Bonniers Konsthall opened in the autumn of 2006 and is a venue for Swedish and international contemporary art. With exhibitions, seminars, publications, a studio for guest artists and much more, Bonniers Konsthall aims to support the emergence of and to promote encounters with new art.
At Bonniers Konsthall the public is able to see new art and encounter new artistic projects. Bonniers Konsthall works with artists who are at the beginning of their careers, while also giving more established artists an opportunity to create new works. With the main emphasis on exhibitions produced in-house and on collaborations with Swedish and international art institutions, Bonniers Konsthall shows a varied programme of extensive solo exhibitions, thematic group exhibitions and smaller art events in various formats.
Bonniers Konsthall is also a place where art is created, discussed and mediated to the public . The guest studio is an important tool in facilitating the making of the new works. There are opportunities for artists and curators to work here for a period and to mount exhibitions especially for Bonniers Konsthall.
A public programme of seminars, discussions, artists in conversation, publications and a reading room are prominent features of Bonniers Konsthall’s work. Bonniers Konsthall wants to be an open and inviting place for the local Stockholm public and to play an active role on both the national and international art scene.
The transparent triangular building on Torsgatan has been designed by the architects Johan Celsing Arkitektkontor. Bonniers Konsthall occupies the entire ground floor of this five-storey building, with an area of 1890 square metres, of which 700 are taken up by exhibition space divided into several different sections. Here, too, are the café and reading room. The variable spatial features of the architecture and the glass façade looking out over the city reflect a desire to be an open, accessible place, keenly aware of new contemporary-art movements and changing modes of expression.
Bonniers Konsthall has its roots in the Maria Bonnier Dahlin Foundation, which was founded in 1985 by Jeanette Bonnier in memory of her daughter Maria Bonnier Dahlin. Every year, the foundation awards a grant to a young Swedish artist.
Jeanette Bonnier is the founder of Bonniers Konsthall. The venue is run on a non-profit basis by the Bonnier family under the auspices of the Bonnier Group. The Bonnier Group is one of Scandinavia’s biggest media concerns with operations in the daily press, magazines, books, film and television. The Bonnier family has been supporting culture and art for more than two centuries. The founding of Bonniers Konsthall is a continuation of this tradition.
Sara Arrhenius has been Director of Bonniers Konsthall since 2005.
Photo: Thomas Winstedt.
