[UNTITLED 17]
JUNE 17 – AUGUST 6 2017
Anna Bak, Sidsel Carré, Signe Frederiksen, Christine Overvad Hansen, Absalon Kirkeby, Heine Thorhauge Mathiasen, Jens Settergren and Emil Toldbod.
[UNTITLED 17] is an ambitious exhibition with new works created by eight, young and talented artists, who are all educated at a recognised art academy. The artists have been carefully chosen to produce works that either are created especially for, or thought into Kunsthal NORD's particular settings.
The artists have gained recognition for their works, and several of them have previously exhibited their pieces at reputable museums and art galleries. In that notion, they are already well on their way to leave their mark in the contemporary art scene, both nationally and internationally.
The goal with [UNTITLED 17] is to create bold and developing clashes between young artists from different academies and with different geographical backgrounds. At the same time, we would like to challenge our audience with new, experimental art with its different art practices and expressions.
”Kunsthal NORD is the region’s experimental platform for contemporary art, and our task is to offer valuable experiences to a line of the country’s most untested talents, as well as giving them a welcoming lift”, says Henrik Broch-Lips, leader of Kunsthal NORD.
Since Kunsthal NORD wants to take part in developing, fresh transnational dialogues, and give both emigrant and resident artists the opportunity to show their works to the audience from their home region, four of the artists are closely and familiarly connected to Northern Jutland.
”We know from past [UNTITLED] exhibitions that during such dialogue-creating and site-specific exhibitions, there are intense collaborations between invited artists ’on the spot’, it also gives the local artists new inspiration and new contacts”, says Henrik Broch-Lips.
’Untitled’ has been the most widespread term in contemporary art since artists in the 1960s began to avoid titles on their work to fight against a too permanent understanding and leading interpretation of their works.
The title claims its absence, and as an artistic strategy, it points towards art as just art that needs to be experienced visually, and not ‘read’ as a literary expression. Moreover, by adding a year to the title, it is the hope to annually present a transnational conversational mapping of upcoming talented Danish artists.
Kunsthal NORD is a member of FKD (Foreningen af Kunsthaller i Danmark), and is continually working towards sharpening its profile as the most innovative exhibition place for professional contemporary art – not just in Northern Jutland, but in the whole country. The [UNTITLED] exhibitions are added boosts in the right direction.
The planned work productions are developed in collaboration with the curator of the exhibition, Henrik Broch-Lips, who is an art historian and the leader of Kunsthal NORD.
See or download the exhibition catalogue here
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Anna Bak (1985) creates sculptures and site-specific installations, often with an architectural and industrial imprint. For the exhibition at the Kunsthal NORD, Anna Bak has taken her starting point in Aalborg’s industrial history and created two large, identical constructions, which are placed symmetrically, and mirror each other. One is white and refers to the salt distribution in Aalborg, and the other is black and inspired by Nordkraft’s previous task of transforming coal into thermal energy.
Graduated from The Funen Art Academy 2012. Lives and works in Copenhagen.
Sidsel Carré (1981) works with many different genres, such as video, performance, photography and drawings. For the [UNTITLED 17] exhibition, she made three new, large abstract paintings, with the titles ”solbrændt”, lungeurt” and ”solid”. It is watercolor on a plaster base, which ensures ”that it cannot be undone” and the shaping is quick and rhythmic. Despite their size, and painted on canvas, the works appear light, open and with a poetic stroke.
Graduated from The Royal Danish Art Academy 2015. Born and raised in Svenstrup. Lives and works in Copenhagen.
Signe Frederiksen (1987) challenges the particular language that surrounds the art scene. She has previously staged a line of text-based performances, where the relationship between audience, artist and work are central. During the exhibition, Signe Frederiksen will perform her work ’Experimental Art’. She will make a presentation of experimental art and show the audience around the exhibition of [UNTITLED 17]. See www.kunsthalnord.dk for dates and times of the performances.
Graduated from The Royal Danish Art Academy 2013. Born in Thisted and raised in Mors. Lives and works in Paris.
Christine Overvad Hansen (1988) often works in the intersection between sculpture and performance. She uses the body as an instrument in performative and sculptural actions that leave only imprints of their presence behind. For [UDEN TITEL 17], Christine Overvad Hansen has created a comprehensive installation that relates to the particular architecture of the rooms. The installation includes cire-perdue castings in aluminium and lead, emerald and skin, as well as a motorised sculpture in aluminium and textile.
Graduated from The Royal Danish Art Academy 2016. Lives and works in Copenhagen.
Absalon Kirkeby (1983) explores the mechanics of images, and uses photography as a medium through which people, commodities, and identities are reflected. Modern digital technology separates sensory perception from identity, and Absalon Kirkeby’s work reflects the transfer of images from camera to screen and print in a powerful way, making use of digital manipulation of images. For Kunsthal NORD, Absalon Kirkeby has made new, installational works that both possess picturesque and tactile qualities.
Graduated from The Royal Danish Art Academy 2014. Numerous summer stays on Læsø. Lives and Works in Copenhagen.
Heine Thorhauge Mathiasen (1982) activates and often adds meaning to the present works, the room and the art experience. He creates site-specific original ”blandformer”, which are located between sculpture, design and installation, in a practise that seeks to challenge the art work as an autonomous entity. In Kunsthal NORD, he has created both a line of new singular works that relates to the architecture of the kunsthal, and a work that will function as art communication of the other artists’ works.
Graduated from The Royal Danish Art Academy 2012. Raised in the western North Justland. Lives and works in Copenhagen.
Jens Settergren (1989) works in an intersection of media, including sound and text, often unfolded in sculptural and spatial works. He is particularly occupied with collective imaging, as well as the interaction between humans and their constructed surroundings. In Kunsthal NORD, Jens Settergren has created a site-specific installation, which is integrated in the pipe and heating system of Nordkraft.
Educated from The Jutland Art Academy 2016. He is s a member of Piscine and has moreover published different text works, among others the poetry collection Tropica Dissolvuntur. Lives and works in Aarhus.
Emil Toldbod (1982) makes his own tools, when he digs in the ground for Pyrit & other ‘perfect’ minerals, like any other archaeologist or adventurer. For the exhibition in Kunsthal NORD, he has created a new, performative work that relates to the surroundings of Northern Jutland and which includes a homemade, almost 100 kg heavy diving suit, a line of homemade diving equipment, and an attempt to find the inside out snail house, which is described in Jules Verne’s novel 20000 Leagues Under the Sea.
Graduated from The Royal Danish Art Academy 2015. Lives and works in Copenhagen.
The exhibition is supported by Statens Kunstfond and Aalborg Kommune.