November 25, 2017–April 2, 2018
Aros Allé 2
8000 Aarhus
Denmark
Hours: Tuesday–Friday 10am–9pm,
Saturday–Sunday 10am–5pm
T +45 87 30 66 00
info@aros.dk
The 80 works comprising the exhibition Cool, Calm and Collected are created by 47 artists or artists’ groups, all of them engaged in form and aesthetics as well as current social issues. Cool, Calm and Collected includes, among much else, a performance installation by Christian Falsnaes, the sculpture He (gold) by Elmgreen & Dragset, and the flag series Native, Exotic, Normal / State of Emergency by Hesselholdt & Mejlvang.
Erlend G. Høyersten, Director of the ARoS Aarhus Art Museum: “The exhibition presents the predominating trends in recent Danish contemporary art, manifesting the topics and forms of expression driving today’s Danish artists. It’s not just a question of aesthetics, but equally of the content seething just below the surface.”
As a whole, the exhibition demonstrates the form-oriented and aestheticising trend which has preoccupied many Danish artists for the past fifteen years. The exhibition also highlights just how differently the artists work with their chosen materials, media, and themes.
Maria Kappel Blegvad, curator of the exhibition: “In terms of content, the works address widely differing topics—spanning the occult, the post-human, and social, scientific and psychological topics inspired by other parts of the world or earlier movements of art such as minimalism, surrealism, and conceptual art.”
Publication
In the accompanying magazine, the predominant trends in Danish contemporary art are outlined and discussed by Erlend G. Høyersten, museum director, ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, Toke Lykkeberg, critic and curator, Maria Kappel Blegvad, curator of the exhibition, Malene Vest Hansen, associate professor in art history, University of Copenhagen, Louise Steiwer, arts writer, and Peter Ole Pedersen, post.doc., Aarhus University. Their texts are accompanied by interviews detailing the artists’ personal ideas and visions.
Special presentation event
One of the purposes of this exhibition is to give the artists a powerful voice. At the same time, the museum wants to actively involve the audience in trying to examine what contemporary art means to us and the time, we live in. As part of the exhibition, the museum will give visitors the opportunity of asking the participating artists questions. Every week, the museum will select one or more of these questions and pass them on to the relevant artist to get a better understanding of their art. This will result in a number of short films with selected artists from the exhibition.
Video works and performances
The exhibition includes a film programme showing video works by Jesper Just, Søren Thilo Funder, Amalie Smith, Simon Dybbroe Møller, and Nanna Debois Buhl. Furthermore, there is a performance programme by Sophie Dupont, Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen, and Jeannette Ehlers as well as the performance installation Justified Beliefs by Christian Falsnaes, which makes the exhibition visitors the main protagonists of the work.
Artists on show
A Kassen / Alexander Tovborg / Amalie Smith / Christian Falsnaes / Danh Vo / Ebbe Stub Wittrup / Elmgreen & Dragset / FOS / Hesselholdt & Mejlvang / Jeannette Ehlers / Jeppe Hein / Jakob Kolding / Jette Hye Jin Mortensen / Jens Haaning / Jesper Just / John Kørner / Kirstine Roepstorff / Lea Guldditte Hestelund / Lea Porsager / Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen / Maiken Bent / Marie Søndergaard Lolk / Mette Winckelmann / Mikkel Carl / Mille Kalsmose / Morten Søndergaard / Nanna Abell / Nanna Debois Buhl / Nicolai Howalt / Nina Beier / Olafur Eliasson / Pernille Kapper Williams / Peter Land / Rikke Benborg / Ruth Campau / Sergej Jensen / Simon Dybbroe Møller / Sophia Kalkau / Sophie Dupont / Superflex / Søren Thilo Funder / Tal R / Torben Ribe / Tove Storch / Trine Søndergaard / Troels Sandegård / Tue Greenfort
The exhibition has been realised with generous support from: Spar Nord Fonden, Statens Kunstfond, Bikubenfonden, Stibo-Fonden, Oticonfonden, Politiken-Fonden.
Press contact: Anne Riis, Press Officer, T 0045 2888 4464 / ari [at] aros.dk