Drömlandet

Spotify, the welfare state, the railways, social security. The Sweden we live in today is the result of two hundred years of ideas, conflicts and visions. Drömlandet tells the story of how a poor country on the edge of Europe opened up to the world and became a global technology nation – and what that story says about the future.

Drömlandet is about Sweden’s most important story. The story of how technology and visions shaped the country. Not only in factories and workshops but throughout society. In politics, through trade, in culture and in the small decisions of everyday life.

Yet we rarely think about it that way. Democracy. Welfare. Pop music. Digital lives. Climate crisis. Much of what defines our time has grown out of the same force: people’s desire to change the world through technology.

Over two hundred years Sweden has transformed. From poverty and mass emigration to industrialization, the welfare state and the modern social model. From a society built on state direction and collective nation-building to globalization, digital economies and new markets.

But the story is more complex than a success story. Sweden is also the migration country, the weapons country, the paper country, the oil country, the music country and the waste country. The same technological development that created prosperity has also created conflicts, new challenges and new problems.

In Drömlandet you encounter this history through more than one hundred objects and installations in the heart of the museum, the Machine Hall. Here a Gripen fighter jet hovers above a bomb shelter and an eight-meter steam engine sets the rhythm of industrialization in the space.

The story also lives in everyday technology and in the way society is organized. In welfare reforms such as paid parental leave for fathers, which reshaped working life, family life and gender equality. And in the internet revolution, where Swedish actors like Pirate Bay challenged the entire music industry.

Here you will also find the ideas and companies that brought Sweden to the world stage. Bessemer steel, IKEA’s furniture design, H&M’s global fashion chain and the digital revolution of gaming, streaming and new platforms.

Technology did not develop in a vacuum. It grew in a society marked by high literacy, strong popular movements and major investments in education and infrastructure. Migration and international exchange allowed ideas and knowledge to move across borders. Drömlandet is therefore not only a story of success. It is also a story about the choices we made.

Dreamland opens on April 29. Welcome to explore the story of how Sweden was shaped.