GAMES – it’s only an exhibition if you don’t play along …
Beginning in January, visitors can delve into a new exhibition series, GAMES, at the Museum of Contemporary Art. The four rounds of the exhibition offer different opportunities for immersing yourself in the alternative universes explored by role-playing games. You can test yourself within the game world – and perhaps even emerge enriched by new experiences relevant to our everyday world.
Three of the four rounds take place in the Museum of Contemporary Art’s exhibition rooms, while the fourth is presented entirely through the medium of sound as sound works and talks made available in the museum’s Podcast for Samtidskunst.
The exhibition series GAMES takes a playful approach to the overlap between art and games. Through collaborations with a large number of artists and gaming communities, GAMES explores art and games based on the underlying idea that the two have much in common in terms of creating new and unknown worlds.
PART 1: PLANESWALKERS – 18 January – 28 February 2021
Jesper Ejsing, Sara Andreasson, Anna Margrethe Pedersen, MTG Alter Maria Søndergaard Petersen, Alexander Tovborg, Mira Winding & Clara Winding.
Soundtrack by Clarissa Connelly
PART 2: PLAY IT BY TRUST – 10 March – 2 May 2021
Eric Andersen, Francis Patrick Brady, Arthur Carlander, Goodiepal, Asger Jorn, Oliver Laumann, Mija Milovic, Yoko Ono, Lene Adler Petersen, Dalin Waldo, Jingshi Wang, Albin Werle.
PART 3: UNTOLD SEATS OF POWER – 14 May – 20 June 2021
The UNION Group, Roskilde Rollespillaug, Rolespilsfabrikken, Aske Høier Olsen & Selina Rom Andersen, Kamilla Askholm Jørgensen & Nilas Dumstrei.
PART 4: GAMES ON THE PODCAST FOR SAMTIDSKUNST – 14 January – 20 June 2021
Albin Werle & Anne Gry Friis Kristensen, Lea Marie Løppenthin, Arthur Carlander, Mija Milovic, Dalin Waldo, Miki Skak, Clarissa Connelly – and many more!
THE FOUR ROUNDS:
The first round of the GAMES series bears the title Planeswalkers. Taking its point of departure in the card game Magic: The Gathering, the exhibition features a range of original acrylic paintings by illustrator Jesper Ejsing; images that now adorn millions of cards around the world. Visitors can also explore works by a number of contemporary artists who respond directly to the Magic universe – and will have the opportunity to meet so-called ‘MTG alters’, who use miniature brushes to paint over and amend the playing cards. And of course you can play the game yourself to the accompaniment of a freshly created soundtrack specifically created for the Magic: The Gathering world.
The second round of GAMES is called Play it by Trust. Created as a group exhibition, it brings together a number of art games: works of art designed as games. Art games are often keenly aware of the overlap between games and reality, giving the fictional worlds of games the opportunity to say something about – and perhaps even influence – our day-to-day reality.
The third part of GAMES bears the title Untold Seats of Power. It sees three groups – The UNION Group, Roskilde Rollespilslaug and Rollespilsfabrikken – join forces to create an entirely new universe based on Palægaarden’s history as a royal residence and as the setting of the assembles of the Three Estates of the Realm in Denmark. The result is a live role-playing game about power where different role-playing worlds can meet and coexist.
The fourth part of GAMES consists of works created in direct collaboration with the artists and published via the museum’s podcast, Podcast for Samtidskunst. The works presented include artist talks, role-playing sound works and new game music.