NEW FESTIVAL FOR CONTEMPORARY ART IN COPENHAGEN FOCUSES ON COMMUNITY
Exhibitions at art centres and in urban spaces, performances and other events will be some of the components when Copenhagen Art Festival opens August 24, 2012. But already in February the first names of artists will be released in connection with a small-scale film and performance programme.
Copenhagen Art Festival will offer a comprehensive programme of exhibitions and events, presenting significant artworks by a wide range of established as well as younger up-and-coming artists from the region and abroad. Through the artworks the festival will address notions of community and the ways these notions are used to form our society today. Community has been a major theme in the public values debate, and recently it has dominated discussions about the fragmentation and (re)building of communities, as seen in various forms all over the world. The art scene is itself one of the forums in which changing social forces and opportunities are felt, with community and collectivity as central areas of engagement in many recent art practices. In the course of the festival the participating artists will give us their takes on the challenges, conditions and opportunities that are present in communities today.
Artists
In February the first artists will appear in Copenhagen. Ruth Ewan (GB), Søren Thilo Funder (DK), Yorgos Sapountzis (GR), Wooloo (DK) and Otto Karvonen (FIN) will present works in a film programme presented at the five art centres and at BLACK POP Contemporary Art Gallery at Paludan Bogcafé, Hotel Fox, The Black Diamond at The Royal Library and Props Coffee Shop in Copenhagen. Also urban spaces will be put into play when the artists Magnús Logi Kristinsson (IS), Otto Karvonen (FIN) and Leif Holmstrand (SE) make performances and artistic interventions every Saturday in the area around Højbro Plads. The film and performance programme can be seen at www.wondercoolcopenhagen.com
The artists will all return when the actual festival opens August 24.
Meet the festival organisers for a debate and refreshments
Thursday, February 16 at 7 p.m. Gl. Strand Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art will open its doors to a panel discussion about the visions for and expectations of the festival. The panel will be made up of Lene Crone Jensen, Festival Manager and the directors of four of the five participating art centres: Mark Sladen, Kunsthal Charlottenborg; Elisabeth Delin Hansen, Nikolaj Copenhagen Contemporary Art Center; Helle Behrndt, Gl. Strand Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art and Kirse Junge-Stevnsborg, Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art.
Copenhagen Art Festival’s activities in February form part of the Wondercool programme, a winter festival with the participation of several Copenhagen based festivals, organised by Wonderful Copenhagen.
Follow the festival preparations on Facebook
The work on Copenhagen Art Festival can be followed on Facebook and Twitter, where information on the preparations, activities and other related news will be regularly updated. In February the festival website will be launched. The dynamic website and the festival’s visual identity is created by the award-winning agency Hello Monday.
Copenhagen Art Festival is one of the largest presentations of contemporary art in the region. The festival is organised by Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art, Gl. Strand Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Overgaden Institute of Contemporary Art and Nikolaj Copenhagen Contemporary Art Center.
Copenhagen Art Festival is commissioned by The Danish Arts Council and is furthermore supported by the City of Copenhagen – Committee for Culture and Leisure, the Ministry of Culture Denmark, the Obel Family Foundation, the Beckett Foundation and the George Jorck and Emma Jorck Foundation.
For further information please contact Helle Bøgelund, tel: +45 33 36 90 42, hbh@cph-artfestival.org
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