Rum og bevægelse 3 - "eye sneakings" in SMK

Refering to the post from 1st May 2010
Talking about the play between outdoor and indoor, the perspectives and the views decomposed in several settings... Here are more examples of what your "wondering-around and about" might offer you as sight and contrasted sceneries.

Excuse the quality of the pictures - taken with my cell phone

Photographs at SMK

Lindsay Seers is exposing at Statens Museum for Kunst until the 26th September.

Her work concerns the history around her mysteriously disapeared stepsister Christine. This takes through memories and old photographs, in a search for truth. The art installation is as misterious and worrying as the history and the search in way that everything -object and subject- melt together in a strange feeling. I took home the book "It Has To Be This Way", about the exhibition and the process behind it, and will read it in the coming days. It seems the whole exhibition has to be searched through the different medias: art installation, film, pictures, sound, book...
In search of a search?

Before getting to the right spot, due to -or should I say "thanks to"- confusing panels, I was directed to the permanent photographs collection of the museum. Three rooms retrace the history of the researchs, experiments and objectives that the photographers have set themselves up to. From the beginning of the 20th century, with Man Ray and his fellows, to contemporary artists, the walk is interesting and so fascinating! Go and get lost up there (last floor of the building).

Munch, Warhol and Louisiana

Warhol after Munch - opening to the new exhibition at LOUISIANA Museum of Modern Art

Location: North from Copenhagen, at Humlebæk
Designed by Jørgen Bo and Wilhelm Wohlert
On demand by founder Knud W. Jensen in 1958 : extension for the main villa

Louisiana is this wonderful place: a museum with the finest modern art you could dream of -one of the biggest in Scandinavia!- in a building stating the best of the Danish functionalism and in a natural context that is breath-taking. I trip to Louisiana is always like an energy treat to me! I look forward to any visit and live a long time on the inspiration I gather there!

The founder Knud W. Jensen started up the museum with the intention to offer the Danes a place where they could enjoy the latest performances from the Danish Modern Art world. He had this idea to combine hot rooms and cool rooms on the visitor's road: the hot ones being the traditionnal Modern Art with wellknown and appreciated pieces and the cool ones being the last innovations eventually more complexe or provocative, more difficult to accept and understand. To this day it hosts up to 3000 pieces of post-war art history (after 1945).

The functionalist building which everyone identifies as Louisiana is actually the extension(s) to the original mansion. The dialog between the natural and biological context, the view over the Øresund and the masterpieces makes the art and space experience, one of a kind.

The sobre choice of materials the elegant lines and especially the spaces are typical for the Danish functionalism in architecture. But it is a functionalism integrated in its site and therefore much more succesful than maybe some work of Mies van der Rohe -remarkable buildings but so unfunctional in their functionalism. This integration to the site brings though one unfunctional effect: the museum is a labyrinth for those who aren't accustomed to the "wondering-around" visiting routine. The many meters of corridors -well, it is more than corridors because of the special relation to the nature just behind the window, but it is pure passage function- mustn't be very economical or ecological in terms of heating and maintenance...

picture - source : flickr.com

Warhol after Munch, the exhibition opening

I was among the fortunate ones to see the exhibition in preview with a short presentation speach from one of the people in charge.

For those who do not know Edvard Munch is the painter behind "The scream", which reputation has overtaken his creator. Norvegian painter from the 19th-20th century he is known to reveal through his work the cruel reality of life: illness and death. Tuberculose took his mother when he was 5 and his sister when he was 13 and he was himself weak in health. That could justify why the thought of death always darkens even his most light paintings.
Illness and death are very physical in his expression, linked to the suffering body -the "Madonna" is represented with an ill-looking foetus in the left corner, his self-portrait glows out of a dark space under which lies a skeleton arm, background figures seems like gosts, faces are thin and the eyes hollow. But I mean also physical in the way he uses the brush.
Somehow though I think -I choose to think- that this dark veil doesn't have to be a depressive and pessimistic view of life but rather a stetement of a harsh reality which is to be taken into consideration in order to enjoy and taste more intensively the good moments in life -so that you are conscious about your luck as long as you live.

Facing those heavy thoughts about life, you could be surprised to see a light spirit such as Andy Warhol. But the exhibition intends to show how Warhol actually reflects more deeply through his work and, on the opposite, how Munch maybe might be more superficial. The exhibitions traces the two artists' similarities: the choice of subjects as death, fear and sexuality, the use of repetition as a tool for strong and direct communication, the use of prints and gravure, their provocative spirit and critisized work.

In fact, Warhol used four of Munch's gravures, scaled them up and tainted them with those bright colours that are so typical for his work and the work of the publicity industry: Munch's selfportrait, the Madonna, the Scream and the Broche-Eva Mudocci. Their reproduction and sometimes combination -the Self-portrait and the Madonna, as a couple and a condensed life frieze- arrise new interrogations and reactivates the feelings that were at the origin of their making, but within a new era of communication and flashy effects.

