Abstract
The early 1990s saw Sweden severely hit by financial crisis, electoral upheaval and a swift reorientation within political elites resulting in an application to join the European Union (EU). Focusing on the Swedish blockbuster exhibition project Le Soleil et l’Etoile du Nord (The Sun and the North Star) in Paris during spring 1994, this paper argues that the early 1990s represent a key transition period for the renegotiation of the relationship between business, politics and culture in Swedish foreign promotion and cultural diplomacy. In a wide-ranging campaign launched in France ahead of the EU membership, political communication, cultural heritage narratives, and export promotion were brought together in an ambitious national identity political project that showcased a new, liberal-conservative and inherently European Sweden.
Highlights
The early 1990s saw Sweden severely hit by financial crisis, electoral upheaval and a swift reorientation within political elites resulting in an application to join the European Union (EU)
When IKEA some years earlier had inaugurated their first French warehouse – situated in the Parisian “red” suburb of Bobigny – the opening was accompanied with an ad campaign depicting the newly elected Mitterrand inspecting a bookshelf, with the caption “Mr Mitterrand, we know that you are fascinated by the Swedish model, but why travel so far?” (Kristofferson 2015:86)
During the time of the Swedish EU-membership debates, questions pertaining to the country’s European or non-European past were omnipresent in public debates on national identity; used by Eurosceptics to defend the thesis of the Nordic countries’ essential difference from those of continental Europe, the past was mobilised as evidence of a Nordic belonging in Europe by advocates of membership (Axelsson 2006)
Summary
On February 12, 1990, French Prime Minister Michel Rocard informed President François Mitterrand of the outcome of negotiations for an alliance between the state-owned French car company Renault and the Swedish manufacturer Volvo (Routier 1993). The economic hardships resulted in a reduction of state funds for cultural institutions: cuts in public spending which were accompanied by a declared ambition that private actors should take on a more active role in cultural life through sponsoring – a new practice in Sweden, but much more common in other European countries. It was in this context that the project of a large-scale French-Swedish exhibition on the 18th century took shape at Nationalmuseum and in the Swedish Institute. Together with the Swedish royals came a large political delegation, including three ministers, the Swedish Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, and what was characterised as “the largest industrial delegation in Swedish history” (Norée 1994)
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