Normkritiken: den fria konstens paradox

When Nationalmuseum 2018 reopened after a thorough renovation, a cultural debate arose in Sweden about the extent to which norm criticism has taken over the museum's permanent exhibition. The intention of norm criticism is to act as an inclusive tool, by, among other things, making visible, criticizing and changing structures. However, can the inclusive norm criticism also inhibit freedom of expression by causing an exclusion of certain art expressions and performers? In other words, does there arise a paradox in applying norm-critical requirements on artistic freedom? The purpose of this essay has been to present an answer to this question and thereby making a contribution to the discourse within the science of Arts, regarding the prerequisites of artistic freedom. The study was conducted through semiotic image analysis by the artwork: Anders Zorn – Badande kullor, Bruno Liljefors - Orrspel i mossen and Carl Larsson – Till en liten vira. The analysis were further developed through commutation tests, where the artist's gender affiliation changed from male to female with the intention of, from a norm-critical perspective, studying whether and how the artist's gender affiliation in a transmitter context influences the meaning and signification of the artwork. The results from the image analysis show that the meaning in the interpretations of the works shifts in a varying degrees, which can contribute to both confirm, creating new and challenging already known oppressive norms and structures. To summarize, the study concludes that in norm criticism such a paradox can arise, which can have limiting and exclusionary consequences for the prerequisites of artistic freedom in the form of, for example, self-censorship and discrimination