Peter Aronsson, Tema Q, Linköpings universitet

2006-2012

The main scope of the project was to investigate how images of Norden as a supranational identity have provided, and continue to provide, arenas for negotiating political, military, social, economical, ethical and cultural understandings of community in specific public and nationalised contexts, such as museums.
The central question posed was how the Nordic dimension, as performed in the chosen ensemble of cultural institutions, with a special focus on prestigious national museums, manifests itself as a part of public history. Questions asked were: What was and is the role of this Nordic dimension or 'narrative' in national museums? Is it presenting an open or hidden political program? Does it lag behind political processes, respond to them or actively open up new horizons?
The study set our to concentrate on phases of activism on the Nordic arena: 1860s, 1905, 1918, 1945 and 1995 in seven interrelated projects having a little less then one year each for effective research. Peter Stadius participated on salary outside the project and Aronsson only had a 10% fraction for coordination.

1. The image of Norden 1800-2000 (Peter Stadius)
2. Institutional nationalisation of Norden: the creation of national Nordism by museums, 1807-2007 (Peter Aronsson)
3. Cultural history museums as national and/or Nordic spaces (Magdalena Hillström)
4. Interplaying heritage and identities. Denmark and Iceland 1800-2000 (Anna Torgrímsdóttir)
5. Negotiating identity in Art museums 1880-2007 (Stuart Burch)
6. Handling new diversities (Olav Christensen)
7. State cultural policies and national museums: Negotiating Baltic identity in the 20th century (Egle Rindzeviciute)

Some adjustments have been done, as Anna Torgrimdsdottir had to withdraw from her part. That made it possible to add not less then three minor studies in the last year of the project. All changes have been communicated and approved with RJ and the coordinator of Nordic spaces.
1. Gabriella Elgenius investigates repatriation of some types and situations of heritage and museum objects in the Nordic region. (3 month)
2. Lizette Gradén investigated initiative, motive and negotiations to create institutional museum representation of Norden in USA. (3 month)
3. Torbjörn Eng and Ingemar Lindaräng contributed with analyses of the structure, content and function of jubilees and commemoration with a special focus on transnational occasions.

Institutional nationalisation of Norden: the creation of national Nordism by museums, 1807-2007 (Aronsson)

This project has investigated how images of Norden as a supranational identity have provided, and continue to provide, arenas for negotiating political, military, social, economical, ethical and cultural understandings of community in specific public and nationalised contexts, especially museums. The central question posed was how the Nordic dimension, as performed in the chosen ensemble of national museums, manifests itself as a part of public history. What has been the role of this Nordic dimension or 'narrative' in national museums? Aronsson has studied how the institutional nationalisation of Norden was performed by the creation of national Nordism by museums, 1807-2007. Major conclusions are that
- Sweden and Denmark are more readily carrying the inter-national interpretation of Norden, while comparatively new nation-states are more focused on delimiting the unique character of their national history and culture.
- The Nordic dimension became strong in the 19th century and was institutionalised in the establishment of a set of national museums and performances of collection, organization and disciplinary communities, mostly used for enhancing the national history, but still performing a cultural community and lowering the threshold for collaboration and making violence among neighbours so viable a few centuries ago an unthinkable option. The explicit call for shared Nordic culture as institutionally and politically significant became less significant in the mid 20th century. New openings for Nordic identification occurred in the last two decades determined by geopolitical challenges and changes.
- The complexity of social tensions in each nation determines to a certain extent the figuration of Norden as a cultural asset. The cultural museums are especially important for acting out tensions between Nordic culture and national histories, but also art museums contribute with shared symbols of Nordicness.

The study of Nordiska museet demonstrates how important it is not to project the 20th century nationalism back to the Nordic setting of 19th century.

