FOS
Koøje
20 March–17 May 2015
Kunsthal Charlottenborg
Kongens Nytorv 1
1050 Copenhagen K
www.kunsthalcharlottenborg.dk
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It is a great pleasure for Kunsthal Charlottenborg to present Koøje—the most comprehensive solo exhibition to date by Danish artist FOS.
The exhibition comprises a series of installations, which point to various aspects of community and collective memory. With his characteristic poetic language and playful aesthetics FOS articulates a concern about the way in which we administer the community. Through works that include a crying mask, a set of dysfunctional keys, a tunnel leading to a bomb shelter whose door we cannot open and a collapse of supporting structures, FOS refers to the feeling of uncertainty that marks our community.
This feeling of uncertainty that is related to the collective experience is, according to FOS, a result of the amnesia we as a community suffer from. Have we forgotten something? “Society unfolds itself through stories. We support the story of freedom, but what has become of equality and brotherhood?” FOS asks.
As a central part of the exhibition, FOS has written a poem that tackles these themes in a more concentrated form. The text is shaped by rhythm, impact and breaks, and similarly the exhibition is composed of individual parts that together and in dialogue with each other, make up Koøje. In addition to the poem, a number of text pieces also appear within the exhibition itself. With the same playful approach that characterises FOS’s visual language, FOS cultivates ambiguities and misunderstandings inherent in verbal language. He finds words that cause slip-ups and treats language like a material that can be moulded, twisted and turned.
Bio
FOS graduated from The Royal Danish Academy, School of Visual Arts in 1999. His artistic practice is far-reaching and versatile, and he has worked in a range of contexts.
In 1999, his legendary project Oslo—a social platform housing a variety of events and exchanges—occupied a part of Israels Plads in Copenhagen. The project was further developed in 2010 and under the name Osloo was transformed into a floating wooden pavilion with a stage, a bar and a radio station that provided the framework for an intensive programme of performances, readings and concerts by invited guests. Osloo docked in Køge and Copenhagen and completed its tour at the Venice Biennale in 2011, as a part of the Danish pavilion.
In 2006, FOS was responsible for the extensive re-design of Mændenes Hjem (a shelter for homeless men), in collaboration with Kenneth Balfelt. Since 2012, he has worked with the French fashion house Céline, carrying out interior design projects for their stores around the world. He executed decorations for The Danish National School of Performing Arts in 2005 and 2009, and his large-scale permanent ornamentation of the college Efterslægten in Copenhagen will be completed in August 2015. FOS has also published Liquid Chain into the Vapour Wall: The Fall, from 2007 and has played music with Small White Man, a constellation of musicians who FOS conducts using a Storm-P like device.
In recent years, he has taken part in solo exhibitions at Camden Arts Centre, London (2012), Andersen’s Contemporary, Copenhagen (2012), Max Wigram Gallery, London (2012), the National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen (2011) and GAK (Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst), Bremen (2008).
