Mixed media. Variable dimensions.
Solo show, Thorvaldsens Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark.
The exhibition consists of several installations in various rooms, in the atrium yard and at the rooftop of the museum. Two performances were held during the opening (→ Performance → Flag of Truce and THIS MOMENT is the BEGINNING).
Thorvaldsens Museum was established to house the world-famous sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen’s art and collections. Hesselholdt & Mejlvang were invited to create a dialogue with Thorvaldsen. The duo was at work in the museum’s storage rooms, archives, and gallery spaces aiming at creating a radical exhibition embracing the entire museum.
Today, many people associate Thorvaldsen with slightly obscure and perhaps even incomprehensible sculptures inspired by the world and imagery of antiquity, both of which were intensely pursued during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. However, the museum’s efforts in recent years to examine and publish original sources about the sculptor have led to a new and far more relevant view of Thorvaldsen: Thorvaldsen was a highly influential contemporary artist who shaped contemporary aesthetic currents and openly entered into politically motivated projects. Factors contributing to make him a popular hero. His art becomes particularly fascinating when seen as an instrument serving both art and power.
Hesselholdt & Mejlvang’s works address Thorvaldsen’s work with particular focus on the contemporary political situation in which revolutionary ideas flourished and time-honoured privileges were questioned. Lines are drawn between Thorvaldsen insisting on assuming an international outlook and the current debate on the multi-cultural society.
Heartfelt thanks to everyone who has made this exhibition and the accompanying catalogue possible by their generous financial, practical, or scientific support:
Beckett-Fonden, the Bikuben Foundation, Det Obelske Familiefond, Københavns Kommunes Billedkunstudvalg, the Danish Arts Foundation, Forskningsenheden Arkivet at Thorvaldsens Museum, Samsung, Lift & Løft, and V1 Gallery.
Photo: I DO ART Agency
THIS MOMENT is the BEGINNING, 2019
A past future or a future past, 2019. Discarded plaster parts and form elements from Thorvaldsens Museum.
Breathe, 2019. Rugs from across the world, a pneumatic actuator, compressor.
Echo Chamber, 2019. Cheese cloth.
Selfie – The three of us, 2019. Archival pigment print.
Black Exotica, 2019. Figurines in porcelain and tin-glazed earthenware.
African Boy, 2019. Rearrangement of vitrine. Bronze statuette of African boy, 1st-2nd century AD.
Afro Santas, 2019. Showcase with plaited artificial beards and wigs. Showcase featuring objects with hair from Thorvaldsens Museum.
Bolette Puggaard, 2019. Showcase with C.A. Jensen’s portræt of Bolette Puggaard (c.1838). Oil on canvas. Loaned by ARoS.
Afro Santas, 2019. Showcase with plaited artificial beards and wigs. Showcase featuring objects with hair from Thorvaldsens Museum.
Hope, 2019. Artificial leaves on the floor.
Desire for Domination, 2017. Woollen flag with burn marks.
Build that wall / Tear down that wall, 2019. Sound clips from President Ronald Reagan’s speech at Brandenburger Tor 1987 and Donald Trump’s speech in Anaheim, California 2016. Two loudspeakers.
A past future or a future past, 2019. Discarded plaster parts and form elements from Thorvaldsens Museum.
Collection of six male identities, 2004-2019. Figures in wood, porcelain, and plastic.
Flag of Truce, 2019. Intervention. Performed by Sofie Hesselholdt and Vibeke Mejlvang.
THIS MOMENT is the BEGINNING, 2019. Performance. Performed by Ernesto Piga Carbone, Hamun Maghsodlo, Marie-Lydie Nokouda, Mireia Serra Voltas and Anders Juhl Nielsen (trumpet).
