Vaginal Davis. Foto: Hector Martinez. Image courtesy the Art Institute of Chicago © Hector Martinez
In the exhibition “Magnificent Product”, we welcome the visitor to the wondrous world of American artist, filmmaker, performer and writer Vaginal Davis. In her pioneering and incredibly diverse oeuvre, punk meets glamour, queer activism meets racial justice and resistance meets joy.
The exhibition is initiated by Moderna Museet and extends across several locations in Stockholm. Here is your complete guide to Vaginal Davis ”Magnificent Product”.
Where to Find Vaginal Davis in Stockholm
Moderna Museet
18 May–13 September
Moderna Museet presents three large-scale installations that reflect Vaginal Davis’s artistic range, starting with the artist’s early films and recordings of iconic punk concerts and nightclub events from the 1990s.
The second installation, entitled HAG – small, contemporary, haggard, is a manifestation of her former apartment gallery in Los Angeles, now showing some of Ms. Davis’s own paintings and sculptures.
Lastly, The Wicked Pavilion takes the viewer further into Vaginal Davis’s universe, as she draws out the core elements of her practice through her “fantasy library” and an installation of a “tween beroom”.
Nationalmuseum
Vaginal Davis: Naked on my Ozgoad
or: Fausthaus – Anal Deep Throat
3 May–20 October 2024
Nationalmuseum presents a new installation of Vaginal Davis’s work in The Old Library, evoking her life-long interest in the mystical tales of the wizards and witches of Oz.
Additionally, a selection of Vaginal Davis’s iconic paintings will be on display in the adjacent 19th-century collection gallery. The paintings of “women trapped in the bodies of women” honors friendships between female and queer artists at the turn of the century.
Nationalmuseum
Accelerator, Stockholms universitet
Choose Mutation with photographs by Annette Frick
CHEAP
17 May–15 September 2024 (summer break 17 June – 20 August)
The art collective CHEAP presents the new experimental video Choose Mutation about paranoia and the effects of social and political control on language and the body. The video work is accompanied by life-sized photographs by Annette Frick capturing CHEAP performances over the past twenty years.
The exhibition culminates in the performance Original Sin performed live at Accelerator on September 14 by Vaginal Davis, Susanne Sachsse, Marc Siegel, and Xiu Xiu (Jamie Stewart, Angela Seo).
Accelerator
MDT (Moderna Dansteatern)
4 September 2024
Join Vaginal Davis for an annotated screening of Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz and Miloš Forman’s Hair. Indeed, the year is 1979—it feels like yesterday!
The cinematic extravaganza is co-hosted by MDT and Moderna Museet, in collaboration with the Dance and performance festival My Wild Flag.
MDT Moderna Dansteatern
Index – Swedish Foundation for Contemporary Art
HOFPFISTEREI
17 May–1 September 2024
The exhibition HOFPFISTEREI highlights Vaginal Davis as a writer. Visitors are invited to enter the library of Davis as a site of research, presenting text material produced between the 1980s and the present day.
Vaginal Davis’s agile leaps between downtown nightlife, academy lectures and gallery settings are mirrored in her equally kaleidoscopic writing. The exhibition at Index features a multitude of genres – from poetry to long format journalism to falsified confessional literature and tabloid rag gossip columns.
Index – The Swedish Foundation for Contemporary Art
Tensta Konsthall
Universität for the Damaged and Gifted
6–7 September 2024
Taking inspiration from Vaginal Davis’s mentorship, the Universität for the Damaged and Gifted stages performances, lecturinas, workshops, readings, screenings, meals, and more than a few surprises over the course of a weekend at Tensta konsthall. Participants will be inducted into the wondrous world of Ms. Davis and receive a certificate at the end of this intensive weekend “course”.
Tensta konsthall
Audio guide
8 tracks, total runtime: 27:26
The Carla DuPlantier Cinerama Dome
Vaginal Davis talks about her cousin Carla DuPlantier who introduced her to the Los Angeles punk scene.
Being young on the Los Angeles punk scene
Vaginal Davis about entering the early Los Angeles punk scene being a Jehovah’s Witness.
HAG – small, contemporary, haggard
Vaginal Davis on starting HAG gallery in her apartment on Sunset Boulevard.
Who showed at HAG?
HAG became the scene for many shows, performances and film screenings.
The afterlife of HAG
HAG gallery emerges again, showing the art of Vaginal Davis.
On libraries and librarians
Special places and relationships growing up in Los Angeles.
The Wicked Pavilion and the Fantasia Library
Vaginal Davis talks about the literary sources behind The Wicked Pavilion and the Fantasia Library.
Naked on my Ozgoad or: Fausthaus – Anal Deep Throat
Vaginal Davis on the Oz books and working on the installation in The Old Library at Nationalmuseum.
Curator: Hendrik Folkerts, Moderna Museet
The exhibition “Vaginal Davis: Magnificent Product” is initiated by Moderna Museet and extends across several locations in Stockholm: Moderna Museet, Nationalmuseum, Accelerator, Index – The Swedish Contemporary Art Foundation, Tensta konsthall and MDT (Moderna Dansteatern). Each institution highlights a different aspect of Vaginal Davis’s expansive practice.
The exhibition is supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and Terra Foundation for American Art.
