Politisk rörelse och grotesk femininitet : En semiotisk studie av det fantastiska Paradiset på Skeppsholmen

Sammanfattning: The monumental sculpture group The Fantastic Paradise (Le Paradis Fantastique, 1967), a collaboration between the artists Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely, was donated to Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Sweden and installed by the water on the island Skeppsholmen in 1971. This was followed by a conflict that lasted 16 years centered around the relationship between the sculptures and the surroundings, in which The Fantastic Paradise was perceived by some as both grotesque and obscene, as well as highly unsuitable in relation to the historical environment. As a result, the sculpture group was moved to a less visible location in 1987. This thesis aims firstly to examine the historical context of the donation of The Fantastic Paradise to Moderna Museet. The study shows that the donation was the lucky result of a series of events shaped by circumstances such as personal relationships. The artists were life-long friends of the director of the museum at the time, Pontus Hultén, who aimed to incorporate avantgardist ideas into the museum's activities in the 1960’s. The Fantastic Paradise, located in front of the entrance of the museum, continues to function as a reminder of that era, which has come to be seen as the institution's formative years. Secondly, this thesis aims to contextualise and interpret the meaning of the art work through the use of semiotic theory and the concept of the implicit beholder. This interpretive part of the study is divided into two chapters, in accordance with the dualistic structure of the sculpture group itself. It follows two separate but linked theoretical directions: movement in Jean Tinguely’s machines, and corporeality and femininity in the Nanas, fantasy creatures and vegetation motifs of Niki de Saint Phalle. The interpretation shows that The Fantastic Paradise through both of these aspects can be read as an anti-classicistic comment in an art historical perspective. The concept of movement can be found not only in the actual movements of the kinetic sculptures, but also, in the case of The Fantastic Paradise, implies an idea of an activated, embodied beholder that is constructed as a political subject.