Challenge the museums' colonial histories! Open Call for artists for two interventions at the National Museums of World Culture in Sweden.
Image: Theresa Traore Dahlbergs ”Hakili – The Hare” from the exhibition “Remixing the Future” shown at The Museum of Ethnography 2021. Inspired by an object from the museum collection. Photographer: Tony Sandin/The National Museums of World Culture.
The National Museums of World Culture (NMWC) is a government agency which includes four museums, The Museum of Ethnography, The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, The Museum of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Antiquities and The Museum of World Culture. NMWC has launched the multi-part exhibition project Bringing Objects to Life—and Challenging the Museums' Colonial Histories, in which the NMWC explores and works through its history and role in colonialism's ideology. The project will result in a new permanent exhibition at the Museum of Ethnography in Stockholm, an update of an existing permanent exhibition at the Museum of World Culture in Gothenburg, and four artistic interventions that will mark the entrances of all four museums.
As part of this work, we are launching an Open Call for artists to collaborate with two artistic interventions. These interventions will take place at the museum entrances, consider other ongoing site-specific projects, and aim to raise interest and questions about colonialism. Two objects have been selected from the museum's collections to guide the visitor through the themes explored in the project.
NMWC welcomes artists working in different mediums! Please read about the selected objects and the museums they belong to at the bottom of this document and send your proposal describing your idea about the intervention and your interest in working with the objects and the museum. Motivate why you have chosen this particular object. An artist can submit proposals for one or both objects.
Please send your application to opencall@varldskulturmuseerna.se. If you have any questions, please contact nadja.ali@varldskulturmuseerna.se
The selection process is in three steps:
The NMWC will produce the winning proposals during 2025–2026. The production is in dialog between the artist and NMWC. NMWC is responsible for the project's management, budget, and marketing. The work is a commission and at the museum's discretion. An artist fee will be paid. All payments will be made by invoice.
The museum assesses the proposals against the following criteria:
The jury consists of a chairperson, members of the directory team, the project's content group, the project's researchers, and representatives from the source communities.
September 25, 2024 Publication of the Open Call.
October 27, 2024 Deadline for proposal submission.
November 15, 2024 Jury decides on the winning four proposals (two for each museum/object). Artists are commissioned to present a sketch.
December 2, 2024 Deadline for submission of developed intervention ideas and presentations of sketches. Artists present sketches to the jury in person or online.
December 16, 2024 Jury's decision on the winning proposal at each museum.
The fee for the sketching assignment is SEK 10,000 (to be given to 4 artists in total). For the winning proposal, an artist fee of SEK 50,000 will be paid in addition to a production budget of approximately SEK 200,000. The production budget can be adjusted depending on specific production needs.
The National Museums of World Culture, Sweden, consists of four museums that manage global collections assembled at different times and for various purposes. The multi-part exhibition project Bringing the Objects to Life—Challenging the Colonial Histories of Museums explores the history and role of museums in colonialism's ideology.
The project, funded by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, is based on two research projects: Koloniala objekt (Colonial Object) by Professor Mårten Snickare and Mänsklighetens gränser (The Limits of Humanity) by Associate Professor Linda Andersson Burnett. Their research highlights how collecting, and early modern science are interwoven with colonial history. Bringing the objects to life seeks to engage in conversations around these issues, both with visitors and with the groups representing the original context of the collections.
The project evokes thoughts and feelings through participatory processes, artistic interventions, and multi-sensory experiences. It welcomes visitors with different prior knowledge and needs. By examining and making museums' role in colonial processes visible, NMWC wants to engage with and become relevant to more people.
This Open Call is for Part 1 and includes two of the four artistic interventions.
Starting object: Tomahawk Carlotta - Bildarkiv (smvk.se)
Location: Entrance of the Museum of Ethnography
The Stockholm-based Museum of Ethnography houses a diverse collection of art, crafts, and everyday objects from outside Europe, aiming to bring cultures from around the world to life. The collection's development from the 17th century reflects, among other things, Sweden's and Swedes' participation in European expansion, trade, and colonization of the outside world, including the Sápmi.
One of the objects in the Museum of Ethnography's collections is a tomahawk—a kind of axe—from North America. It was exhibited at the museum until recently in a stand that told the story of the New Sweden colony. The artistic intervention will be based on the tomahawk and its history. It will be a first glimpse into the new core exhibition at the Museum of Ethnography.
Prof. Mårten Snickare highlights the tomahawk in his research. He explores how it ended up at the Museum of Ethnography, bears witness to colonial exploitation, and how the modern museum world emerged in the shadow of colonialism. He also underlines how the object's richness of form and complex materiality can simultaneously tell us about global trade and intercultural encounters.
Inspired by Snickare's close study, we intend to spotlight the tomahawk already at the museum's entrance to embody the stories, relationships, and agency that Prof. Snickare's research shows. With a single object in focus, we give visitors a first insight into the history, present, and future of the Museum of Ethnography.
The tomahawk comes from the northeastern mouth of the Delaware River in Northeast America, where Swedes founded the colony of Nova Suecia in 1638. It arrived in Sweden as early as the mid-17th century as a gift from the colony's governor, Johan Printz. Its journey between different museums tells the intertwined stories of museums and colonialism: how museums are places where a colonial worldview has been materialized and conveyed for centuries. The tomahawk will be surrounded by voices that transmit diverse stories: voices of colonization and museumization, original makers and users, and future possibilities.
Starting object: Fredrik Coyet's shield Carlotta - Objekt (smvk.se)
Location: Entrance of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities.
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities in Stockholm holds one of the world's most distinguished collections of art and archaeological objects from East Asia, particularly China. Early Western interest in the art and civilizations of this part of the world was driven in part by the European, and later American, East India Companies with close links to European royal houses. These companies had a monopoly on the import of Asian luxury goods and warships for transportation.
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities collections have yet to be analyzed in depth from a discussion of colonialism and decolonization. Based on Snickare's and Andersson Burnett's research, we would like to evoke a different narrative that begins with the 17th-century interest in China and leads to the formation of the collections managed at the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities.
The starting point for the artistic intervention is a shield acquired by the Swede Fredrik Coyet (Frederick Coyett) in the 17th century. Coyet was a colonial official, best known as Formosa's (Taiwan's) last Dutch East India Company governor. The shield is an example of an exotic luxury item that high-ranking Dutch East India Company officers commissioned to promote their newly established Asian markets. The acquisition of this shield shows how a person from Sweden could join a global colonial network to benefit from the trade in goods from Asia.
Coyet inherited a context in which Indigenous groups were strategically engaged in conflict to gain control of different trading areas. He was forced to leave when China conquered Taiwan in 1662. However, pressure on China and other Asian countries to trade under unequal conditions favourable to Western countries continued.
The shield, made of buffalo hide and wood, originated in India and was lacquered and decorated in Japan. It is currently on display in the museum's Japan Gallery in the context of Japanese art and as an example of exports to Europe. This type of luxury object forms a large part of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities collection.
By examining the shield in a colonial context, we want to create an artistic intervention encouraging visitors to look beyond its aesthetic value. This will invite visitors to continue to the exhibitions, where perspectives on the museum's collections and their colonial histories are deepened.
The intervention can begin outside the museum, and the artist can activate the building's façade to welcome visitors from afar.
Note that the two artistic interventions will be part of NMWC's larger installation and complemented by a public program in collaboration with other actors.
