Installation view Breakfast for Everybody by Lena Mattsson.
(in)visible 23 Jun - 30 Sep 2021, Malmö Statsarkiv, Malmö City Archives
What happens when we look at an art collection from a queer perspective? In the exhibition (in) visible explored this. During the summer, you can experience three works from Malmö Art Museum's exhibition (in) visible at Malmö City Archives. It is Axel Karlsson Rixon's photo series Tourism, a digital work by Lena Mattsson, and porcelain objects by Matts Leiderstam.
The works are shown at the City Archives as part of the large exhibition that is taking place at Malmö Art Museum 12 Jun 2021 - 9 Jan 2022.
The Art Museum shows the largest part of the exhibition, which is based on the collection and presents works of art from the early 20th century to the present that raise questions about fragmentation, spaciousness, body and desire. The collection's gaps have been filled with deposits and new purchases. In collaboration with RFSL's archives and Malmö City Archives, various types of material are displayed that reflect LGBTQI + stories connected to the city in one of the rooms in the exhibition.
The exhibition is part of Öppna Malmö - the city's work to raise issues of discrimination and racism, as well as WorldPride Malmö and Copenhagen 2021.
Breakfast for Everybody, 1997
Lena Mattsson
Lena Mattsson studied at the KV Konstskola in Gothenburg and Malmö Målarskola Forum, but she is best known for her video works and performance art. In the course of her career, she has also curated exhibitions and major film projects in collaboration with other celebrities, including Bo Cavefors and Ola Åstrand. Regardless of artistic medium, Mattsson’s works often refer explicitly to art and film history.
In Breakfast for Everybody, she paraphrases Edouard Manet’s painting Déjeuner sur l'herbe (The Luncheon on the Grass) from 1863. Mattson has used Manet’s painting as a starting point, a matrix, but altered the context and situation.
The nude women in Manet’s work are replaced with nude men, and the women are fully dressed. The camera in the video work is static, and the “painting” takes place in the front of it. In this way Mattsson challenges gender roles, norms and power structures in the past and present.
Breakfast for Everybody, Courtesy of the artist Lena Mattsson and Malmö Art Museum.
Läs recension i EXPRESSEN KULTUR av Charlotte Wiberg.
Kan homofobi kontras genom andra känslor?
På Malmö Konstmuseum visas ”(in)visible”, där verk med queer tematik utforskar växelspelet mellan frånvaro och närvaro. Charlotte Wiberg ser en utställning där de känslomässiga verken lämnar störst avtryck.