Another Surrealism

With the exhibition Another Surrealism, works by internationally renowned contemporary artists such as Isa Genzken, Sylvie Fleury, and Bunny Rogers are placed alongside historical surrealist masterpieces. The result is an artistic cross-pollination across generations and national borders that invites history into the present and creates a frame of reference for the current surrealist tendencies in contemporary art.

Participating artists
Magnus Andersen, Harry Carlsson, Franciska Clausen, Sylvie Fleury, Lizzie Fitch / Ryan Trecartin, Wilhelm Freddie, Isa Genzken, Ernst Yohji Jäger, Rita Kernn-Larsen, Esben Weile Kjær, Sako Kojima, Soshiro Matsubara, John Miller & Nina Beier, Rolf Nowotny, Aske Olsen, Vilhelm Bjerke Petersen, Bunny Rogers, Tora Schultz, Sophie Z.S. Suaning, Rikard Thambert, Elsa Thoresen, Mira Winding.

The world’s first international surrealist exhibition took place at Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art in Copenhagen in 1935 with contributions from, among others, André Breton, Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst and Méret Oppenheim. In recent years, substantial surrealist currents have, once again, permeated contemporary art. With the exhibition Another Surrealism these new materialisations are interwoven with, contrasted to, and set off against historical surrealist masterpieces.

Where the aim of historical surrealism was to let unconscious forces overflow society and thereby overturn it, the colonisation of the mind in late capitalism has resulted in similar surrealistic imagery – only working in reverse. The exhibition traces the connections and discrepancies between historical surrealism and surrealist strains of contemporary art through traditional artworks, such as painting and sculpture, as well as objects that have not always been inscribed in an artistic context: window displays, fashion pieces, and immaterial creations such as scents and sounds.

An exhibition hall is transformed into an arcade, where reconstructed surreal window displays by artists such as Wilhelm Freddie and commodities by Salvador Dalí are exhibited side by side with shop windows created by acclaimed contemporary artists such as Sylvie Fleury, Bunny Rogers, Sako Kojima, John Miller & Nina Beier. Another hall is completely darkened with a roaming mechanical sculpture by Rolf Nowotny, a third is constructed as a labyrinth by Soshiro Matsubara containing historical surrealist artworks, while a fourth holds Isa Genzken’s iconic mannequin sculptures. In the lower gallery Lizzie Fitch / Ryan Trecartin have created a sculptural theater for Another Surrealism, and outside Den Frie, the exhibition continues with a video collage by Aske Olsen displayed on a large LED screen.

Drawing on Den Frie’s unique historical role in Danish and international surrealism, Another Surrealism is a unique encounter between two historically separate and fundamentally different surrealist moments, which prompts a fresh look at both the past and the present.

Another Surrealism is generously supported by the Augustinus Foundation, the Beckett Foundation, the Bikuben Foundation, the Danish Arts Foundation, Dansk Tennis Fond, the June 15 Fund, Magasin du Nord, and the Novo Nordisk Foundation, the Obel Family Foundation, Kvadrat, and the Aage and Johanne Louis-Hansen Foundation.

Another Surrealism is the first exhibition in the research-based exhibition series Ormehuller (Wormholes), which is curated by Ph.D. fellow and curator at Den Frie, Anna Weile Kjær. The exhibition series Ormehuller (Wormholes) is part of a larger strategic initiative, where Den Fries’ unique history is used as an asset in approaching contemporary art and society.