Son[i]a #108
Lars Bang Larsen
In 1968, Palle Nielsen approached de Moderna Museet in Stockholm with a proposal for turning the museum into an adventure playground. From September 30 to October 20 “Modellen. En modell för ett kvalitativt samhälle” (“The Model – A Model for a Qualitative Society”) was installed, and children under eighteen were offered free access. The event attracted more than 35,000 visitors. Nielsen’s insistence on using institutional space for advancing artistic critique was precocious, prefiguring activist uses of the white cube.
By including documentary material on “The Model” in its Collection, and publishing a monographic book, the MACBA has recovered a work that had remained relatively unknown in art historiography, in spite of its huge social impact during the late sixties.
Son[i]a interviews Lars Bang Larsen, editor of the book “Palle Nielsen. The Model – A Model for a Qualitative Society” and author of the essay “The Mass Utopia of Art Activism. Palle Nielsen’s ‘The Model. A Model for a Qualitative Society'”.
Palle Nielsen
Interview to Palle Nielsen, author of the project "The Model" (1968).