Scene Shifts

The autumn's major exhibition at Bonniers Konsthall is the group show Scene Shifts—a meeting between art and theatre. The exhibition is a unique collaboration with Royal Dramatic Theatre and joins 14 leading international artists with Sweden's best known actors. During three intense months, the exhibition will continuously give rise to new works and performances—both in Bonniers Konsthall's galleries and on Dramaten's stages.

Scene Shifts discusses the interest for theatre displayed by contemporary artists. In Scene Shifts, mechanical theatre meets musical movies, and computer animations walk hand in hand with Shakespeare. Artist Pablo Bronstein, in collaboration with three Dramaten actors, will produce a performance with tragic endings borrowed from world drama, while artist Kirstine Roepstorff will use well-known voices in her installation Silent Theatre. As a part of the exhibition, artist Ylva Ogland's version of Ingmar Bergman's model of Dramaten's main stage will be shown. For the exhibition, the artist will also produce a gigantic puppet that will dance on the national stage. In addition, we will be treated to Ragnar Kjartansson's vocal items à la Frank Sinatra and Gabriela Fridriksdottir's dreamy dance performance.

Contemporary art's interest in the theatre may be seen as a reflection of our time, when the guiding principle of culture is visibility and spectacle. However, the participating artists' theatrical experiments are also about opening a door to fiction's possibilities, providing the dramatic art with a space for a play of identities and roles, exploring the unique presence of physical bodies, words, gestures and movements.

Scene Shifts
Kuratoren: Sara Arrhenius, Caroline Elgh

Künstler: Pablo Bronstein, Miriam Backstrom, Keren Cytter, Inci Eviner, Gabriela Fridriksdottir, Ragnar Kjartansson, Ylva Ogland, Christodoulos Panayiotou, Lili Reynaud Dewar, Pietro Roccasalva, Kirstine Roepstorff, Markus Schinwald, Sriwhana Spong, Catherine Sullivan