Victoria of Sweden in the Marais

In the Marais, we meet “people”. But future queens are already much rarer. Last Sunday, December 5, it was indeed a crown princess that Le Marais Mood had the privilege of meeting, rue Payenne. Victoria of Sweden was at the Swedish Institute to celebrate the 50th anniversary of an institution inaugurated in Paris in 1971 by her father, the current King Carl XVI Gustav.

A visit lasting several hours in the presence of the princess's entourage, the Swedish ambassador but also the author Marie Darrieussecq and the publisher (and former Minister of Culture) Françoise Nyssen, patron of Actes South, very focused on Nordic literature. And, therefore, Marais Mood.

For the director of the Swedish Institute Eva Kumlin, who had invited 150 guests, it was a question of paying tribute to the work accomplished by her ten predecessors. For half a century, they have built bridges with the French, from the general public or the cultural world. Since the 1970s, the Marle hotel, whose first stone was laid in 1560, has welcomed hundreds of Swedish artists and researchers as well as 20.000 students, eager to learn the language of Strindberg.

“At the beginning, it was mainly mixed couples, then French grandmothers wanting to learn the language of their grandchildren,” says Gunilla Norén, in charge of communications. With Sweden's entry into the European Union in 1995 and the development of the Erasmus student program, French interest increased further. There are even students without family or professional ties to Sweden, but who are simply attracted by Swedish society and the Swedish way of life. »

Victoria of Sweden. Swedish Institute 50 years. © Vinciane Lebrun – you see

Over fifty years, the Swedish Institute has become part of the DNA of the Marais and Paris, thanks to its rich programming, its café (temporarily closed), its literary meetings, its concerts, its open-air cinema ( summer) or its festival of Midsommar, that is to say Midsummer. A book specially published for the occasion traces the history of this beacon of Swedish culture in Paris, without which the Marais... would lose its way. The work is simply titled Friendship. With this subtitle: Swedish Institute in Paris, a love story.

Currently on the program: the exhibition “On va au parc”, until January 9. It is a dive into the dreamlike universe of the eponymous book, designed by two creators who take children seriously: Sara Stridsberg, one of the greatest contemporary Swedish writers, and Beatrice Alemagna, Italian-Parisian illustrator of renowned who has just appeared on the cover of Télérama.

Next, in February 2022, will be the exhibition of virtuoso and surrealist photographer Erik Johansson, extraordinary creator of images on the borders of reality and dreams. Later, in the spring, an exhibition will celebrate textiles, another area of ​​Scandinavian excellence. And here we go for another fifty years!

comfort zone, Erik Johansson

Swedish Institute
11 Rue Payenne, 75003 Paris
Wednesday to Sunday from 12 p.m. to 18 p.m.
Tel: +01 44 78 80 20

Text: Axel G.

09.12.21