Today it is possible to buy a nuclear-proof time capsule on the Internet, in order to preserve fragments of our time for an unknown future. ‘Best Before’ grew out of a discussion on the subject in the spring of 1998. What would the content of these capsules be, and what would they tell future archeologists about our society today?

In order to further the discussion, we contacted a group of artists and started planning an exhibition on the subject. The discussion soon drifted into another closely related area, the media itself. What do the pictures we see as reflections of ourselves really express? How conscious are we of those who edit our information? And how is the information that creates our history, our past, now and future constructed and reconstructed?

Throughout the course of the project we contacted a number of people, in order to find different point of views: people in advertising, journalists, archivists, people doing research on psychological defense, among others. Some of these people have contributed texts to this web site.

‘Best Before’ started with questions regarding the future, however it turned out to have more to say about our society today. A statement. Here we are...right here!

Karin Hansson andÅsa Andersson, Association for Temporary Art

the background