A dark imaginarium: The Bridge, Malmö and the making of a ‘non-existent’ place

The article assesses the role of (hyper-)mediatized placemaking on the city of Malmö, Sweden, contextualizing the creation of an imaginary ‘southern Scandinavian city’ on top of a real urban zone with exceptional attributes and serious challenges. Paying close attention to Malmö’s image within and beyond Nordic Europe, I draw on three sets of artefacts to interrogate this phenomenon: (1) the visual and narrative content of the Swedish Danish television series The Bridge (2011–present), (2) tourism development strategies and tactics employed by the city of Malmö and (3) museological interpretations of the interplay between the conceived, lived and perceived spaces and places of Malmö. In doing so, this article seeks to advance and deepen of the discussion of screen tourism in influencing geographical imagination and place branding.