Carreras
Mugica

What could an aesthetics of resistance be today? This exhibition borrows its title from two books by the Swedish-German author, artist, filmmaker and playwright Peter Weiss (1916–1982): The Defeated (De besegrade), written in Swedish and published by the Bonniers publishing house in 1948, and The Aesthetics of Resistance, written in German and published in three volumes between 1975 and 1981. 

The Defeated: The Aesthetics of Resistance 2026 is a group exhibition. Artists from different parts of the world have been invited to create new works, responding in different ways to the novel’s challenge. Some address it directly or evoke other works by Peter Weiss and Gunilla Palmstierna-Weiss (1928–2022), others relate to it in more indirect ways, by working with forms, techniques, histories, or problems that can be clearly associated with The Aesthetics of Resistance. The exhibition also has a retrospective dimension. Alongside the newly commissioned works there is a selection of artworks and documents by Peter Weiss and Gunilla Palmstierna-Weiss, as well as by people in their circles. The historical works create new conditions for approaching the contemporary ones and for situating them in a critical, historical space; the contemporary works cast new light on the historical ones, and on the struggles, projects and ideals that they leave as their legacy. In this way the composition of the exhibition reflects the novel’s multiplicity of voices, its polyphonous history and its kaleidoscopic world image. 

Participating artists: Zbyněk Baladrán, Chiara Bugatti, Ali Cherri, Öyvind Fahlström, Harun Farocki, Jean-Luc Godard, Ane Hjort Guttu, Hamedine Kane, Kateryna Lysovenko, Asier Mendizabal, Peter Nestler, Daniela Ortiz, Valerie Osouf, Gunilla Palmstierna Weiss, Christoffer Paues, Samuel Richter, Lenke Rothman, Lina Selander, Peter Weiss.