Denmark: Constructions

Jette Bille - Untitled (2014)

“In Denmark - highlights Luciano Benetton, the creator of Imago Mundi - they have always been accustomed to doing things well, as even the name of the famous Lego bricks suggests; deriving from the Danish leg godt, it means play well. The Danish have always built the future. The country, in addition to the Happiness Index, rates highly in the most varied of rankings: from performance in climate change (Climate Change Performing Index) to the list of the least corrupt countries in the world (Transparency International Corruption Perception Index), from the Forbes “Best Countries for Business” to the World Bank's “Ease of Doing Business”Index.”

Anja Franke - My Garden Waste (2014)

“When we look at Imago Mundi’s Danish collection – observes Angelika Dahl Serritzlew, Art Consultant, University of Copenhagen - we will first and foremost meet the individual works and see their formal diversity and range. The differences are what first and foremost characterise this collection. But, nevertheless, each and every contribution in the Danish collection was made in a specific time and place. They have not been made without context, but in conscious or unconscious dialogue with time and place, with that which we call our age and the Danish cultural context.”

Lis Nogel - Copper Relief (2014)

“The ambition for the Imago Mundi project – explains the curator Sophus Gether, owner of Gether Contemporary - became to try to create a broad picture of the Danish art scene across generations, and with artists working in all media and genres. Painters, photographers, sculptors, illustrators, video artists, and even performance artists are part of the collection. They have all addressed the very small format in their own way. But the inclusion of all artistic schools has demanded much of the participating artists. Of the performance artist Dina Friemuth, for example, whose works cannot normally be immortalised as a form on a surface. Her challenge was therefore not only the format, but also to reformulate and translate her work for an entirely different medium than she normally works in.”

Malene Bach - Untitled (2014)

“But above and beyond the diversity of approaches, the Danish collection – continues Sophus Gether - also extends across all the active generations on the Danish art scene. Older as well as younger artists are part of it and thus give the collection perspective. Stig Brøgger, Bjørn Nørgaard, Torben Ebbesen, Eva Kock, and Margrete Sørensen from the older generation therefore rub shoulders with Emil Toldbod, Fredrik Tydén, Christine Overvad, Esben Gyldenløve, and Vinyl, Terror & Horror, to name just a few from the younger generation. This gives the collection breadth and allows us to understand the basis of Danish contemporary art, why the art looks the way it does today, and in which direction it looks to be going in the future.”

Tina Maria Nielsen - Untitled (2014)

In Denmark, research into the future is a key element in all fields. And, in this context, the country’s art scene – the curator notes – “is at the moment being given exposure on a number of different platforms. Project spaces and artist-run spaces, which break with the customary hierarchy of the art world, have joined the established institutions such as museums and galleries. Artists and art historians are stepping out of the conventional framework to create their own platforms for showing art. This results in new and different exhibition concepts and constellations seeing the light of day, which would have found things difficult within the established system.”

Amalie Jakobsen & Oskar Jakobsen - Red White Square (back) (2014)

Imago Mundi contributes with enthusiasm to Danish art’s push towards the future. “Danish artistic expression – summarizes Luciano Benetton - exudes the ability to bring together concrete content, creativity and sense, starting from architecture and design, which have become synonymous with beauty and formal simplicity at the service of function. In particular, in this collection we find talent and ability, reflection on the role of contemporary art and, above all, great expressive freedom. The construction of Life, lived and imagined. Material and ideal.”