STOCKHOLM.- Moderna Museet presents today Time & Place: Los Angeles 1957-1968. In conjunction with Moderna Museet’s 50th anniversary in 2008, three concentrated exhibitions direct attention to cultural hotspots of the 60s. The Time & Place series investigates the period when Moderna Museet was created from an international perspective, by presenting a selection of work covering art, architecture, design, films and music, which have never before been shown together in Sweden. The two previous parts of the series, Rio de Janeiro and Milan/Turin, were shown earlier this year. The final Time & Place exhibition points a spotlight on Los Angeles. The Curator is Lars Nittve, Director of Moderna Museet.

Time & Place: Los Angeles, 1957-1968 focuses on the altogether special interplay between utopia and dystopia that characterises creativity in Los Angeles during the post-war period. The dream of ‘sun and surf’ and happiness in Hollywood, is juxtaposed with the exploitation of people and dreams. This interplay has come to have an important role in today’s art too, where Los Angeles artists have won a prominent place in the past decade.

Work by Ed Ruscha, David Hockney, Edward Kienholz, Sam Francis and Robert Irwin, as well as artists from the beat generation and pop-minimalists in the Finish Fetish circles, are the natural core of exhibition, however the concept is also reflected in the films of the era and not least in its architecture. This includes the Case Study House Program, along with master photographer Julius Shulman’s iconic architectural images.

Lars Nittve comments about the work in the exhibition and the city of Los Angeles: "I have really tried to avoid a ‘true story’, a doxa, while at the same time this kind of, almost chamber music-like, project requires by necessity a high degree of crystallisation. I have chosen to tell my story of Los Angeles in the years around 1960, inspired by the handful of artists best known to the Swedish public and then extend this with other artists, who have been exhibited to a lesser degree in our part of the world.

Los Angeles is the capital of visuality, almost made to be seen as a projection, not least through the windscreen of a car. A rollercoaster without hierarchies, a city beyond categorisation, that can only be comprehended by a continual passage through it. The differences are incredible, yet the transitions are imperceptible, seamless."

Curator: Lars Nittve. Time & Place exhibition architect: Shideh Shaygan. Complete artists list: Kenneth Anger, John Baldessari, Larry Bell, Billy Al Bengston, Ed Bereal, Wallace Berman, Vija Celmins, Judy Chicago, Llyn Foulkes, Sam Francis, Joe Goode, George Herms, David Hockney, Dennis Hopper, Robert Irwin, Craig Kauffman, Edward Kienholz, Pierre Koenig, John McCracken, Ken Price, Ed Ruscha, Julius Shulman, James Turrell, Doug Wheeler.

A fully illustrated exhibition catalogue is published by Steidl. The entire series of exhibitions will be shown at Kunsthaus Zürich in spring 2009 under the title Hot Spots.

Time & Place: Los Angeles, 1957-1968 is supported by WeSC and Nove Capital.