| Popis: |
At the inauguration of its new building in 1907, Nordiska museet in Stockholm displayed an extensive series of period rooms, illustrating the homes of the privileged classes in Sweden from the sixteenth century to present days. The exhibition remained more or less intact until the early 1970s, when it was dismantled and put into storage. Focusing on two of the rooms – a 17th century state Bedroom from Ulvsunda castle and an 18th century bourgeois interior from Högbergsgatan in Stockholm – this article explores the provenance of the rooms, their role in a museological context and their relations to the museum’s knowledge production. Most of the period rooms were architectural salvages following demolitions in the early 20th century, and as such they can be regarded as physical representations of the museum’s practices and expertise within the field. The Ulvsunda bedchamber and the room from Högbergsgatan outlived the depreciation of the 1970s, and were updated and reinstalled in subsequent exhibitions. After more than hundred years, these two period rooms are now among the museum’s most long-lived attractions. |
