tilbageblik
JANUS Museum for Samtidskunst
Eight contemporary artists look back
Anne Skole Overgaard, Bjarke Regn Svendsen, Bjørn Poulsen, Jacob Hoff, Jonna Pedersen, Karin Lorentzen, Marie Birkedal and Simon Grimm.
Eight contemporary artists present a mini-retrospective exhibition focusing on the long process of development involved in being and becoming an artist.
The exhibition TILBAGEBLIK consists of eight mini-retrospective exhibitions by eight contemporary artists.
How do you become an artist? Is it a natural talent that unfolds? How do you learn to create art? And when can you call yourself an artist – when do you truly feel that you are one?
The idea behind tilbageblik is to give the audience an insight into the engine room of art: to show examples of the many roads – detours, byways and highways – an artist may take, and the trials and experiments involved in developing an artistic practice and becoming an artist.
The Door in the Wolf (CAConrad), oil on canvas, 135 x 90 cm, Marie_Birkedal, 2021
Each of the eight artists contributes distinctive works spanning different periods of their artistic practice. Their development is shown from early attempts – works that, when looking back, may now seem awkward, naive or pretentious – to works that gave access to art academies or juried exhibitions. From there, the exhibition moves through landmark works that set decisive developments in motion and finally to entirely new works that show where each artist is today.
Each artist has been interviewed and asked the same five questions, including: “What made you start making art, and why do you still do it?” and “Can you name three things that have had an impact on your artistic development?”
The interviews are presented on boards throughout the exhibition. In this way, visitors can encounter answers to some of the questions they may have wanted to ask an artist while looking at their work.
detail, photo Sebastian Eggler
For the premiere, Bjørn Eriksen composed the musical work Drive in Reverse Karma specifically for the exhibition. The work responds to and expresses the idea of tilbageblik.
Tilbageblik is supported by the Danish Arts Foundation and the June 15 Foundation.
