aron Landahl’s original paintings for Alla äter alla [Everybody Eats Everybody], selected as the year’s best Swedish picture book. The opening will take place during Bildmuseet’s Art Friday with Littfest – Umeå International Literature Festival.
Elias Crespin's mobile sculptures move slowly and gracefully in intricate, precise formations, seemingly floating freely in the air in a mesmerising exhibition on Bildmuseet’s top floor. Chronomorphosis opens at Bildmuseet on 15 March during Art Friday with Littfest – Umeå International Literature Festival.
Every year, the prestigious award Swedish Museum of the Year is presented. This year the prize could go to Bildmuseet, which is one of three nominated finalists. The award is given to the museum that has demonstrated courage, creativity, and excellence. The purpose of the award is to highlight exemplary museum work and to inspire other museums to innovative activities of the highest quality.
On Friday, October 13th, Bildmuseet opens an exhibition by the artist Loulou Cherinet. For Bildmuseet, she has created a site-specific room installation inspired by early panorama painting and 19th-century cycloramas. Around forty, four-meter-high paintings come together to envelop the museum visitor in the illusion of an urban environment.
Bildmuseet expands its team and welcomes Anca Rujoiu as Curator of Exhibitions from March 2024. –With more than fourteen years of experience working in the field of contemporary art in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, she will be strengthening Bildmuseet’s position as one of Sweden’s foremost venues for international contemporary art, says director Katarina Pierre.
![Mandana Moghaddam, Works from the series Underlandet [Wonderland], 2013–ongoing. © Mandana Moghaddam / Bildupphovsrätt 2023](https://mnd-assets.mynewsdesk.com/image/upload/ar_16:9,c_fill,dpr_auto,f_auto,g_auto,q_auto:good,w_746/ayeltt70jpii7iqya403)
The autumn's first opening at Bildmuseet features a solo exhibition by the Swedish-Iranian artist Mandana Moghaddam. The exhibition showcases mirror mosaic, sculpture, and installation, and will be inaugurated with an artist talk on Saturday, 16th September, the anniversary of Mahsa Jina Amini's death in Tehran. Press preview on Wednesday, 13th September, at 10:00 (RSVP).
![© Emma AdBåge, from her picture book Såret [The Wound]](https://mnd-assets.mynewsdesk.com/image/upload/ar_16:9,c_fill,dpr_auto,f_auto,g_auto,q_auto:good,w_746/mzgbsldj4ftesq6luzvo)
Emma AdBåges’s Såret [The Wound] has been awarded the Snöbollen [Snowball] prize for Swedish Picture Book of the Year. Bildmuseet’s exhibition of original illustrations from the winning book will open on Friday 26 May, and journalists are welcome to contact us for a preview and presentation.
I Cut across the Stream is the title of this year’s master's degree show from Umeå Academy of Fine Arts, Sweden. It will open at Bildmuseet on 26 May with an Art Friday event. Welcome to the press preview on Wednesday, 24 May from 10:00–11:00 (R.S.V.P). The artists will be there to present their works.
![Pija Lindenbaum’s Vitvivan och Gullsippan [Lilybell and Bluevalley] has been named the Swedish Picture Book of the Year 2021.](https://mnd-assets.mynewsdesk.com/image/upload/ar_16:9,c_fill,dpr_auto,f_auto,g_auto,q_auto:good,w_746/e7o3mgxykrnourbookug)
Pija Lindenbaum’s "Vitvivan och Gullsippan" [Lilybell and Bluevalley] has been awarded the Snöbollen [Snowball] prize for Swedish Picture Book of the Year 2021. March 19, in conjunction with the award ceremony during Littfest, Bildmuseet opens an exhibition of original illustrations and sketches from the winning book.
Zanele Muholi is one of the most acclaimed photographers working today. The extensive exhibition at Bildmuseet presents their career as a photographer and visual activist from the early 2000s until today. Welcome to the press preview on Thursday 25 November at 10:00 (RSVP).
Iwo Myrin’s motifs are drawn from the taiga, the geographical zone of the northern hemisphere dominated by coniferous forest. In bronze casts and pinhole photographs of mushrooms, pine needles and moss, the taiga makes a direct impression in his exhibition at Bildmuseet. Welcome to the press preview on Thursday 25 November at 10:00 (RSVP).
