Iiu Susiraja, Zoo, 2021 Reprophoto: Tobias Fischer/Moderna Museet © Iiu Susiraja 2025
The exhibition “The Art of Collecting” presents around forty works that have recently become part of Moderna Museet’s collection.
In this audio guide, you’ll meet the people behind the work of building, preserving, and sharing the Swedish people’s collection of modern and contemporary art.
Here, curators, conservators, technicians, and museum hosts share how an artwork becomes part of the collection and meets its audience.
14 tracks, total runtime: 43:31
Gitte Ørskou on The Art of Collecting
Museum Director Gitte Ørskou introduces The Art of Collecting – a behind-the-scenes look at how Moderna Museet builds, cares for, and shares its collection, through the voices of those who make it possible.
The making of a collection
Chief Curator Fredrik Liew talks about how a collection is built in layers — each generation of curators adding, interpreting, and revising, always in dialogue with history, the present, and with an eye to the future.
The Road to Profits is Paved with Culture, 1976
Hans Haacke
The company Allied Chemicals used cultural sponsorship to polish its reputation, while environmental scandals painted a different picture. Curator Jo Widoff talks about Haacke’s classic work.
Hours, 2017
Gideonsson/Londré
Curator Asrin Haidari reflects on the challenge of collecting performative works — like Hours, kept alive through daily acts of care and embodied attention.
Zoo, 2021
Iiu Susiraja
Museum host Carolina Hindsjö talks about how art sparks meaningful encounters with visitors from all over the world in the museum’s exhibitions.
Pisser Triptych, 2021
Louise Bonnet
Exhibition technician Anders Lindholm don’t always view the art as art. Instead, he might see volume and weight. Cubic meters and square meters.
Earthquake. From the series AFTERIMAGE, 2018-2021
Peter Geschwind
AV Technician Johan Larje talks about creating the lighting design for Moderna Museet’s exhibitions — and what it means to feel the light.
Ijár, 2005
Rose-Marie Huuva
Through her experiments within duodji, Rose-Marie Huuva has brought a long tradition of knowledge into contemporary art. Curator Matilda Olof-Ors talks about the acquisition.
Beavvit II, 2021
Outi Pieski
Objects and Sculpture Conservator My Bundgaard on how to preserve, store, and install an artwork composed of 54 sections of fringes.
Cairn, 2018
Rose B. Simpson
Desirée Blomberg, Head of Exhibition and Collection Management, shares the journey of how an artwork finds its place in the collection.
Honest Portrait #2/2017. From the series Honest Portraits, 2017
Diana Agunbiade-Kolawole
Photographic Conservator Krista Lough reflects on a work that changes and ages like the human body. How is it preserved over time?
104 Blue Breaths (Tenofovir/Emtricitabine 9g/6g), 2022
D Harding
Paper Conservator Alison Norton must balance the risk of damage with the artist’s wish to challenge the art world’s view of transport and climate.
Mohammed Shuhada Ali Ahmed, Tuffah, Northern Gaza. From the series Gaza Photo Album, 2009
Kent Klich
Curator Anna Tellgren on Kent Klich’s photographs from the Gaza War of 2008–2009 and the museum’s extensive photography collection.
The Anchor Hits the Sand, 2019
Jockum Nordström
Curator Annika Gunnarsson tells the story of an installation that emerged after an unexpected incident in the artist’s studio at closing time.
