A Quiet Spring Wanders Through the Apartment (original title En tyst vår vandrar genom lägenheten) takes its point of departure in the rooms we create for our being. These rooms can be physical places, but also mental states that enable interpersonal encounters as well as introspection and a shield from the noise of the outside world.

In this moment, when our society has been shaken to its core, we have been forced to relate to a whole new set of limitations and to create new conditions for how we meet. There has been a displacement between the private and public, and social conventions are being renegotiated and adapted to a new reality. Our conversations (often at a distance) have revolved around both the longing to be part of a community and how it can be reconciled with the need for privacy. What are the conditions for togetherness? When is the seclusion self-selected and when is it involuntary and isolating? Regardless of personal circumstances, we are all part of a greater context and need to relate to it in one way or another. These thoughts are not unique to the time we live in – they recur in artistic practice and accommodate an abundance of perspectives.

The exhibition brings together works from Magasin III’s collection that invite thoughts of the individual’s relationship to their broader context. The works evoke associations to issues of safety, personal freedom, restrictions and introversion – often with multifaceted perspectives.

The title of the exhibition is borrowed from the work En tyst vår vandrar genom lägenheten from 2015 by Jockum Nordström which took our thoughts to a silence, a pause, which may seem both trying and harmonious at the same time. By approaching these collected works, created between c. 1950 and 2018, we have found entryways to reflect on our current moment.