Anyhow, the exhibition is fascinating and intriguing both by its object and subjects: the reasons to oppose or unite these two giants of the Modern Art world, aswell as the two painters themselves and their work. So for either one reason or the other, go and have a look. It is definitely worth it.

Farven i Kunsten -The colours in art-, quick review of the magnificent exhibition
I was there at Easter a first time but the quality, beauty and quantity is so overwhelming that review(s) are necessary and enjoyable. The aim of this exhibition is to show the evolution of the use and reflections behind colours in mordern pictural art through the 20th century. The technic is scalled up to show how colour is used, where, in which proportion and which tonalities. The reflactions from the different painters are to read on the walls through the visit. The masterpieces and their many authors are to be enjoyed. I discovered many painters I didn't know, saw some of the gods I knew, was surprised by some sides of others, ravished by the energy they transmit to the viewer: how incredible and wonderful that such a thing as a painting -an object- can be so alive! It is just fantastic! Go if you haven't yet -the exhibition is open till the 13th June!

pictures - source : www.louisiana.dk

Showing people on the architecture photographies, or not ?

Arkitekturfotografiets fremtid - The future of architecture photography
an investigation and debat on its past, present and future
Opening to the exhibition A second Opinion at DAC
in collaboration with cphX and Copenhagen photo festival
Read more about speakers on cphx.dk

Well of course, the subject is deeper, more complexe and has passed that superficial question long ago. Nevertherless the debat is about life and use of our architectural creations expressed by a media -more or less artistical, creative or profit and publicity minded- and finally published. The circle is closed: expressing and showing life for the everyday users of the building.

What defines life and what defines if the building functions? The aesthetics of it, the use and deterioration of it, the energical or economical audit, the resemblance to a 3D image made before any permit was given, the expression of some tortured architect mind looking for a meaning in his profession...The opinion might change radically depending on who is asked! But the building is part of an urban space, part of the citizens' everyday life, so it HAS to bring an extra value somehow. This condition usually is considered fulfilled if the building or site "lives".
Here comes next quetsion...

How to show life in architecture and urban spaces? How to communicate it? By the play of shadow and light on the materials, by waiting for rush hour to take your pictures, by setting every detail and controlling every appearing object and subject of the pictures (refering to the American photographer Cruz), by suggesting some forms and contrasts in a blurry picture (refering to Japanese photographer), by showing the mess in an appartment or by showing its pristine design with a design chair in the corner. Should architecture be exposed as a product or as an other element of the photography? Should the photographer's work be like a promoter branding and selling this product or an eye aknowledging art and harmony behind facts? Can he be both? Should he be a cameleon to his client's desideratas (being the architect or the magazine editor)?

The presentations and debat brought us to a consideration: everyone wants something new and would like to reveal its work differently. The architect looks for a critical eye enabling him to evoluate in his own field. The photographer has to be that eye and has soemthing to say in a certain way defined by his vision or opinion. The editor would like to report both visions in order to give the reader and citizen an objective base for its understanding and opinion-making of what is happening in his city. But that means someone has to take responsibility for his work: the architect by accepting critic, the photographer by standing up to his vision and the editor by investing in the right material and photographs.

Here comes the tricky part: "it's his fault that I am unable to do so". The architect needs to get clients, thus to sell and show how good he is with plastics, aesthetics and form making. He also needs to reassure himself and his ego on what ge is doing. The photographer needs clients so he does what he is asked and delivers images that aren't always arcording to his view. The editor needs to run his business too: he needs money if he should hire the photographers and is a bit short so he just asks the architect to give him some nice pictures and that's it. The reader says "Wow!" or "What?"...

In the end, I think it is up to all parts to challenge himself with his own discipline in order to show the public that architecture is an art of plasticity but also a social art, an art enhancing or preventing life, an art of high technical apsects, to show the public that photographers aren't just observers but have a history to tell about that same architecture and its urban context (well natural context also but here we were talking much about Copenhagen), to show the public that editors aren't just on the architects side, all together in an hermetic sect, but revealing architectural facts as a good reporter would do.
Good examples of collaboration between architects, photographers and editors has been seen in France and Switzerland with the firms Lacaton Vassal and Herzog & de Meuron.

