About the Exhibition
Three Danish artists — Per Bak Jensen, Jesper Just and Joachim Koester — are presented to the public of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Sarajevo Winter festival. They represent, at the same time, three generations of Danish contemporary art.
If one were to draw a line through the generations of Danish contemporary painting — from Asger Jorn to Per Kirkeby to Tal R — a parallel line could be drawn through Danish contemporary art video and photography, running from Per Bak Jensen through Joachim Koester to Jesper Just. Each of the three artists has a very individual and different approach to the media they share, but the necessity for narrative is an element they all have in common. This was one of the reasons for choosing them to represent Denmark at this event.
In the melting pot of global contemporary art, where everything is slowly mixed together, their narratives offer a way to reveal the subtle, peaceful and solitary — but very particular — Danish or Scandinavian soul. Their motifs are not always from Denmark, and their themes are not exclusively Danish stories, but their artistic views and interpretations can nonetheless be recognised as distinctly Scandinavian. Their almost religious orientation towards nature is what separates them while simultaneously connecting them to the rest of the world. In this way, their relationship to each other and to themselves is artistically specific, yet also universal. The exhibited works are perhaps the best metaphysical path towards finding the real connection between these three Danish artists — and through a forest of similarities, their uniqueness.
When watching the photographs of Per Bak Jensen, we are confronted with monumental, almost religious motifs of nature or urban environments that, for a moment, appear closed in their own lonely world. But given the chance, a whole new world of references, stories and decisions opens before us — all the thoughts that passed through Per Bak Jensen’s mind before he pressed the shutter. This is not a crusade with a camera; it is a subtle pursuit of ourselves.
In Jesper Just’s works, it is impossible to avoid the feeling that his protagonists are always on a mission to open certain doors to our subconsciousness, with stairways leading us somewhere deep inside ourselves. Joachim Koester similarly reaches into the more mysterious parts of our minds, using a psychogeographical approach to reconstruct the lost relationship between mystical events in the past and their remains in the present — experienced through abandoned houses, traces and forgotten fragments of symbols stripped of their context.
Text: Ismar Čirkinagić
O izložbi
Tri danska umjetnika koji će ovom prilikom biti predstavljeni bosanskohercegovačkoj publici u okviru Sarajevske Zime ujedno su i tri generacije unutar savremene danske umjetnosti. Ako bi neko pokušao da povuče liniju kroz par likovnih generacija unutar danskog savremenog slikarstva — od, naprimjer, Asger Jorna, Per Kirkebya, pa do Tal Ra — gotovo paralelno s tom linijom išla bi linija u savremenom umjetničkom filmu i fotografiji, od Per Bak Jensena, preko Joachima Koestera, do Jespera Justa.
Iako svaki za sebe ima različit i svojstven pristup unutar medijskog prostora koji dijele, dodirnu tačku nalaze u potrebi za pripovijedanjem. To je vjerovatno centralni razlog zašto su odabrani da predstavljaju Dansku na ovom festivalu. U kotlu svjetske savremene umjetnosti, gdje sve polako vri u jednu masu, njihov narativ je možda jedini put koji nas dovodi do one suptilne, mirne, usamljene, ali odlučne danske ili skandinavske duše.
Možda njihovi motivi nisu često motivi Danske, i možda nisu danske priče — ali njihov pogled i interpretacija tih događaja i sredina najbliže su nečemu što bi se moglo okarakterisati kao izvorno danski, ili možda još bolje skandinavski pristup. Njihova česta i gotovo religiozna okrenutost prirodi nešto je što ih na jedan način karakterizira i izdvaja, a ujedno spaja s ostatkom svijeta. Radovi ova tri savremena umjetnika su možda najbolji metafizički put do tog cilja.
Dok gledamo fotografije Per Bak Jensena, često smo suočeni s monumentalnim, gotovo religioznim motivima prirode ili urbanih sredina koji samo, na trenutak, izgledaju zatvoreni negdje u svom svijetu sami za sebe. Međutim, ako im damo priliku, pred nama se otvara čitav jedan svijet referenci, priča i odluka koje su prošle kroz misli Per Bak Jensena prije nego što je pritisnuo okidač svog fotoaparata. Slično je kod Jespera Justa, gdje je nemoguće izbjeći doživljaj da su njegovi junaci uvijek u misiji da nam otvore neka vrata naše podsvijesti, iza kojih stepenice vode negdje daleko — u nas same. Joachim Koesterov rad nas također vodi u potragu za nepoznatim dijelovima našeg uma, rekonstruišući s psihogeografskim pristupom izgubljenu vezu između mističnih događanja u prošlosti i njihovih ostataka koje u sadašnjosti doživljavamo kroz napuštene kuće, tragove i zaboravljene fragmente simbola van konteksta.
Tekst: Ismar Čirkinagić | Lektor: Kristina Nikolić