John Peter Nilsson new director of Moderna Museet Malmö

John Peter Nilsson has been appointed director of Moderna Museet Malmö. He currently works as a curator at Moderna Museet in Stockholm, and will take up his new position on 1 March, 2012.

John Peter Nilsson (born 1957) has worked at Moderna Museet in Stockholm since 2004, where he has been responsible for some of the museum’s most acclaimed exhibitions, including Dalí Dalí featuring Francesco Vezzoli, which broke the visitor record in 2009, and Klara Lidén, who received an honorary mention at this year’s Venice Biennale. With their combination of groundbreaking and broad artistic oeuvres, the exhibitions curated by John Peter Nilsson have won recognition and appreciation among both critics and the public. He has a background as an art critic and editor-in-chief of several art magazines, including NU: The Nordic Art Review.

“John Peter Nilsson is one of Sweden’s most experienced and respected figures on the art scene. With his international focus and specialist knowledge about this region, he is the person we believe can build Moderna Museet’s presence in Skåne and across the Öresund strait,” says Daniel Birnbaum, director of Moderna Museet, and Ann-Sofi Noring, co-director of Moderna Museet agrees.

The director’s assignment at Moderna Museet Malmö involves enhancing the museum as an independent institution, as well as creating further collaborations within Moderna Museet and with external partners, and enhance the museum’s presence and appeal in the Öresund region.

“Moderna Museet Malmö is located in the centre of a region of astonishing development and change. I look forward to working with the staff and external partners to further increase our drive and momentum,” says John Peter Nilsson.

Moderna Museet has a national assignment to collect, preserve, exhibit and organise learning activities relating to all forms of 20th and 21st century art. The museum’s presence in two cities gives it a unique potential to make one of northern Europe’s finest art collections accessible to a larger public. Moderna Museet Malmö will continue to produce its own exhibitions of contemporary art, alongside experimental exhibitions based on the unique Moderna Museet Collection. The exhibitions produced in Malmö can be toured to Moderna Museet in Stockholm and other institutions in Europe and the rest of the world. The planned exhibition with Iranian artist Tala Madani, for instance, will go on to Moderna Museet in Stockholm after being shown in Malmö in 2013.

John Peter Nilsson takes up his post as director of Moderna Museet Malmö on 1 March, 2012. Alongside his directorship, John Peter Nilsson will curate the museums major exhibition in 2012, SUPERSURREALISM. The director’s post is a three-year appointment.