Danmark at CODE Art Fair

Artists: Magnus Frederik Clausen, Christian Falsnaes, Ditte Gantriis, Kasper Akhøj & Tamar Guimarães, Henrik Plenge Jakobsen, Jens Haaning, Asger Dybvad Larsen, Ann Lieslegaard, Alexander Tillegreen, Ivan Pérard, Pernille Kapper Williams

Exhibition title: Danmark

Curated by: Mikkel Carl

Venue: CODE Art Fair, Copenhagen, Denmark

Date: August 26 – 28, 2016

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and CODE Art Fair

Once I actually started thinking about the peculiarity of the situation – this curated exhibition is part of CODE Art Fair to legitimize the more straight-forward profitable sections, and still my works are for sale – I soon came up with the basic concept for the show: Danish artists who are NOT represented by a gallery in Denmark.

The first work I chose was Denmark (2005) by Danish artist Jens Haaning. The name of the country in which the work is shown is to be spelled out using the national language and in capital letters so that it takes up an entire wall: DEUTSCHLAND in Germany, DANMARK in Denmark and so forth. What is so brilliant about it, is that something deadpan and immediately objective turns out to be relational, subjective, and downright emotional.

So, if my show has a national agenda it is (hopefully) as playful and open-ended as the work, from which it has taken its title. In general, I believe that the exhibition Danmark entails an analysis of the distinctive dynamics of the Danish art scene, a significant feature being that so many of our best, and most critically acclaimed international artists don’t have gallery representation in their native country.

Thus Danmark is a mix of young artists studying abroad, emerging and well-established artists. Present is almost every media: Painting, sculpture, text, installation, posters, performance, photography (of sorts), and video. It is all installed in a booth set off from the rest of the fair by turning it some 30 degrees, and with work hanging off the concrete staircase, on the trunk of the great tree, and for a long time I thought about using the peripheral iron beams.

–Mikkel Carl