‘Esoteric Sweden’

The Swedish Ecstacy exhibition invites visitors to look beyond visible reality and step outside themselves (the Greek meaning of 'ecstasy') through the artworks. On the eve of the opening, several international speakers will provide keys to this fascinating world of angels, spirits and the occult. The panel zooms in on some of the visionary key figures in the exhibition, including Emanuel Swedenborg, August Strindberg and Hilma af Klint. That same evening, we will also present the very first book on artist Anna Cassel.
American author Gary Lachman delved into the life and work of occult thinker and mystic Emanuel Swedenborg.
Novelist and literary critic Magnus Florin wrote an opera about Swedenborg, among other things, and recently published a study of light in the work of August Strindberg.
Art historian Briony Fer wrote several essays on the work of Hilma af Klint. She is one of the curators of the exhibition Hilma af Klint & Piet Mondrian at Tate Modern.
Daniel Birnbaum is artistic director of Acute Art in London and curator of the exhibition Swedish Ecstasy. He is adjunct member of The Hilma af Klint Foundation and one of the co-editors of Hilma af Klint’s Catalogue Raisonné. 
Hedvig Martin is a PhD Candidate in Western Esotericism at at the University of Amsterdam. Her project focuses on the religious worldview and art of Hilma af Klint. 
Kurt Almqvist is CEO of the Ax:son Johnson Foundation and is a former board member of the Hilma af Klint Foundation. Together with Daniel Birnbaum, he is one of the editors of af Klint's catalogue raisonné.