Introduction by DAVID ELLIOTT Director Points of view and perspectives are intimately connected and, of course, they may run in many directions. On the subject of contemporary and modern art, however, the perspective has traditionally been Western. When the gaze has been directed towards the East, it has tended to alight on objects of either horror or delectation; there seemed to be little middle ground where contemporary culture as we recognise it could flourish. So we have focused on the extremes: on terrible cruelties, so-called barbarities or, conversely, on exotic or sensuous pleasures, luscious fruits metaphorical or otherwise - dangerous perhaps, yet ripe to be plucked... On such fertile ground, amply manured by western power, cliche and stereotype have flourished. A distant view has meant that there has been no imperative for facts to be checked or prejudices to be challenged. Such views have almost seemed natural. Such are the attributes of power - not only do they revel in the commoditities and services they can command but they actively exclude opposing or alternative views. Fortunately the art world has been changing. No longer does it slavishly follow the market or tradition but begins to show a genuine curiosity about other, radically different, ways of seeing, thinking and acting. The world of contemporary art has no boundaries unless we decide to construct them. If the effects of colonialism and its aftermath have meant that the "non-west" has been coagulated into an almost homogenous third world stereotype, so when the gaze has run in the opposite direction that has been a similar lack of differentiation. Westerners too "all look the same". This exhibition Beyond Paradise: Nordic Artists Trave: East, curated by Apinan Poshyananda for the International Programme of Moderna Museet in Stockholm, is designed to counteract such rigid patterns. It is the result of two years' research and studio visits with the concept of the show and choice of artists entirely that of the curator. The developed, primarily Social Democratic countries of northern Europe have long enjoyed a form of paradise and have started to come out the other side into another form of culture. Material wealth is not everything and there is much more cultural diversity here than one would ever have imagined. We wanted Apinan Poshyanda to look at us and our culture from his perspective so that in this way we may come the better to know and enjoy our own selves and art. Fortunately the art world has been changing. No longer does it slavishly follow the market or tradition but begins to show a genuine curiosity about other, radically different, ways of seeing, thinking and acting. The world of contemporary art has no boundaries unless we decide to construct them. If the effects of colonialism and its aftermath have meant that the "non-west" has been coagulated into an almost homogenous third world stereotype, so when the gaze has run in the opposite direction that has been a similar lack of differentiation. Westerners too "all look the same". This exhibition Beyond Paradise: Nordic Artists Trave: East, curated by Apinan Poshyananda for the International Programme of Moderna Museet in Stockholm, is designed to counteract such rigid patterns. It is the result of two years' research and studio visits with the concept of the show and choice of artists entirely that of the curator. The developed, primarily Social Democratic countries of northern Europe have long enjoyed a form of paradise and have started to come out the other side into another form of culture. Material wealth is not everything and there is much more cultural diversity here than one would ever have imagined. We wanted Apinan Poshyanda to look at us and our culture from his perspective so that in this way we may come the better to know and enjoy our own selves and art. Top : Catalogue Below : Poster