Give us today… When art goes to church
11 October 2012 – 24 February 2013
At the KØS Museum of art in public spaces we are currentlyshowing the exhibition and research project Give us today… When art goes to church. The exhibition – which is staged at KØS and in selected churches throughout the country – represents the first-ever total overview of the many new and groundbreaking examples of ecclesiastical art that have appeared in Denmark in recent decades. Based on widely different strategies, these works have lent new vitality to church art and, very importantly, added crucial new aspects to the discussion about contemporary art and the Church in Denmark.
The exhibition shows the most important and groundbreaking examples of church art in Denmark over the course of the last five decades. This involves rich and varied materials ranging from entirely objectless art characterised by clean, stringent lines to colourful evangelical, but also non-Christ-centric narratives onwards to turbulent, chaotic modes of expression. To provide additional perspective on Danish ecclesiastical art from the period, the Danish examples is showed alongside selected major international works that illustrate the new ground broken within European ecclesiastical art from the same period. The international artists featured include Gerhard Richter, and we also show works by Henri Matisse and Marc Chagall. The various works is presented in the form of a wealth of sketches, cartoons, and models for the projects in question. The exhibition is produced by KØS and will subsequently be shown at the Museum for Religious Art in Jutland.
Contemporary art projects in selected churches
The exhibition also shows all-new examples of young Danish and international artists entering into a direct dialogue with selected church spaces. Concurrently with the exhibition at the museum the project also involves selected churches in Denmark. Working closely together with the representatives of the churches and the artists themselves KØS has curated temporary artworks for those spaces. The venues involved include Køge Church and the Copenhagen Cathedral as well as churches in Odense, Århus, Ribe, Ålborg and Lemvig. The artists for the project are Tracey Emin (UK), Kaspar Bonnén (DK), Thilo Frank (DE), Mads Gamdrup (DK), Lærke Lauta (DK), Alexander Tovborg (DK). This part of the exhibition brings contemporary art and the reflections it prompts out to the general public as they celebrate the great events of life or simply use the church as part of their everyday lives.