That was also the conclusion of the debat and the opening to the exhibition...Enjoy it!

søndagstur til Rungstedlund og Gamle Holte gaard

Karen Blixens museum, have og fugle reservat
Location: Rungstedlund, nord for København

En dejlig spasertur i parken bag Karen Blixens hus i dejligt vejr var på programmet i dag.
Københavns 5-finger plan tillader byens beboer at komme hurtig ud i en smuk natur. Man skal bare tage S-toget til Hellerup eller Klampenborg for at kunne nyde den smukke kystlinje eller den frodig dyrehave. Derfra bringer turen videre fra det ene dejllig naturlandskab til det andet. Rungstedlund er en af dem: et stykke natur som er blivet til fugle reservat på Karen Blixens opfordring -hendes grundlæggende tale hvor hun nævner ønsket om dette reservat bliv uddelt i metroen til COP 15. Ja, "grøn" før tiden...Eller bare bevist på naturens værdi.
til møde med belgisk kunstner på Gamle Holte gaard
Location: Gamle Holte gaard, nord for København
Tegnet af Lauritz de Thurah, Kongelig Hofbygmester, i 1700-tallet

Det viste sig at David Claerbout havde to films kørende: Long goodbye og Happy moment.
Hans arbejde med billed og tid er fremdragende: bevægelsen bliver til et evighed og et øjeblik er sammensat af en mængde af oplevelser. Meget poetisk værk!
Allan Otte udstiller der også med sin Efterbilled. Spændende studie af det stilde tidspunkt, efter ulykken er sket. Der er noget frygteligt fysisk og noget urealistisk over malerierne, som virker som trofaste fotografiske gengivelser men bliver til farvede cartoons når man kikker nærmere. Det og så strukturen og den meget kontroleret pensel-linje - det er ikke blot et pensel-strøj! - gøre det til værker man kan betragte i timevis. Fascinerende og dragende billeder.

om stedet...
Turen førte videre til den barokke herregaard, omdannet til museum. Meget barok er der vel ikke at se andet end decorationen over hovedindgangen med dens occulus. Men det ville interesse dig at vide at Thurah er den samme arkitekt som var bag Ermitageslottet i dyrehaven og som tegnet spirret til Vor Frelser kirke, opført under Christian 5. To fine eksempler på barokken i Danmark.Barokhaven er meget smukt placeret i en ramme af høje lindetræer. Anlægget er tegnet efter en aksial symetri hvor en mineral have står som hovedelement: buksbomen er klippet til i fine bløde linjer og antik-inspireret statuer er der som minder fra en eftertragtet fortid. Derfra går midter aksen ud i en perspektiv på naturen, mens diagonalerne giver alternative opdagelses stier til den vandrende gæsten. Fra huset og til lindetrærammen varierer haven fra vel struktureret til gras plæner, og så den "vilde" natur ude for rammerne, retfærdigt til barokkens havekultur og principer. Disse variationer byder på flere nuancer en gang forårsblomster og blade springer fuldt ud...Det glæder jeg mig til.

Tur til ARKEN

ARKEN - Museum for Moderne Kunst
Location: syd for København ved Ishøj strand.
Tegnet af Søren Robert Lund
Offentlig arkitektkonkurrence udskrivet i 1988 af Københavns kommune - Indviet i 1996

Jeg har faktisk besøgt museet flere gange før men min opmærksomhed var den gang opslugt af værkerne. Det er jo også det gode ved det: at kunne kombinere arkitektur opdagelse med spændende kunst oplivelse.

SRL tegnet bygningen der han stadig var studerende. Hvis min kilde er rigtig, var det hans afgangsprojekt fra Arkitektskolen. Ja, det giver anledning til at drømme lidt. Hans forslag var unikt i det han pladserede bygningen i strandkanten, et beskyttet område pga særlig biologisk værdi. Og når man ser billederne af bygningen kan man kun blive begejstre sig over linjerne der smelter ind i landskabet og formerne som opstår ud fra de grønne og frodige omgivelser.

Jeg må dog indrømme at tiden og tilbygninger har taget lidt fra det første indtryk og jeg har været lidt skuffet at bemærke detaljer som ikke-bærende kolonner og meget rå direkte omgivelser (parking og beton i sted for inddravelse af naturen hel til døren lige som perspektiverne og udsigt indenfra allerede bringer).

Men tag der hen, nyd naturen, nyd udstillingerne og bemærk de andre fine overvejelser den unge arkitekt havde gjort sig. Det er turen vært! Jeg råder dig til at bruge en solskins eftermiddag, måske en søndag, vandre rundt og blive blæst igennem af kunst og vind!

http://www.arken.dk/content/us/architecture

Tale om kunst...der udstilles Mirò p.t. og en del af samlingen Maeght! Scenografien, med farver og belysning, er fantastisk flot. Jeg kendte ikke så godt hans værker men bliv meget betaget af hans kunst "have" og gardner sind og syn. Det er en god udstilling til at se for at møde kunstneren for første gang.

Kig ind på museets hjemmeside. (Jeg skal også tilføje mine skitserede indtryk når jeg får fat i en scanner som virker)