It’s with great pleasure that Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art opens its doors to the new exhibition, Beyond Reach. To mark the ongoing extension work, and celebrate the 100-year anniversary of Den Frie’s move to Oslo Plads, the 2014 exhibition program will focus on the relationship between art and architecture. We’ve therefore invited four artist duos to show new works, each of whom operating within this field, while also representing their own individual area. Each one will make their contribution at the exhibition by showing how – through different artistic strategies and taking direct inspiration from Den Frie’s characteristic spaces – the building can be experienced in very different ways.
Physical perception and the experience of spaces is the recurring focal point of all of these works, despite the duos’ very different working methods and means of expression. Concepts such as ‘absence’ and ‘traces’, and the feeling of something existing out of reach, are central elements in the works – ideas also referred to in Beyond Reach, the exhibition’s title. Additionally, all four duos show a meticulousness in their research which borders on the nerdy, drawing on knowledge and experiences that cut across traditional artistic boundaries. Beyond Reach promises to be an exhibition spanning the entire spectrum – from the all-encompassing, sensory encounter with the surroundings to the illusory staging of architectural space and from the underplayed performative to the historically and theoretically grounded.
With the Beyond Reach exhibition, we wish to give the audience an opportunity to experience very different contemporary reflections on the use and orchestration of spaces. This is the first time these four duos will be exhibiting under the same roof – we look forward to seeing their works on display, within the architectural setting of Den Frie Udstillingsbygning.
The exhibition is supported by:
Statens Kunstråd, Københavns Billedkunstudvalg, Det Islandske Kunstråd Myndlistarsjódur, Dansk Tennis Fond, Beckett-Fonden, Knud Højgaards Fond, Augustinus Fonden, Aage og Johanne Louis-Hansens Fond og Scanglas Glassolution A/S.
