Artist: Benedikte Bjerre
Exhibition title: let it go let it go
Curated by: Tomke Braun
Venue: Kunstverein Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
Date: February 7 – March 21, 2021
Photography: All works courtesy the artist. Images by Marius Land, © Kunstverein Göttingen
Benedikte Bjerre questions the extent to which economic and social structures influence our actions and being. For her solo show let it go let it go at Kunstverein Göttingen, she develops a questioning as well as forward-looking perspective of her own production conditions by reinterpreting and recontextualizing previous works of her artistic career.
In her sculptures and installations, Bjerre primarily works with industrially produced materials and symbolic products to address the growing decoupling of time and space in a globalized society. At all times shaped by a sociological and critical view of the present day, the artist adapts images, symbols and procedures of a late-capitalist world of commodities. In humorous constellations supplemented by art historical references; soft, comic-like suitcases and boxes writhe around („High Hopes”, 2018) or balloon chickens dance in the exhibition space („Lisa‘s chickens”, 2016). For let it go let it go, Bjerre designs a structure that responds to the Old Town Hall’s space, as well as to distancing and waiting as social symptoms in light of the Corona pandemic. In this way, an in-between stage is made tangible: on the one hand, the works are exposed in their already adapted state; on the other hand, they appear to be waiting for further possible changes – or simply waiting for their next destination.
Benedikte Bjerre (born 1987 in Copenhagen) studied at the Städelschule in Frankfurt from 2009 to 2015 and attended The Royal Danish Academy of Arts in Copenhagen from 2013 to 2016. Her work has been presented in solo exhibitions at Ringsted Galleriet, Ringsted, Denmark and Kantine Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium, amongst others. Bjerre has received stipends from De Ateliers in Amsterdam, Villa Aurora in Los Angeles, and the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes. Since 2019, she is a professor at Det Jyske Kunstakademi in Aarhus.
Benedikte Bjerre, Inventory I-V, 2021, Powder coated steel, wheels, led light, printed polyester, eurotrays, foam, squishes, modified coins, bronze cast, plaster sculptures, oysterglove, wood, aluminium cast, helium ballons, ladder, 4 shelves, each 260 x 170 x 60 cm, Photo: Marius Land, © Kunstverein Göttingen
Benedikte Bjerre, Inventory I-V, 2021, Powder coated steel, wheels, led light, printed polyester, eurotrays, foam, squishes, modified coins, bronze cast, plaster sculptures, oysterglove, wood, aluminium cast, helium ballons, ladder, 4 shelves, each 260 x 170 x 60 cm, Photo: Marius Land, © Kunstverein Göttingen
Benedikte Bjerre, Inventory I-V, 2021, Powder coated steel, wheels, led light, printed polyester, eurotrays, foam, squishes, modified coins, bronze cast, plaster sculptures, oysterglove, wood, aluminium cast, helium ballons, ladder, 4 shelves, each 260 x 170 x 60 cm, Photo: Marius Land, © Kunstverein Göttingen
Benedikte Bjerre, Inventory I-V, 2021, detail, Photo: Marius Land, © Kunstverein Göttingen
Benedikte Bjerre, Inventory I-V, 2021, detail, Photo: Marius Land, © Kunstverein Göttingen
Benedikte Bjerre, Inventory I-V, 2021, detail, Photo: Marius Land, © Kunstverein Göttingen
Benedikte Bjerre, Inventory I-V, 2021, detail, Photo: Marius Land, © Kunstverein Göttingen
Benedikte Bjerre, Inventory I-V, 2021, detail, Photo: Marius Land, © Kunstverein Göttingen
Benedikte Bjerre, let it go let it go, exhibition view Kunstverein Göttingen, Photo: Marius Land, © Kunstverein Göttingen
Benedikte Bjerre, let it go let it go, exhibition view Kunstverein Göttingen, Photo: Marius Land, © Kunstverein Göttingen
Benedikte Bjerre, Bettys, 2010, Oil on canvas paintings, each 100 x 70 cm, Photo: Marius Land, © Kunstverein Göttingen
Benedikte Bjerre, Hot products 4, 2021, Powder coated steel, wood, wheels, led light, mirror, display, lollipop, lock, 200 x 180 x 95 cm, Photo: Marius Land, © Kunstverein Göttingen
Benedikte Bjerre, Hot products 4, 2021, detail, Photo: Marius Land, © Kunstverein Göttingen
Benedikte Bjerre, Hot products 4, 2021, detail, Photo: Marius Land, © Kunstverein Göttingen
Benedikte Bjerre, Booster (Burberry), 2016, Shoppingbag, alufoil, plaster, 28 x 25 x 15 cm, Photo: Marius Land, © Kunstverein Göttingen
Benedikte Bjerre, Booster (Plaza), 2016, Shoppingbag, alufoil, plaster, 28 x 25 x 15 cm, Photo: Marius Land, © Kunstverein Göttingen
Benedikte Bjerre, Spring (days to come), 2020, Laserprint on aluminium, 148 x 245 cm, Photo: Marius Land, © Kunstverein Göttingen
Benedikte Bjerre, Spring (days to come), 2020, detail, Photo: Marius Land, © Kunstverein Göttingen
Benedikte Bjerre, Untitled, 2010/2021, Aluminium, stainless steel, 230 x 230 x 230 cm, Photo: Marius Land, © Kunstverein Göttingen
Benedikte Bjerre, Untitled, 2010/2021, detail, Photo: Marius Land, © Kunstverein Göttingen
Benedikte Bjerre, let it go let it go, exhibition view Kunstverein Göttingen, Photo: Marius Land, © Kunstverein Göttingen
Benedikte Bjerre, Working girls in the age after reproduction, 2021, Powder coated steel, wheels, led light, easy coffeemakers, coffee, newspaper, plaster, plexiglas, travel alarm, socks, 260 x 170 x 60 cm, Photo: Marius Land, © Kunstverein Göttingen
Benedikte Bjerre, Working girls in the age after reproduction, 2021, detail, Photo: Marius Land, © Kunstverein Göttingen
Benedikte Bjerre, JIT, 2021, Powder coated steel, wheels, led light, framed color photograph, 260 x 170 x 60 cm, Photo: Marius Land, © Kunstverein Göttingen
Benedikte Bjerre, let it go let it go, exhibition view Kunstverein Göttingen, Photo: Marius Land, © Kunstverein Göttingen
Benedikte Bjerre, Rat, 2020, Fly tester, bait, demineralised water, 13 x 40 x 8 cm, Photo: Marius Land, © Kunstverein Göttingen
Benedikte Bjerre, Rat, 2020, Fly tester, bait, demineralised water, 13 x 40 x 8 cm, Photo: Marius Land, © Kunstverein Göttingen