clipped from: www.nytimes.com OSLO — Despite the come-on of its irresistible title, the show here called “Whatever Happened to Sex in Scandinavia?” turns out to be not quite as advertised. It’s as erotic as pickled herring. Two 30-something men looked crestfallen recently at the sight of so many documents and so much high-minded art. Noticing a lone naked young woman in a video across the room, they positioned themselves discreetly before it, full of hope, then realized it was a German documentary about the making of a Playboy photo shoot, meant to deflate all erotic illusions.
Dreaming of the young Britt Ekland but encountering instead yellowing editions of Herbert Marcuse and fabric knit into Rorschach patterns by the Conceptualist Rosemarie Trockel, they retreated, forlorn, into the gray autumn.
The Swede in the fountain: Anita Ekberg in Federico Fellini’s “Dolce Vita.” In the 1960s Scandinavian goddesses and gods were the bearers of sex appeal.