Badin exhibition opening at Nationalmuseum on 19 February

Running concurrently with – and partly integrated into – the Sergel exhibition, a smaller exhibition celebrating the works of Adolf Ludvig Gustav Fredrik Albrecht Couschi, also known as Badin, will be presented during the spring and summer. This exhibition aims to help provide a nuanced and multifaceted understanding of how a person of African origin came to play a significant role in Swedish society during this period. A new artwork about Badin by artist Salad Hilowle will also be presented as part of the exhibition.

Badin was probably born enslaved in 1747, seven years after Sergel, in what was then the Danish colony of St Croix in the West Indies, although some sources suggest he may have been born in Africa. According to historical records, he was “owned” by Baron Christian Lebrecht von Pröck. In 1858, Pröck took Badin with him to Denmark, where the boy was “given” to the Gustaf de Brunck family; and in the summer of 1760, Badin was “donated” as a “gift” to Lovisa Ulrika, Queen of Sweden. This heralded the start of his complex and multifaceted relationship with the Swedish monarchy.

This exhibition explores Badin’s life and his position at the Swedish court while also shedding light on his position in Stockholm and Sweden during the latter half of the 18th century and the early 19th century – as a contemporary of Sergel. Badin was a member of numerous orders, and census and crown tax records show that for a time, he even lived next door to Carl Michael Bellman on Norrmalm, not far from Klara Kyrka (church). This exhibition weaves together biographical and historical contexts and illustrates the dynamics that shaped Swedish social and cultural life during this era.

Apart from a small number of appearances in literature and, most recently, in the new ballet Gustavia for the Royal Swedish Opera, Badin has remained under-researched and partly forgotten. The exhibition highlights him as a key figure by bringing together artefacts and documents such as Badin’s brief autobiography, his notebook and letters. It is hoped that this will help provide a more nuanced and multifaceted understanding of how a person of African origin came to play a significant role in Swedish society during this period. The exhibition, presented as a collaboration with art and media historian Åsa Bharathi Larsson at Södertörn University, also challenges conventional understandings of colonialism and slavery. It sheds light on the fact that these phenomena were not confined to remote geographical regions, nor were they associated only with the major colonial empires such as Great Britain and France. These phenomena were also integrated into the history of Sweden and the formation of Swedish society at that time.

For this exhibition, Nationalmuseum has commissioned a new artwork by artist Salad Hilowle, who has been working on Badin in a variety of ways since his degree exhibition at the Royal Institute of Art in 2020. Hilowle’s new film The Maroon is based on Badin’s own words from material presented in the exhibition. One of a number of central narratives plays out at the Gustavianum in Uppsala, where Badin is delivering a lecture to contemporary students. In his lecture, he reflects on his life and on how many different versions of him have been portrayed and represented throughout history. He emphasises his own voice, and his writing. Drawing on Badin’s texts and Hilowle’s interpretations of them, Hilowle’s film thus produces new images and versions of Badin in the present day.

The exhibition Badin – Beyond Surface and Mask will be presented on the upper floor of Nationalmuseum from 19 February to 9 August 2026.

For press information
Hanna Tottmar, Press Officer, press@nationalmuseum.se, 08 5195 4400