The Earth Quakes

KØS: 23 September 2009 – 31 January 2010
Trapholt: 11 February – 2 May 2010

In 2007 KØS had the good fortune of adding Per Kirkeby’s studies for his decorative schemes at the Geological Museum in Copenhagen to our collection. Realised in 2004, Kirkeby’s work for the Geological Museum constitutes a particular highlight amongst the artist’s many commissions for art in public spaces. The project brings together art and geology, both of which are key aspects of the artist’s professional life. Per Kirkeby holds a degree in geology, and through the years he has drawn on his science background in his work as an artist.

This important new acquisition prompted KØS to launch a research project to be conducted by Lene Bøgh Rønberg, PhD, a curator at the museum. The study focused on exploring the relationship between art and geology in Kirkeby’s art for the Geological Museum. The research project resulted in the exhibition The Earth Quakes, which focused on the encounter between geology and art.

However, the exhibition approach did not simply read geology directly into the works; rather, it allowed two independent areas of human study – art and geology – to challenge and ask questions of each other.

In addition to the sketches and studies for the artwork at the Geological Museum the exhibition also showed other important works by Per Kirkeby, including preliminary studies for the artist’s interior work for the Gentofte Church in 2008; these studies are also part of the museum’s collection.

Based on a so-called constructivist principle, the exhibition juxtaposed geological materials with art. Exhibits from the Geological Museum – minerals, fossils, and meteorites – were presented side by side with art. The geological pathway through the exhibition incorporated travelogues and photographs from the artists’ own geological expeditions to Greenland in the late 1950s and 1960s as well as other materials that elucidate the artists’ geological approach to art in general and, more specifically, to the commission for the Geological Museum.

The objective behind this approach was partly to allow visitors to apply a new gaze to the art of Per Kirkeby, and partly to provide a point of entry into the realms of geology.

The exhibition was curated by Lene Bøgh Rønberg, curator at KØS, PhD, in an ongoing dialogue with Minik Rosing, professor at the Geological Museum.

The exhibition was funded by the Beckett Foundation, the C.L. David Grant, the Augustinus Foundation, HM Queen Margrethe and HRH Prince Henrik’s Foundation, the Oticon Foundation, and the L. Zeuthen Memorial Grant.

To accompany the exhibition KØS published Jorden skælver. Kunst og geologi/The Earth Quakes. Art and Geology, 87 pages. Contributions by Lene Bøgh Rønberg, Minik Rosing, and Anne Borup. Editors: Lene Bøgh Rønberg and Louise Trier Petersen.