POET SLASH ARTIST at Kunsthal Charlottenborg

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Commisssioned initially for the Manchester International Festival and curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Lemn Sissay, the exhibition has been reconfigured for Denmark and includes the works of 35 Danish and international artists and poets. 

Work from Poet Slash Artist will also shown in streets, and at train stations and bus stops at several hundred locations across Denmark.

This is the first exhibition of what is to be a biennale event.

Poet Slash Artist
20 November to 31 December 2021
Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Nyhavn 2, Copenhagen

 

3daysofdesign - COME AGAIN 2.0

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I didn’t get out to Cable Park until the very end of the third day of 3daysofdesign. That was not deliberate apart from the fact that I was trying to take a logical route from place to place to avoid doubling back or making long jumps across the city but there could not have been a better way of ending what was, by then, beginning to feel like a marathon run.

By a very long way, this was the most relaxed show of them all and - out on the edge of the sound - the light coming off the water was amazing.

The venue was the studio of the designer, illustrator and ‘paper poet’ Helle Vibeke Jensen and the works, by craftsmen and designers, were shown on the board walks and the hung on the walls of the wooden sheds and outbuildings of the water sports centre and were even shown wrapped around or draped over wakeboards.

Kids in wet suits were not phased and this showed an important aspect of Danish design …. here good design and an interest in art can be just a part of everyday life.

This is the second outing of COME AGAIN, and as with the exhibition at the Offcinet - the gallery of Danske Kunsthåndværker & Designere in Bredgade - this was curated by the jeweller Helen Clara Hemsley and Helle Vibeke Jensen.

Helle Vibeke Jensen
Helen Clara Hemsley

Copenhagen Cable Park
Kraftværksvej 24, 2300 København S

 

Exhibitors:
Helen Clara Hemsley, Janne K. Hansen and Mette Saabye with George William Bell, Katrine Borup, Rasmus Fenhann, Line Frank, Helle Vibeke Jensen, Lise Bjerre Schmidt, Lotte Myrthue, Martine Myrup, Anne Fabricius Møller, Annelie Grimwade Olofsson, Camilla Prasch and Tina Ratzer.

Tina Ratzer
Reeds

Helen Clara Helmsley
Looking back, to look forward 2

Lotte Myrthue
Strøtanker 3

Rasmus Fenhann
Air Bee n’ Bee

 

CHART ART 2021

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CHART Art Fair at the palace of Charlottenborg - the home of the Danish Royal Academy of Art - is a major event in the city when commercial art galleries from Nordic countries come together to show the work of the contemporary artists they represent.

It is a great social event but this year seems particularly important as pandemic restrictions in the city have just been lifted and Copenhagen returns to a semblance of normality.

There are always subsidiary shows at galleries around the city but also two main events run in parallel. CHART Architecture is a competition for architects, designers and studios to produce pavilions that are constructed in the two main courtyards of Charlottenborg and are used as venues where visitors can buy food and drink and, an inaugural event, CHART Book Fair, will be held in Festsalen - the hall over the entrance to Charlottenborg.

There is an extensive programme of performances and talks through the three days that the fair is open to the public.

In recent years a design fair, CHART Design, has been held at the gallery of Den Frie at Østerport. This was not part of the programme this year but hopefully it will return in the future.

our times? a photograph of a photographer photographing people being photographed

 
 

CHART art fair opening

26 August: Preview -
by invitation only 11-18

27 August: 11-19
28 August: 11-18
29 August: 11-17

CHART Art 2021

 

CHART Architecture

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CHART Architecture is an annual competition to design pavilions that are erected in the two courtyards of Charlottenborg and they have a major role as they are the venues for drink and food served through the four days of the CHART Art Fair.

To give focus to the initial design process, there is a theme for each year and this year it was to explore the concept of Social Architecture where spaces and objects “sets a tone and a stage for social or private engagements.”

Forty-six proposals were submitted by graduate students or newly-graduated architects, designers and artists from 28 different countries.

