PRESENTATION: In the City Grows a Field

Malmö Konsthall opens one of its largest group exhibitions in later years, featuring Malmö-based artists and the city’s dynamic art scene. The exhibition “In the City Grows a Field” contains works by 50 artists from different generations showcasing many artistic expressions. This teeming and rich presentation reflects art’s tenacity and integrity and the collective forces that create unique conditions for artists to work in Malmö.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Malmö Konsthall Archive

The exhibition “In the City Grows a Field” reflects the dynamic energy of the city, its attraction for artists to move to Malmö and stay there, the tenacity and integrity of art, and its network of alternative and artist-run exhibition spaces. The collective forces that create the conditions for artists to work in Malmö are highlighted: a unique collegial, artistic, and organizational situation that creates ripples on the water outside the city’s borders and the established art institutions. The exhibition is a teeming and rich presentation with artists from different generations, working in different media and with various artistic practices. It is a meeting place for the different alternative scenes and collectives that exist in the city and its audiences. The exhibition includes a multitude of techniques; painting, sculpture, and photography, installations and conceptual works, as well as political and social works. The collective as an artistic practice is highlighted in the work “ON-HOLD” which includes about 20 artists in addition to the artist and initiator Johan Nahoj. With “In the City Grows a Field”, Malmö Konsthall takes a comprehensive approach to how to reflect the city’s art scene as well as how to expand the format and practice of making an exhibition. The exhibition spans over time and generations and includes artists born in the 1940s as well as the 1990s. This exhibition aims to tell the story of what is happening in the art scene of Malmö – right now – with the help of the artists who work tirelessly in it. Born between the 1940s and 1990s, they are all active in Malmö’s art scene and work with a wide range of expressions. Fifty artists participate and bring to the exhibition a shared belief in art as something indispensable. Many of them have experienced both success and quiet periods over the years, but their work with art has continued regardless. Some have only just started. There are conditions that influence the specificity of art in a city. How the field is allowed to grow. In Malmö, the scene is characterised by a selforganised tradition where studio collectives and artist-run exhibition spaces create unique conditions and collegial contexts in which to participate. The breadth of these small-scale initiatives set this city apart – not only in a Swedish context but also internationally. We can call them supportive structures, long-standing and temporary arrangements where art is given a collegial meaning and where new ideas are tested. Maintaining a collective sense of community takes hard work and perseverance, it is a balancing act that is hard to pull off. That effort includes managing ongoing relationships of varying kinds, among the people within the local community and with external interests (such as a rise in rent costs, a threat of demolition, urban transformation or safety concerns). Several of the artists in the exhibition share a common engagement in these initiatives, and they balance the time needed to maintain their network of colleagues with the time invested in working on their own art practice. This is a strength we want to incorporate into the exhibition. But equally the exhibition is a collection of the work of individual artists who are characterized by independence, daring and resolve. Out of this collective emerges a situation that resounds through the song of a tree, whispers in the cardboard boxes and tinkles to the beat of an apple-shaped instrument. The exhibition is populated by mothers, fathers, demons, angels and autonomous friends. The sacred is present, and so is death. From carefully wrought matter, links are established across a blue-green space.

Participating Artists: Anna Andersson, Marianne Andersson Embäck, Sergio Augusto, Kah Bee Chow, Anita Christoffersson, Lars Embäck, Zardasht Faraj, Carola Grahn, Astrid Göransson, Sigrid Holmwood, Bo Hylander, Torsten Hylander, Andreas Johansson, Cia Kanthi, Tamara de Laval, LealVeileby, Iman Mohammed, Johan Nahoj, Mariella Otto, Rasmus Ramö Streith, Samaneh Roghani, Julia Selin, Magnus Thierfelder Tzotzis, Jonelle Twum, Thale Vangen, Charlotte Walentin, Amin Zouiten, Jon Åkerlind. Participating artists in Johan Nahojs work “On-hold”: Kah Bee Chow, Petter Dahlström Persson, Nils Ekman, Mattias Eliasson, Ingrid Furre, Helen Haskakis, Ingvild Hovland Kaldal, Ingela Ihrman, EB Itso, Gabriel Karlsson, Johan F Karlsson, Ellinor Lager, Youngjae Lih, Ariadna Mangrané, Marcus Matt, Jennifer Myerscough, David Nilson, Olof Nimar, Joana Pereira, Jennifer Sameland, Joakim Sandqvist, Selma Sjöstedt och Matti Sumari

Photo: Samaneh Roghani, Perpetual Ultimatum, 2022, © Samaneh Roghani, Courtesy the artist and Malmö Konsthall

Info: Curators: Emily Fahlén, Asrin Haidari, Elena Tzotzi and Mats Stjernstedt, Malmö Konsthall, S:t Johannesgatan 7, Malmö, Sweden, Duration: 1/10/2022-15/1/2023, Days & Hours: Tue & Thu-sun 11:00-17:00, Wed 11:00-19:00, https://malmokonsthall.se/