2003
Sandwiched (Los Angeles, February)
Many structures and relations within the art world and society in general are extremely hard to penetrate, so with this project I would like to do a very simple exchange of labour. Artists will do sandwich-board signs, which in exchange the curator will stand and display. I will wear each artists sandwich-board for 2 days at the Hollywood/Sunset/Virgil junction. I will be standing there between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m.
Participating artists: Lisa Anne Auerbach/Daniel Marlos, Morgan Fisher, Marc Grotjahn, Marc Herbst, Evan Holloway, Oliver Ressler/David Thorne, Stephanie Taylor, Mungo Thomson and Christina Ulke.
Sandwiched (New York, September)
The Wrong Gallery and Public Art Fund invited me to do a new version of sandwiched (in New York).
Participating artists: Bernadette Corporation, Leon Golub, Sharon Hayes, Ben Kinmont, John Miller, Aleksandra Mir, Adrian Piper, Julia Scher, Michael Snow and Valerie Tevere.
Book trade (Centre d'édition contemporaine, Genève, November)
Prague Biennale 1: Peripheries Become The Center (National Gallery, Prague)
Co-curator of the biennale in Prague. I called my section: alone/together.
What captured my interest in this project was the interplay between the individual and the collective; the individual artists in relation to the group of exhibiting artists. The contributors to this Biennial, The Peripheries become the Center, were first selected by a single curator and subsequently placed within the much wider context of the larger exhibition, comprising artists chosen by approximately 20 curators. This is to say that the artists were first placed within one collective framework (that of "their" curator) only to be placed within a second collective framework (that of the "organisation" or biennial). In this way, the individual, the artist, becomes part of a range of collective structures. Some of these are intentional, deliberately chosen, while others are more accidental and involuntary in nature.
The frameworks and limits of society provide some individuals with greater freedom than others, sometimes excluding, amputating or manipulating individual freedom. Individuals can take part in and exercise direct influence on small-scale organisations or groups, but are subject to large-scale superstructures within most contexts. This means that I, as an individual and a citizen of Denmark, is called upon to accept that my government is providing military support and thereby actively participating in a war in Iraq where bombs are used to bring about "peace" and "democracy". As an individual, I am not interested in accepting my government's position, a fact which forces me to find likeminded people, to collaborate with individuals and groups which share my sentiments.
Generally speaking, we opt out of more than we select, but how do we imbue the sense of being left out with meaning, and how do we as individuals affect the things we actively choose to endorse or opt out of? How does the individual create meaning for him/herself within groups and society? How do the individual and the group challenge the choices, rules, and norms imposed by society?
The title alone/together is rooted in the artists' individual and collective work forms and strategies, in artists who sometimes choose to make individual stands while also appearing as part of a collective group at other times, be it in the form of collaborations, collective exhibition spaces, discussion forums, social interactions, journals, concerts, etc. The artists work with individual self-reflection and communal ideas and issues, examining and challenging the restrictions of society. Several of the artists involved in alone/together display a socio-political commitment in their work and the world around them, sometimes employing an activist-like approach to investigate how art can question and be critical towards structures in society.
alone/together constitutes an investigation of how individuals relate to groups and society as a whole.
Participating artists: Lise Blomberg Andersen, Johanna Billing, Stephan Dillemuth, Kirsten Dufour/Finn Thybo Andersen, Jakob Jakobsen, Henriette Heise, Katie Holten, Laura Horelli and Josef Strau.
Johanna Billing
Dufour/Thybo Andersen
Katie Holten
Henriette Heise
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