Høst: A Counterfactual Exhibition

The artist group Høst – with its trolls, elves and mythical creatures, and inspiration from the currents of Vitalism – expanded the boundaries of life and freedom in a time when the destruction of all life on the planet had become a tangible threat. In our own time, themes of life and freedom continue to crop up in the light of society’s fragmentation and state of crisis. What does freedom look like today – if it even exists and is not merely a utopian ideal?

This question serves as the starting point for revisiting the spontaneous-abstract artists of the Høst group and engaging in dialogue with the life forms, myths and diversity of creatures that populate their images. The annual Høst exhibition ran at Den Frie from 1934 to 1949, at which point it disbanded and the abstract artists continued together in the newly formed Cobra. Høst – A Counterfactual Exhibition speculates on what a Høst exhibition might have looked like today if the group still existed.

A common thread running through the exhibition is the motif of humanity’s connection with animals, with nature and with outer space. The everyday, formless and supernatural creatures that the works depict can be viewed both as symbolizing total collapse in a time of crises and as heralding a new freedom rooted in the imagination and unbridled creativity. The exhibition explores life, folk art and creation – and invites us to witness the entanglement of past and present, of spontaneity and reflection, on open display.