Recently, Magasin III has been inviting artists to comment on other artistic practices within an ongoing exhibition. In an interview, Museum Director Tessa Praun shares her thoughts behind this approach.

Question: For some time now, Magasin III has been inviting artists to comment on other artistic practices within an ongoing exhibition. We see examples of this in Jill Magid’s commentary on Chris Burden’s performative practice (fall 2022), and most recently with Lucia Pizzani’s performance in Maya Attoun’s exhibition. Can you tell us more about the thoughts behind this approach?

Tessa Praun: Allowing art to comment on art is a continuation of Magasin III’s long history of producing new works in collaboration with artists. As a museum, it is our task to continually contextualize the works in our collection and find different ways to deepen the understanding of these artistic practices.

Magasin III started in 1987 as a kunsthalle without a collection and has grown into a museum with an extensive and complex collection over the following three decades. We continue to build upon our history of exhibiting, producing, and collecting. We now also provide the audience with access to the processes that lead to an exhibition, a new artwork, or the work involved in caring for the art when it is not on display. Today, our exhibition program is more closely connected to our collection, while the creation of new works remains an integral part of Magasin III’s DNA. In the midst of lectures, conversations, and seminars taking place at other art institutions in Stockholm, it became important for us to find our own way of deepening and activating ongoing exhibitions. It was natural for us to go back to the core of our activities, namely the artists, and invite them to develop something in direct dialogue with another artist’s work.

Q: How have the artists’ processes and reactions been?

TP: Both Jill Magid and Lucia Pizzani displayed visible enthusiasm in artistically responding to the works of Chris Burden and Maya Attoun, respectively. In Pizzani’s case, she was approached to create a performance work, a medium she enjoys working with, while Magid’s invitation was more open-ended. I greatly admire how Jill Magid and Lucia Pizzani approached Burden’s and Attoun’s artistic practices with respect, without compromising their own artistic vision and integrity.

When we started to ponder on who to invite for our first art commenting on art, Oliver Krug, Senior Registrar at Magasin III, brought Jill Magid to the conversation. Initially, Jill proposed showcasing one of her older works in relation to a specific performance by Chris Burden, as there were evident and exciting connections between the two. However, when Jill changed her mind a few weeks later, her gesture became even stronger and formulated a comprehensive commentary on Burden’s performative practice. We borrowed her work Auto Portrait Pending from 2005 and also produced a brand new piece titled Foreign Body Ingested (Portrait of My Son), which is now part of Magasin III’s collection. Both works were presented in three vitrines placed in the midst of Burden’s exhibition during its final four weeks. Jill also gave a lecture where she had the opportunity to problematize certain aspects of Burden’s performative works while expressing how much his art has meant to her. The lecture is available to watch on our website.

Lucia Pizzani visited Stockholm for two days in January, spent time in Maya Attoun’s exhibition, and immediately had a vision of what she wanted to create. She focused on the historical volcanic eruption that inspired Maya’s works in Solar Mountains & Broken Hearts – both in terms of the atmosphere she wanted to create, the soundscape she chose, and the black sand that took center stage in her performance artwork, Lava. Oliver Krug and Leann Wolff, Assistant Curator at Magasin III Jaffa, were in close dialogue with Lucia throughout the process as she developed the final piece, which premiered in March. The result beautifully and respectfully aligned with Maya’s visual and conceptual world. Maya Attoun, who unexpectedly passed away just six months prior, was open to involving other creative individuals in her work. The exhibition as a whole, including Lucia Pizzani’s performance, became a tribute to an artistic voice that was silenced too soon.

The exhibition A Glossary of Distance and Desire by Meriç Algün, which opened in early April this year, is another example of art commenting on art. It started with the group exhibition Focus: Lawrence Weiner, which inspired us to install Meriç Algün’s poster artwork successes, failures, and in-betweens (2012) in our entrance area, a work that is part of our collection. Both artists’ works revolve around text and language. It felt relevant to allow the audience to experience two closely related but distinct artistic practices side by side. The conversations that Curator Sofia Ringstedt and I had with Meriç before installing the poster artwork opened up further points of connection between them. This led us to invite Meriç to take on the exhibition space next to Focus: Lawrence Weiner – in dialogue with Weiner’s works but as an independent exhibition.

Q: What are your hopes for this concept?

TP: My hope is that both our audience and our team gain new perspectives on a work or an exhibition, that it triggers unexpected thought processes and conversations, and ultimately contributes to a more open-minded approach as we navigate the world.