Zineb Sedira will represent France at the Venice Biennale next year. However, those who want to experience her art already this Summer should go to Bildmuseet, Sweden. Sedira’s solo exhibition Standing Here Wondering Which Way to Go opens on Saturday, June 19.
An upcoming exhibition brings together Nordic architects and projects that, in various ways, reveal a shift in contemporary architecture. Architectures of Transition opens at Bildmuseet, Sweden, on Saturday, June 19. Welcome to join a digital press preview on Thursday, June 17 at 10am and to experience the exhibition on-site from 11am the same day (RSVP).
"In an Exceptional Time" is the title of this year’s master’s degree exhibition from the Umeå Academy of Fine Arts at Umeå University, Sweden. Welcome to a digital press preview at Bildmuseet on Thursday 6 May at 10–11 AM.
![From the picture book Kom dagen, kom natten [Come Day, Come Night] by Åsa Lind and Emma Virke.](https://mnd-assets.mynewsdesk.com/image/upload/ar_16:9,c_fill,dpr_auto,f_auto,g_auto,q_auto:good,w_746/ncsvyvac8wqb8f096rtt)
Kom dagen, kom natten [Come Day, Come Night] by Åsa Lind and Emma Virke is named the best Swedish picture book in 2020 and honoured with the national award Snöbollen. In conjunction with the prize ceremony at Umeå International Literature Festival, Bildmuseet inaugurates an exhibition presenting the awarded book.
Bildmuseet presents Ground Control, an exhibition with works by contemporary artists interested in plants and their political dimensions. Welcome to press previews – digital and on-site – on Thursday 24 September.
Three new exhibitions are installed when Bildmuseet opens its doors: The first retrospective in the Nordics of the acclaimed artist and civil rights activist Faith Ringgold; Larissa Sansours evocative and thought-provoking Heirloom, Denmark's contribution to the Venice Biennale in 2019; and Swedish Picture Book of the Year / Marathon by Karin Cyrén.
Bildmuseet is presenting parts of Ann Edholm’s series of paintings Tongue on the Tip, together with sketches and collages. With their defined geometric shapes, her large-scale paintings may seem completely abstract but the works include interpretations of art history and ancient legends, of Jewish deportations during the Nazi reign, and her mother’s memories of World War II Berlin.
Design Matters presents internationally established designers and design groups who challenge our expectations of consumer products, furniture and functions. Does our relationship to things change if the shoes we wear have been cultivated by us, or if the plate we eat from is a living organism? Can a cause of the climate catastrophe be transformed into something beautiful and worth preserving?
Umeå University is a comprehensive university and one of Sweden’s largest higher education institutions with around 38,000 students and 4,600 staff. We have a diverse range of high-quality educational programmes and research within all disciplinary domains and the arts. Umeå University is also where the groundbreaking CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing tool was discovered, starting a revolution in genetic engineering that led to the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
The University has an international atmosphere and centres its work around core academic values. Our tightly knit campus makes it easy to meet, collaborate and share knowledge, something that encourages a dynamic and open culture where we celebrate each other’s successes. Umeå University prides itself in offering a world-class educational and research environment and expanding knowledge of global significance, where the sustainable development goals of Agenda 2030 inspire and motivate. We have creative and innovative research environments that offer the best potential for taking on the challenges facing society. Through long-term collaborations with organisations, industry and other higher education institutions, the University is helping northern Sweden become a knowledge region. The societal transformation and the massive investments currently occurring in northern Sweden create complex challenges but also opportunities. Umeå University is focused on conducting research about and within a society in transition and continuing to offer academic programmes for regions that need to expand quickly and sustainably.
Campus Umeå and the Umeå Arts Campus are close to the city centre and next to one of Sweden’s largest and most renown university hospitals. Education is also provided in several other towns, including Skellefteå, Örnsköldsvik, Lycksele and Kiruna. Umeå University is home to the highly ranked Umeå Institute of Design, the environmentally certified School of Business, Economics and Law, and the School of Architecture, the only one in Sweden with an artistic profile. Next door is Bildmuseet, which is Umeå’s contemporary art museum, and Curiosum, Umeå’s science centre. Umeå University is one of Sweden’s five national sports universities, has an internationally leading Arctic Research Centre, and has Várdduo, which is Sweden’s only research unit for Sámi research and indigenous research.
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