In the Spring five finalists were selected by an international jury that included:

Bjarke Ingels, architect and founder of BIG
the architect Shohei Shigematsu, from OMA
David Zahle, architect and partner from BIG
Sabine Marcelis, award winning designer from Holland
Simon Lamunière, director of OPEN HOUSE
Danish artist Nina Beier

CHART 2021
CHART Architecture 2021

courtyard stage by the Swedish designer Fredrik Paulsen

Situated Exteriors
by Kathrine Birkbak, Anja Fange, and Joe Mckenzie

 The architecture of Charlottenborg is echoed in wire panels.

OM
by guilt.studio
Diana Claudia Mot, Marius Mihai Ardelean, Claudia Lavinia Cimpan, and Mihkel Pajuste

 A pavilion constructed with aluminium ventilation ducts.

 

Leverage
by Rumgehør
Rasmus R.B. Maabjerg, Nikolaj Noe, and Victor Tambo

Made from dunnage bags - light inflatable bags used generally to secure and protect freight.

Winner of CHART Architecture 2021

CURTAIN CALL
by Rosita Kær, Nina Højholdt, Thomas Christensen, Sam Collins, and Lauda Vargas

The textiles are reused to create “curtain walls” that define and divide the spaces.

 

 

FIELD
by Torsten Sherwood and Benedicte Brun

 The green canopy over a long communal table is fresh bean shoots.

 

Berørt / Touched at Statens Museum for Kunst

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With restrictions imposed by the lockdown because of the pandemic, Statens Museum for Kunst - the National Gallery in Copenhagen - is still closed but a new exhibition has opened in the gardens at the entrance.

Under the title Berørt or Touched, this is an installation of three large but very different sculptures … works made by artists as their response to the pandemic and inspired by comments and images uploaded for the PARAT project.

Between May and November 2020, Danes were asked to upload photographs and thoughts on the pandemic and, for every one, the COOP donated 5 DKK to Røde Kors, the Danish Red Cross, for them to support vulnerable people through PARAT / READY …. a service from the Red Cross and their volunteers to provide help to collect medicines for vulnerable people confined to their homes; accompany people on walks or on public transport, when they feel unable to do that alone, and to help vulnerable people deal with coronavirus tests and vaccines.

 
 

Benediikte Bjerre (born 1987)
Eee-O- Eleven 2021
Aluminium

The frame forms an outline that appears to be a gigantic laptop computer.

“Benedikte Bjerre's sculpture borrows its form from a familiar consumer product, overscaled here to also delimit a physical space, hinting at the invisible spaces and distancing mechanisms that have emerged during the pandemic.”

 

Sonja Lillebæk Christensen (born 1972)
Skylden / The Blame 2021
LED video collage - loop 12 minutes 30 seconds

A strong recurring theme is hands and the work, with images moving across four screens, looks at many of the new situations in which we now find ourselves.

It explores the paradox that we feel divided and isolated in our own day-to-day lives but we are united, as never before, by a problem that is universal.

 
 

Kaspar Bonnén (born 1968)
JEG TROEDE VI SKULLE BYGGE NOGET OP SAMMEN MEN JEG BLEV VED MED AT GRAVE
I THOUGHT WE WERE GOING TO BUILD SOMETHING TOGETHER BUT I KEPT DIGGING
Mursten / clay bricks

Bonnén is a writer and a visual artist and his work uses salvaged bricks laid out across a bank of grass.

“When we look back at the time of the coronavirus pandemic years from now, what will we have left behind - or abandoned - and what have we created together?”

 
 

the exhibition continues at Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen until 2 May 2021
it will then transfer to other galleries in Denmark and can be seen at:

Kunsthal Aarhus from the 9 May to 20 June 2021
SMK Thy from the 26 June to 15 August 2021
Kunstmuseum Brandts from the 21 August to 24 October 2021

Berørt at Statens Museum for Kunst
berørt.dk
PARAT / READY

Copenhagen moves outdoors ….

As I was taking photographs of the exhibition in the gardens at the front of Statens Museum for Kunst, there was an exercise class for children who had taken over the large circular pond at the front of the gallery - the water is drained through the Winter to protect it from frost - and there were three girls in a line skipping on the steps up to the closed entrance.

Pandemic and the lockdown has changed how people in the city use public space and, if a new appreciation of our squares, streets and parks continues after restrictions lift, then that will be one positive gain to come out of all this.