Written by Shanice Bailey

Bodies of Society is the first large-scale American museum exhibition of the work of Swedish artist Klara Lidén. Drawing from the artist’s history of performance and conceptual work, the exhibit features a selection of the physical pieces and videos on the second floor of NYC’s New Museum: “Lidén uses her body as a tool and a weapon to radically alter the space of the museum and expose it to the material and political realities of the world outside.”

Lidén’s body of work is a manifestation of a philosophy rooted in social activism, and the questioning of societal constructs, presenting artistic and oppositional challenges to standard ways of living. Combining performance art, film, and large-scale installations, she magnifies and transforms aspects of city life to create an all-encompassing experience steeped in the most vital tenets of urban identity and driven by the force of change. By “un-building”, repurposing, and challenging the function of the spaces and materials used, she effectively spurns and embraces her education in architecture, creating a sort of architectural vandalism. Previous projects have included scavenging urban landscapes for found materials and using them to construct intimate and unlikely living spaces in their midst – such as the banks of a Berlin river, for example.

Included in the exhibit are Lidén’s Untitled (Poster Paintings) (2007–10), stark, minimal statements of corporate defiance comprised of advertisements stolen from city streets bound together, their messages covered with white paint. As always, Lidén promotes a sense of adaptation and repurposing by effectively erasing their intended capitalist influence. The artist’s films Paralyzed (2003) and The Myth of Progress–Moonwalk (2008) are also included in the exhibit – they show Lidén performing a frenzied acrobatic routine amongst commuters in a Stockholm subway car and moonwalking through the darkened streets of Manhattan. In these works Lidén is conspicuously and almost hauntingly disjoint from the urban landscape, moving at a pace that’s deliberately separate from the world around her: “Her work demonstrates how an individual can navigate a constantly transforming urban landscape and carve out spaces of creativity to imagine new ways of living.”

“Klara Lidén: Bodies of Society” is curated by Massimiliano Gioni, Associate Director and Director of Exhibitions, and Jenny Moore, Assistant Curator.