Contemporary Art exhibition > 32 artists (list in the message)
Contemporary Art exhibition > Denmark > Ishoj > ARKEN - Museum of Modern Art
Contemporary Art exhibition > Denmark > Ishoj > ARKEN - Museum of Modern Art
Director's Choice
ARKEN - Museum of Modern Art, Ishøj
Through August 22, 2010
SARAH MORRIS, 1972 [Rings], 2006. Courtesy White Cube, London
Essl Museum is giving 10 international museum directors 200.000 euros each with the invitation to spend it all on contemporary art. Celebrating the tenth anniversary of the respected Austrian private collection, Essl’s founders wish to share their enthusiasm for art by giving the selected museum directors a free hand to buy exactly the art they need to fill gaps in the museums’ collections.
DIRECTOR’S CHOICE presents a unique survey of the museum directors’ favorites and a glimpse into how and why they make their choices.
Stars like Pipilotti Rist, Annette Messager, Liam Gillick and Sarah Morris mingle with young emerging artists from Georgia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and India. Director's Choice is a role call of international contemporary art in all its diverse ramifications. The exhibition opens our eyes to the vast field of contemporary art that museum directors navigate in when selecting the art that is worth preserving for posterity.
Photo MARCUS J. LEIK - Courtesy Arken Museum, Ishøj
There is a rationale behind each museum director’s choice of works. Some pick a single work by a big star. Others choose artists according to a certain theme and then interrelate the works. Yet others pick works they have long desired for their museum but were not previously in a position to acquire. The directors’ choices reflect personal preferences as well as museum acquisition policies, tendencies of the times and the value of the works.
Director of ARKEN Christian Gether selected works by Anselm Reyle, Jesper Just and Hans Hamid Rasmussen. Rasmussen, who is new to the museum’s collection, recently received the ARKEN Travel Grant, while the internationally acclaimed Anselm Reyle and Jesper Just are already represented in the collection. The choice of works sends the message that Christian Gether has faith in the current and future relevance of these three artists.
Copyright Jesper Just - Courtesy Arken Museum, Ishøj
JESPER JUST, A Voyage in Dwelling, still, 2008.
Copyright Jesper Just - Courtesy Arken Museum, Ishøj
JESPER JUST, A Voyage in Dwelling, still, 2008.
Copyright Jesper Just - Courtesy Arken Museum, Ishøj
In its simple concept, Director's Choice clarifies a museum’s prime task: collecting for posterity. How do museums select works for their collections? What do museums orient themselves towards? What does it mean to build a collection? What is the role of museums in today’s society?
These questions are deeply rooted in the museums’ practice, even though it may not be evident to the museumgoer. Director's Choice shines a light on the art that is acquired and why.
The works by these 32 participating artists all are examples of art that makes it through the needle’s eye and into museum collections. Director's Choice includes a large selection of new sculpture: from a flowering bell with a bomb at its core, referring to the civil war in the former Yugoslavia, to inflatable human organs that are punctured and re-inflated in a continuous loop. There is a strong focus on painting, too, from pure abstraction to new interpretations of traditional Indian painting. Finally, the directors have acquired a number of video works, ranging from documentary investigation of nationalism in Zagreb to Jesper Just’s surreal trilogy about a woman’s sexuality and the poetic experience of Pipilotti Rist's Lavish and embracing installation, A Statue of Liberty for Tökyö.
A Statue of Liberty for Tökyö, 2008-2009.
Copyright Pipilotti Rist
Courtesy Arken Museum, Ishøj
A Statue of Liberty for Tökyö, 2008-2009.
Copyright Pipilotti Rist
Courtesy Arken Museum, Ishøj
32 participating artists
Lovro Artukovic (Croatia), Micol Assaël (Italy), Miriam Bäckström (Sweden), Stephan Balkenhol (Germany), Martin Barré (France), Milivoj Bijelic (Croatia), Thea Djordjadze (Georgia), Simon English (UK), Jan Fabre (Belgium), Liam Gillick (UK), Group ABS (Croatia), Ana Husman (Croatia), Manisha Jha (India), Jesper Just (Denmark), Suhasini Kejriwal (India), Raoul de Keyser (Belgium), Alem Korkut (Bosnia-Herzegovina), Eliseo Mattiacci (Italy), Annette Messager (France), Sarah Morris (UK), Muntean/Rosenblum (Austria/Israel), Tal R (Denmark), Hans Hamid Rasmussen (Algeria), Anselm Reyle (Germany), Pipilotti Rist (Switzerland), Arcangelo Sassolino (Italy), Nunzio di Stefano (Italy), Viren Tanwar (India), Patrick Tuttofuoco (Italy), Shiv Verma (India), Chen Zhen (China), Heimo Zobernig (Austria).
11 participating museums
ARKEN Museum for Contemporary Art, Ishøj, Denmark; India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, India; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark; MART Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Italy; MdM Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, Austria; MOT Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan; MS Muzeum Sztuki, Lodz, Poland; MSU Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, Croatia; Essl Museum, Klosterneuburg, Austria; Städel Museum, Frankfurt, Germany; Tate Liverpool, UK.
Skovvej 100, 2635 Ishøj
www.arken.dk
DIRECTOR'S CHOICE June 19 - August 22, 2010
