Opening: Friday March 19 at 5-7 pm.
Performance by Al Masson 5.30 pm: Artistic Gesticulation
Performance by Olof Olsson at 6.15 pm: Modern Dogs

Guided tours: during the exhibition period there will be guided tours every Sunday at 2 pm (in Danish). The tour is free, when admission is paid.
Opening hours: Tuesday - Friday 11am - 5pm, Saturday - Sunday 12am - 4pm
Press images can be downloaded here

New artists are in action, when the spring exhibition Gestures - Performance and sound art dazzles up for a series of new works created especially for it. The exhibition shows works and documentation of performances and sound art from the museum collection and archive, combined with works from the Danish and international contemporary art scene. With reference to the exhibition's themes, some artists have created completely new works for the show.

Exhibition space and private sphere meddle
Nothing is as it seems to be, when Al Masson invites the audience to explore the installation Intimate Gestures, specifically created for this space. Masson is linking the children's room with the artist studio in a mixture between the intimate, private room and the exhibition space. Since 2009, with Gudrun's Salon, Gudrun Hasle has invited the audience to a performance and lecture in her private room. In the video installation Description of Events, she is presenting a new work based on the visitors' personal experiences in Gudrun's Salon.

Video documentation as background for new works
High Heel Sisters scream with full power out of their lungs and bury their red high heels in the work Screaming Mountain from 2010 based on documentation from a performance staged at the Free Exhibition Building in 2007. Olof Olsson leads clerical work to entirely new directions in the work Office Work and tests the boundaries between meaningful and meaningless actions: at the Deutsches Institut für Normung - the German Standard Institute - he transforms by hand, while wearing a suit, 500 DIN A4 format into 8000 A8 sheets. Finally the art group composed by Steffen Jorgensen, Allan Nicolaisen, Robert Kjær Clausen & Ditte Soria mixes fiction and reality in the work Black & White Becomes a Colorful Blindfold, which, among other things, presents excerpts from their performance in the Palace Yard before the museum, which took place in February 2010.

Slamming the doors and dancing skeletons
Besides the newly produced works, both Ann Lislegaard and Kerstin Cmelka's respective works find inspiration in Henrik Ibsen's famous piece A Doll's House from 1879. Based on the main character, Nora's final action in the last scene, Lislegaard creates a sensual sound and light installation in the work Slamming the Front Door from 2005. Kerstin Cmelka reenacts the same scene in the video Nora from 2008 as a study of the interplay between reply, gesture and creation of meaning. Finally, Judith Hopf and Deborah Schamoni present an unpredictable and absurd universe in the work Hospital Bone Dance from 2005, with clear references to music video and TV productions.

New artists on display:
Kerstin Cmelka (AT), Gudrun Hasle (DK), High Heel Sisters (DK/N/S), Judith Hopf & Deborah Schamoni (D), Al Masson (F/DK), Olof Olsson (DK), Steffen Jørgensen, Allan Nicolaisen, Robert Kjær Clausen & Ditte Soria (DK) and Ann Lislegaard (DK)

Thanks to: Danish Arts Council, Augustinus Foundation, Oticon Foundation & Montana

For further information: Director Sanne Kofod Olsen: sannekol@samtidskunst.dk, phone +45 46 31 65 70 or
assistant curator Mette Truberg: mettetrub@samtidskunst.dk, phone +45 46 31 65 70