Our Art

10 October 2010 – 6 March 2011

The exhibition Our Art was created on the basis of a research project examining how the Danish public perceive the Danish Art Foundation’s projects in the public space. The research project was sponsored by the Heritage Agency of Denmark and headed by Ulrikke Neergaard (MA), who curated the exhibition in co-operation with the director of KØS, Christine Buhl Andersen.

Since the early 1960s, when Social Democratic cultural policies established the view that “high” culture should be accessible to all, the Danish Arts Foundation has become one of the most powerful players within the field of art in public spaces in Denmark. The foundation has been behind more than 1,200 artworks during its existence. These works have, on the basis of dialogue with artists and local recipients, been placed in many different locations throughout Denmark: in urban spaces, at hospitals, in schools, and in rural sites – places where the Danes live out their everyday lives. At the same time the Danish Arts Foundation has always been a subject of intense political discussion: throughout its more than 40 years in existence it has been held accountable by many different stakeholders and has repeatedly been asked to validate its role and the nature of its project to the general public as well as to the art scene in itself.

The research project and exhibition addressed 15 of the Danish Arts Foundation’s projects in public spaces. These were selected to represent the wide-ranging scope of the foundation’s projects in terms of chronology, type, and geography: Elmgreen & Dragset’s Him; Poul Agger, Kai Führer, K. Bjørn Knudsen and Leif Jepsen’s murals in Brande; Øivind Nygård’s Observatorium; Elisabeth Toubro’s sculpture for the two main squares of Aarhus; Poul Gernes’ artwork at Herlev Hospital; Øivind Nygård, Christian Lemmerz, and Hanne Varming’s works at Statsfængslet Østjylland; Kasper Heiberg’s Himmel-Bygning (“Sky Building”); Niels Guttormsen’s Vingehuset (“Wing House”); Inge Ellegaard’s Tankeværksted – tankens flugt og selvstændighed (“Thought Workshop – the flight and independence of thought”) and others.

The main focus of this research project and exhibition was the general public’s perception and position. For the artists’ and the Foundation’s intentions are one thing; the actual reception of a given work of art is another matter altogether.

As a result of this approach KØS ventured out into the public spaces of Denmark together with the journalist Christian Vorting and the film company Træfilm by Charlie Gaugler to shoot footage of everyday life taking place around the works of art. The result is five films that also include interviews with local residents who talk about how they view the artworks.

In addition to the exhibition at KØS, of which the five films were a part, the research project also gave rise to an international seminar on the subject. The seminar was held on 26 January 2011.

The exhibition was accompanied by the publication Det’ vores kunst/Our Art. Statens Kunstfonds projekter i det offentlige rum set med danskernes øjne, KØS, 152 pages. Texts and editing: Christine Buhl Andersen, Ulrikke Neergaard, and Louise Trier.

The exhibition was created with funding from, and in an ongoing dialogue with, the Danish Art Foundation’s Committee for Art in Public Spaces 2008-2010. The project was also sponsored by AV-Huset.