Materia et Spiritus, Materia et Corpus, Materia et Frictio, Materia et Actio, Materia et Syntaksis, Galleri Susanne Ottesen, Copenhagen, Denmark

4 Dec 2020 – 30 Jan 2021

"Demonstrating recycling assembling

Many of Bjørn Nørgaard's works are action-based. The invention of the action format in the sixties became a way of transgressing the concept of the artwork and traditional art mediums, in favour of an open and unmapped field of actions. In Nørgaard's case, an action is a starting point for interactions between body and materials in what he terms "demonstrations". It opens for an intuitive and conceptual state of being, a kind of zero-degree where materials are emptied of meanings and become purely self-referential. The bodily energy in the actions makes them somewhat similar to rituals. Viewer participation is generally absent, and the movements of the actor take place in a closed sphere. One of the aims is to shift the focus away from the actor's subjectivity toward an objective plane, where the artist is reconceived as a state of being, not as a personal identity. Moreover, the actions outline a type of practice that everyone can repeat and where the qualities of the materials involved literally co-determine both the process and the outcome. ..."

Extract the press release by Magnus Thorø Clausen

Works included or related to the exhibition

Photo

© Stine Heger
Materia et Spiritus. Materia et Corpus. Materia et Frictio. Materia et Actio. Materia et Syntaksis, 2020, installation view
a/x + w/y = ? ligningen som var et spørgsmål, 2020
Installation view
Installation view
Materia et Spiritus. Materia et Corpus. Materia et Frictio. Materia et Actio. Materia et Syntaksis, 2020
Beowulf, 2020 (1990) 400 x 400 x 210 cm
Sagforhold, 1967 (2015), gips, pap, blik, ståltråd, stof, papir, Variable dimensioner