Carl Michael von Hausswolff and Leif Elggren’s art project Konungarikena Elgaland-Vargaland experiments with the idea of the nation state. Realms has been an ongoing art project since its founding on May 27, 1992. Realms consists of the world’s geographical, mental and digital borderlands. The World Exhibition 2023 presents new works within Elgaland-Vargaland as well as fragrance works, sound installations, performances and concerts created by artists invited by von Hausswolff and Elggren. A total of 29 artists participate in the exhibition.
Since the 19th century, world exhibitions have served to manifest the nation state and showcase national prestige projects. The Elgaland-Vargaland World Exhibition is not a display of progress but a presentation of relationships to different places in the kingdoms that spread beyond time and space. The 2023 World’s Fair has a focus on communication within the realms – dialogues between citizens, between the living and the dead, wakefulness and sleep, between earthly and extraterrestrial bodies.
At the heart of the 2023 World Expo is the question of whether a nation can be a nation if it is spread across the globe and who has the right to define and maintain borders. Elgaland-Vargaland has so far established embassies and consulates in 39 locations around the world and continues to annex new territories. The work is a reminder that a nation’s geographical and mental borders are a constantly ongoing performative act and that far too often determine who gets to live and who dies. Redrawing maps and changing citizenship requirements are constant active events in contemporary world politics, above all through Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The exhibition’s curators are Richard Julin and Therese Kellner.
