Exhibition about Peter Weiss explores the role of art in resistance to fascism

Perhaps one has to start by crawling into the head of writer, filmmaker and artist Peter Weiss (1916 – 1982) to tackle this exhibition. His monumental novel trilogy Motståndets Esthetik from the 1970s and 1980s is about the rise of fascism and Nazism around the Second World War. And the revolutionary resistance that must be born as a consequence.

The young person's view of Nazism

And his dark gaze is that of the young artist, who passionately, hungrily and dreamily investigates how art, literature and history can make people understand and resist political oppression and violence.

The three curators for the exhibition have assembled some fifteen living and dead artists from around the world who contribute works that in different ways (hopefully) converse with Weiss's multifaceted life's work. Sometimes cerebral, sometimes concrete.

How can art resist?

The question that is in the air is: How can art resist today? Because fascism is not eradicated, belligerent states murder people every day.

Peter Weiss came to Sweden as a Jewish refugee in 1939, became a Swedish citizen and eventually became an internationally famous playwright together with his life partner, the scenographer Gunilla Palmstierna-Weiss. Milestones such as Marat/Sade and the Auschwitz trial drama The Inquiry are still being played around the world. In the middle of the exhibition, you get a historical insight - and a rusty piece of scenography.

Without culture we all become barbarians