Room 4

Dara Birnbaum, Laurie Simmons, Cindy Sherman, Teresa Wennberg, David Wojnarowicz and others

Narrator: Fifteen works from Moderna Museet’s rich collection of moving images have been selected to show some of the artists from different generations, who took video art to new heights in the 1980s. Dara Birnbaum was one of the first to sample TV images. Films by Laurie Simmons and Cindy Sherman are also shown. All three belonged to an influential group of American artists known as The Pictures Generation. They often used existing images and explored how the fictions of mass media and popular culture transform into new realities.
 
Some of Teresa Wennberg’s early films are shown here, along with five films by the artist, filmmaker writer and activist David Wojnarowicz, which were acquired for the collection in 2021. Wojnarowicz was a key figure in a movement of resistance that challenged politicians, the church and the media for their abuse of power, their homophobia and nationalism, all of which had devastating consequences during the AIDS epidemic.
 
The film programme is two hours long.