Cultural history museums as national and/or Nordic spaces (Hillström)

Issues of national identity and museums have been central in the growth and expansion of museum studies and many have stressed the close relationship between nation state building and the origin and formation of the modern public museum. It is almost a truism that the establishment of public museums in the 19th century is intertwined with the rise of modern nation states. When applied to museum formation in 19th century Scandinavia this perspective seems to produce a simplified museum history that centres the differentiation of the Scandinavian countries into separate nation states. Departing from the Scandinavianist origin and legacy of Nordiska museet in Stockholm I demonstrate the continuous negotiation between the Swedishness and the Nordicness in the museum. Nordiska museet opened in 1873 and was initially named Skandinavisk-etnografiska samlingen, mirroring the founder Artur Hazelius' Scandinavianist commitments.
In addition to national movements Scandinavianists sought to establish a pan-Scandinavian nation-state, and celebrated the cultural unity of the Scandinavian people (Finland was often included). The ambiguous collecting and exhibiting practices of Nordiska museet reflect this complex context for museum building in the North. From the very beginning Artur Hazelius collected objects from Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Greenland, Iceland, Estonia, Russia and Germany. In fact, the geographical boundaries of the collections were most indecisive. It is indeed true that the pioneering cultural history museums were spurred by nationalist ideas, but the meanings of "nation" were multiple, and encompassed also the vision of a pan-Scandinavian union. After Hazelius' death in 1901, the Scandinavianist legacy of the museum became a crux and efforts were made to "nationalize" the museum.
During the 20th century there has been a persisting interplay between the Nordic and the Swedish identity of the museum. From time to time the Nordic identity and the Scandinavianist legacy of the museum have been mobilized as a basis for contemporary relevance and legitimacy. But there has also been periods of rejection and even dismissal of the very same Nordic identity. Today, the tendency towards further "nationalization" of the museum is dominating. But from the museum's history we learn that what happens today is not likely to be the end of the story.
When the museums focused on past culture also novel modes of modernity was interpreted as Nordic. Nordic ideology was complemented with the idea of a specific form of welfare state propagated internationally as well as at home.

The image of Norden 1800-2000 (Stadius)

Stadius has researched on two themes both concerning the Inter-War period 1918-1939. Firstly, He has studied how modernity was merged with national tradition in the 1930s, especially concerning new radical design and architecture in the Nordic countries. Special attention has been given to the Stockholm Exhibition in the summer of 1930, where functionalist architecture was introduced to the Swedish public, but where at the same time a strong national programme was advocated for example in the Svea Rike historical and race anthropological exhibition. Secondly, he studied how the Nordic Region was presented as a literary place and Utopia in the Inter-War period by external observers, often visitors writing travelogues with a strong social and political agenda. For the outside observers there was an apparent need to highlight the positive and utopian side of Nordic societies. From a North-American perspective the Nordic region as a "middle way" between pure capitalism and communism, was interesting as a point of comparison in the aftermath of the Great Depression. From a continental European perspective the context was set by the political instability of the region and the advancement of fascism. For many anti-fascists the Nordic region became a region untouched by fascist tendencies and rule, thus constituting a hope for a better future, and consequently the region was reproduced textually as an image to conform to this political need.
There is also an aesthetic dimension to the Nordic ranging from the rustic to the post-modern, used with a great deal of plasticity to fit both various community projects, nationalism and attempt to gloss over other realms of politics.

Negotiating identity in Art museums 1880-2007 (Burch)

The publications and presentations that have issued forth under the aegis of Nordic Spaces have led to novel insights and answers; critical reflections on previously accepted ideas; and new lines of enquiries about hitherto unasked questions. In my particular case this has encompassed such seemingly divergent issues as the display of Nordic paintings and the distribution of Nordic weapons of war.
Notions of "Nordic light" are prevalent when it comes to analyses of the art of the North (Burch in Björkman et al 2011). Cognisant of this fact, a pioneering approach enabled new light to be cast on cultural productions whilst, importantly, also facilitating a spotlight being brought to bear on less savoury aspects of Norden. The trade in arms is one such issue (Burch in Aronsson & Gradén c.2013). But so too are the limitations of public participation and democracy evident in the North's national museums (Burch in Knell et al 2011). Highly significant constraints in the domain of academic scholarship have also been highlighted as a direct consequence of the Nordic Spaces initiative (see

B