”Beyond Good and Evil”

Søren Thilo Funder, Sal Paradise, 2012, image: Den Frie

”Beyond Good and Evil,” an exhibition named after Nietzsche’s philosophical treatise on phenomena such as how cultures lose sight of creativity and are responsible for their own demise, is part of the Copenhagen Arts Festival and shares its theme with other exhibitions, public artworks, performances, lectures, and screenings in the festival. It appears useful to slide between viewing this exhibition as both an end in itself and as a supplementary chapter of the festival’s thematic inquiry into “community.”

Iraqi-born artist Jananne Al-Ani’s A Loving Man, 1996–99, sets a melancholic yet carefree mood, instilling significance on memory—both failing and accurate. The five-channel video installation consists of female family members in the midst of a game known as either “Exquisite Corpse” or “Mrs. Brown Went to Town,” and emphasizes the conundrum of accurately documenting history—they lose their train of thought, stumbling over the narrative as it lengthens. Nearby, Ann Lislegaard’s Untitled, 2012, a larger installation consisting of a video diptych, displays images of robotic, mythologized owls struggling to communicate a fragmented message; their muttering is indecipherable. Carsten Nicolai’s Future Past Perfect Pt. 2 (Cité Radieuse), 2012, an enthralling video portrait of Le Corbusier’s 1995 Unité d’Habitation in Nantes, mobilizes this modern housing icon as a metaphor for the individual’s complex design and intricate rapport with the collective.

All of the above works allude to a communication barrier, breakdown, or misunderstanding between singular entities. In contrast, a peripatetic sculpture by Brazilian artists Rejane Cantoni and Leonardo Crescenti (Soil, 2010) illustrates how perspectives can change, and absolutes be abandoned, to address such matters. Walking across their shifting aluminum plates suspended by spiral steel springs, one may find solace in how light and shadows shift—a reminder that every era is manipulated, mechanized, and compartmentalized to suit the times.
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Edgar Cleijne & Ellen Gallagher, “Better Dimension”

Edgar Cleijne & Ellen Gallagher
Installation view. Image: Jacquelyn Davis.

Presenting collaborations between Dutch artist Edgar Cleijne and US artist and filmmaker Ellen Gallagher, ‘Better Dimension’ at Stockholm’s Bonniers Konsthall includes experimental works that provide socio-political commentary on US history and race relations from a cosmic, obscure distance. More »

Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art (RIBOCA1)

Aslan Gaisumov
Aslan Gaisumov, People of No Consequence, 2016.

For the first Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art, curator Katarina Gregos has chosen to view Latvia as ‘the center of the world,’ where other regions and nationalities become satellites. This is refreshing, for the Baltics have previously been considered to have a peripheral status. More »

Johannes Heldén, “The Exploding Book”

Johannes Heldén
Johannes Heldén, Clouds, 2017.

As one enters the space temporarily designated for Swedish artist and poet Johannes Heldén’s The Exploding Book at Konstakademin’s in Stockholm, one detects that Heldén is receptive to nuance; each creative gesture confirms his dedication to both text and image, expressed with equitable consideration. More »

Malin Gabriella Nordin, “Floating from Within”

Malin Gabriella Nordin, Veil of Dreams, 2017. Image: Gallery Steinsland Berliner.

Stockholm-based artist Malin Gabriella Nordin is one of many Swedish women artists who resort to the basics – or perhaps the old ways, meaning they’re not particularly interested in the digital. More »

“Survival Kit 9”

Andris Eglītis, Laboratory of Poetic Research, 2017. Image: Jacquelyn Davis.

The 9th edition of Survival Kit is orchestrated by a small team of Baltic and Scandinavian curators: Jonatan Habib Engqvist, Solvita Krese and Inga Lāce. All possess a background in organizing independently and within the confines of institutions, which may be their strong point—their fluidity. More »

The 9th Momentum Biennial

Jenna Sutela, Sporulating Paragraph, 2017. Image: Momentum 9.

Momentum 9, taking place in the industrial town of Moss, Norway, is being curated by Ulrika Flink, Ilari Laamanen, Jacob Lillemose, Gunhild Moe, and Jón B.K. Ransu, who together represent the Scandinavian region. With this biennial’s focus on ‘alienation’, the curators joined forces to determine how alien processes and entities are infused in our lives through technological, ecological and social transformations. More »

Klas Eriksson, “Vet din mamma var du e?”

Klas Eriksson
Klas Eriksson, Evidence of Patchwork, 2017. Image: Göteborgs Konsthall.

Swedish artist Klas Eriksson has developed a practice rooted in examining subcultures via works in public spaces and spontaneous performances. With an interest in how power flows and how crowds function, the artist attempts to unpack sociopolitical dynamics using playful tactics. More »

Lovisa Ringborg, “Night Remains”

Lovisa Ringborg
Lovisa Ringborg, Fountain, 2017. Image: Cecilia Hillström Gallery.

In Lovisa Ringborg’s second exhibition at this gallery, the artist upholds the argument that displaying a set of harmonious works can be more potent than a plethora of free-floating entities. More »

Przemek Pyszczek, “1989”

Przemek Pyszczek
Przemek Pyszczek, Public Relief No 6, 2016. Image: Gallery Belenius.

Polish-born, Canadian-raised, Berlin-based artist Przemek Pyszczek displays new works which are primarily sculptural and mixed media, with stints into collage. More »