The Spring Exhibition at Kunsthal Charlottenborg with Naomi Akvama, Emma Bang, Elmer Blåvarg, Sidsel Nielsen Bonde, Anna Seeberg Braun, Dyveke Bredsdorff, Loulou Buxbom, Cakes of Despair (Hilma Bäckström, Hedda Bauer), Tea Eklund Berglöw, Mishael Oladipo Fapohunda, Sofie Flinth, Salem Antoine Gerlach Nielsen, Alicia Gonzalez, Nadia Gueddouh, Louise Gaarmann, Zishi Han & Wei Yang, Martin Jon Hasfeldt, Gudrun Havsteen-Mikkelsen, Jamilla Mahmoud Henriques, Kristine Nørgård Hymøller, Sommer Jacoby, Rosita Kær, Noah Umur Kanber, Noa Lachmi, Sidsel Marie Lindbæk Mouridsen, Maria Lindeblad, Jasmin Aiche Mahallati, S McEvoy, Lotte Vinding Myrthue, Marianne Noer, Gro Pechüle, Chloe-Rose Purcell, Rosa Halfdan Quistorff, Jakob Rekve, Robin Rydenhov, Santino Santillana, Yasmin Mina Sliai, Stine Stubdrup, Berna Süslü, An Ting Teng, Frederik Tøt Godsk, Rexy Tseng, Henrik Valeur, Wisrah C. V. da R. Celestino, Amalie Vestergaard Olsen, Miglė Vyčinaitė, Sidsel Winther, Sofie Winther, Yang Yu, Rosa Zangenberg, Jiawei Zheng
Curated by the Laboratory for Aesthetics and Ecology
February 2 - March 3, 2024
Kunsthal Charlottenborg
Copenhagen, Denmark
All images courtesy and copyright of the Kunsthal Charlottenborg and artists. Phots by Jenny Sundby.
In 2024, the jury comprises: artist Aske Olsen; artist J.G. Arvidsson; architecture student, curator and artist Aysha Amin; and the Laboratory for Aesthetics and Ecology represented by Ida Bencke, Dea Antonsen and Laura Gerdes-Miranda.
The Spring Exhibition is organised by the Charlottenborg Foundation.
The exhibition is supported by The Augustinus Foundation, The Axel Muusfeldt’s Foundation, The Beckett Foundation, The Danish Arts Foundation, The Dreyers Foundation, The Knud Højgaard’s Foundation, The Konsul Georg Jorck & Hustru Emma Jorck’s Foundation, The Obel Family Foundation, The William Demant Foundation.
JURYSTATEMENT
A poetic, tender power pervades the collection of works that have jointly become the 2024 Spring Exhibition. More or less visible threads connect the various works, including a preoccupation with the intimate, the vulnerable and the untold. Several of the contributions evince an interest in origins, in time, and express a yearning to dwell on narratives, ways of living and events that propose other, less frenetic paces as alternatives to the present-day rush of acceleration. Many works activate materials and structures from childhood or the past to renegotiate personal histories as well as the wider, so-called ‘common’ history. Some engage in conversations with the at times absurd or claustrophobic norms, systems and social choreographies in which we are all embroiled. Others investigate spaces imprinted by loneliness, disorientation and grief.
These gestures open up questions about what is valued in our society. Who/what is there room for? Who is being cared for? Who is allowed a public voice? Whose experiences are awarded attention and legitimacy – in the art world and outside it? In the artworks, such questions are negotiated across diasporic experiences, queer identities, mental health, planetary conditions, global politics, urban development, everyday-life, traditional crafts, folklore and magic.
What an honour to be entrusted with the task of jurying the Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition. A position of power and responsibility that inspires true awe in us. We have approached it with humility and respect, knowing only too well that it is impossible to make a truly fair assessment of 3373 works in just five days. As the jury for the 2023 Artists’ Fall Exhibition so aptly pointed out in their statement, such a process confronts many of the inherent hierarchies of power on the art scene. Which works and artistic practices should be highlighted and why? Who makes the selections, and on the basis of what criteria? In our process, we far exceeded the allotted time span, losing ourselves entirely in exciting and difficult discussions prompted by the richly diverse works. We are deeply aware and respectful of the trust that all the 899 applying artists have placed in us. Eventually, we selected 76 works by 51 artists and artist groups which share certain connections and questions, yet at the same time contribute to the pluralism and diversity embedded in the Spring Exhibition’s DNA.
In a time when imperialism’s warmachines are raging, colonial violence of nation-states and the extractive systems of capitalism are accelerating while the international rule of law and the welfare state are failing, the works in this exhibition seem to tell us that it is in the the tiny and crooked cracks we can find common ground. That it is from there we can care for each other, form alliances and offer resistance by sharing our stories and dreaming up other worlds. From there, we cast the spells that can cause old orders and power structures to fall.
Hoping that this day may be near, in deep solidarity with the Palestinian people and with all who fight against oppression.
No one is free until all are free.
On behalf of
The jury of the 2024 Spring Exhibition
Aysha Amin, J.G. Arvidsson, Aske Olsen, the Laboratory for Aesthetics and Ecology represented by Dea Antonsen, Ida Bencke and Laura Gerdes-Miranda
