Kim West, The Exhibitionary Complex, 2017 (p. 147). The excerpted chapter 5 discusses the near mythological 1969 exhibition “Pictures of Sweden” (aborted after its first day of opening), in which the Bildaktivisterna group participated. Full text available below.Newsroom space, Pictures of Sweden 1969, opening day, June 16, 1969. Photo: Bildaktivisterna
Multi-screen space, Pictures of Sweden 1969, opening day, June 16, 1969. Photo: Bildaktivisterna“In fact, as a hybrid between different exhibition genres, Pictures of Sweden 1969 lacks obvious parallels in the history of the radical exhibition experiments of the 1960s and 1970s, in Sweden and internationally.” (West, The Exhibitionary Complex, p. 149)
Slide shown in multi-screen space, Pictures of Sweden 1969. Photo: Bildaktivisterna“Stolpe [the exhibition curator] contacted Swedish and international news agencies, image bureaus, broadcasting companies, film centers, museums, embassies, institutes, corporations, retail outlets, and the police, asking them for contributions – “films, photo slides, sound tapes, newspaper clippings”, etc. – related to a vaguely described theme of “the image of Sweden abroad”, encompassing “the whole spectrum of concepts such as ‘national information’, ‘propaganda’ and ‘international communication’”.” (West, The Exhibitionary Complex, p. 153)
“Meanwhile, the Bildaktivisterna group, armed with cameras and Sony Helical Scan video recorders, set about producing photographic and video reportages documenting other aspects of Swedish social reality and labor conditions, a process that was supposed to be ongoing over the course of the exhibition.” (West, The Exhibitionary Complex, p. 153)“Participants were invited to present promotional material alongside their products, and to include advertisement in their selection of images. Since the critical function of Stolpe’s project was predicated upon the antagonistic heterogeneity of the exhibition’s elements, it could support, even profit from the presence of material of this kind.” (West, The Exhibitionary Complex, p. 153)Slide shown in multi-screen space, Pictures of Sweden 1969. Photo: Bildaktivisterna
West, Kim, The Exhibitionary Complex: Exhibition, Apparatus, and Media from Kulturhuset to the Centre Pompidou, 1963–1977 (excerpt pp. 147-157), Södertörn Doctoral Dissertations, Stockholm 2017
