General Idea, Looking Ahead, 1971
Photo: Art Gallery of Ontario
© 2023 General Idea
Happily Ever After
Happily Ever After
October 27, 2023–March 31, 2024
Malmö Konstmuseum
Participating artists: Muhammad Ali, Anita Christoffersson, Markus Copper, Jeanne Dunning, Stina Ebers, Elis Eriksson, Helena Fernández-Cavada, Ester Fleckner, Jenny Grönvall, Ramón Guillén-Balmes, Sive Hamilton Helle, Leif Holmstrand, Adelita Husni-Bey, E.B. Itso, Jesper Just, Joachim Koester, Jukka Korkeila, Ellinor Lager, Gloria López Cleries, Truls Melin, Britt-Ingrid Persson BIP, Iris Smeds, Superflex, Hannah Toticki and Ulla Wiggen.
Curators: Julia Björnberg & Anna Johansson.
The exhibition Happily Ever After brings together artists and artist collectives whose practices explore what happens to us as individuals and collectives in a time cast in a haze of neoliberal optimization of the self, economic and political stakes in our emotions, and an increasing contempt for weakness. Through a range of artistic expression, topics such as mindfulness, welfare state profits, the tech industry, and social media are addressed. Together, the works point to how our mode of experiencing and expressing feelings is in flux and how these changes in turn affect how we see ourselves, each other, and society.
We move through a paradoxical landscape, where we are seduced by and lose ourselves in the dreams and ideals presented by capitalism, to the point where we believe them to be our own. What happens when our emotions are exploited for profit and control; what are the social consequences and how do we resist? The exhibition Happily Ever After shines a light on how different spheres—private and public, emotional and economic—have been woven together in contemporary society.
The works in Happily Ever After operate like a prism in constant movement that affords new points of entry and perspective. The exhibition invites reflection on how emotions can open up futures by emphasizing the importance of resistance in the form of authenticity and community, and how we choose to act in relation to each other.
In conjunction with the exhibition, a richly illustrated catalogue is published by Malmö Konstmuseum and Mousse Publishing, with newly written essays by the curators and author Nina Björk, as well as presentations of the works and the artists, designed by Andréason & Leibel.
Malmö Konstmuseum’s ambition is to continuously provide new perspectives on its collection and to bring to the fore artworks, artistic practices, and themes in order to be able to reflect upon and analyze critical contemporary questions and problems. Through its urgent theme, the exhibition Happily Ever After illustrates the relevance of the collection, how it can be mobilized for a broad audience and, not least, art’s ability to provide perspective and create counter-images.
Graphic design: Andréason & Leibel
CURA. 41
CURA. 41
New World Agency™
Through an extensive investigation of the new searches and work productions of international artists, the brand new CURA. 41, New World Agency™ raises questions related to the ability of art and artists to have a transformative role as regards the apparent irreversibility of the events that impact our present. In a shift between fiction and reality, New World Agency™ explores, with a transgenerational gaze, the artists who foresaw the building of new possible worlds and new modes of agency for alternative futures. Not only AI, CGI, videogames and virtual reality, but also highly advanced analog tools, animatronics, and mechanical devices are able to forge the imaginative, creative and narrative space of artists, founding new realities, in which mythology, ghosts, topoi, fables, childhood memories, technology, pop culture and magic intertwine, in the comprehensive illusion to be in different places and in part of it.
“A World is a super-organism you can believe in…Worlding is the art of an individual creating a World” —Ian Cheng.
CURA. 41 presents 4+1 covers with works’ premiere by: Diego Marcon introduced by Travis Diehl; Mark Leckey presented by a long mixtape of undead voices created by Charlie Fox; Cécile B. Evans presented by Asma Barchiche; plus a cover story and an insert by trans woman artist and activist Puppies Puppies (Jade Guanaro Kuriki-Olivo), photographed by Myles Loftin. Anticipating the special cover coming out in December, Jordan Wolfson, in conversation with Caroline Busta and Lil Internet, reveals the production and what goes on behind the scenes of his third animatronic sculpture. Essays, interviews, and projects include an introductory text by Ian Cheng; a focus on the pioneering work of the American artist Mike Kelley, presented by the double gaze of the curator of La Bourse in Paris, Jean-Marie Gallais, and the artist, raised in his myth, Matt Copson; a conversation between Agnieszka Kurant and Hans Ulrich Obrist, investigating the evolution of culture and also “the relationship between predicting the future and how this is impacting the actual future”; new narratives, articulated in the visual essay conceived by Helen Marten. Furthermore, we present the new film and corpus of work by Martine Syms, introduced by the British curator Ben Broome; a special section curated by Countersubject that introduces us to the work of the multi-disciplinary art collective Bernadette Corporation; Anna Uddenberg’s totemic sculptures, presented by David Andrew Tasman; a photo shoot commissioned to the New York-based fashion duo of artists and activists Women’s History Museum which is introduced by a conversation with Ada O’Higgins. The New Now section also features the work of Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, with a text by Wong Binghao (Bing), of Gabriel Massan, investigated by Tamar Clarke-Brown, and Alice Bucknell in conversation with Sarah Johanna Theurer. The Portraits’ section features the work of Pete Jiadong Qiang with a text by Tadej Vindiš; Shuang Li with a text by Lina Martin-Chan; Gray Wielebinski presented by Francesca Gavin; Omsk Social Club with a text by Estelle Hoy; Ndayé Kouagou presented by Madeleine Planeix-Crocker.
Publishers and Editors in Chief: Ilaria Marotta, Andrea Baccin.
Ezra Petronio: Visual Thinking & Image Making
Ezra Petronio: Visual Thinking & Image Making
Ezra Petronio
The first comprehensive monograph on the work of one of the world’s most influential art directors, Ezra Petronio.
Having a strong brand identity has never been more vital than it is today, and yet the real creative visionaries who can transform and reinvigorate a brand are few. Ezra Petronio is a true master, and his work with leading fashion and beauty brands is bold and impactful.
An immersive visual survey of 25 years of impactful art direction, product design, and image making, with examples taken from across the entire range of his work, this book includes work for Chanel, Chloé, Comme des Garçons, Gucci, Hermès, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Saint Laurent, and Jil Sander, as well as Glossier, H&M, Revlon, and Zara. With 1,000 images of ad campaigns, branding, Self Service magazine spreads, graphics, and his polaroid series, which features the likes of Louise Bourgeois, Edward Enninful, Kim Kardashian, Kylian Mbappé, Kylie Minogue, Rick Owens, and Juergen Teller, it also includes texts that reflect on the process of image making; conversations with industry insiders on the art of art direction; and quotes from the likes of Honey Dijon, Marc Jacobs, and Chloë Sevigny on their creative process.
This impressive book is the first retrospective monograph on his career, illustrating the full breadth of his creative vision, from ad campaigns to his iconic Polaroid series, and demonstrating what it takes to make a brand truly stand out.
Format: Hardback
Size: 340 × 270 mm (13 3/8 × 10 5/8 in)
Pages: 424 pp
Illustrations: 1000 illustrations
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon
Photographed by John Deakin, 1962
Ai Weiwei, Fuck Off, 2000
Ai Weiwei, Fuck Off, 2000