Mama Mia
June 18 – October 23
Curated by Andrea Lind-Valdan
Participating artists include Orsolya Bagala (HU/DK), Elke Krystufek (AU), Jules Fischer (DK), Dorothy Iannone (USA/DE), Stense Andrea Lind-Valdan (DK), Al Masson (FR), Laurel Nakadate (USA), Maria Pasenau (NO), Barbara Wagner & Benjamin de Burca (BR), JF Willumsen (DK) and Bobbi-Johanne Østervang (DK).
Stense Andrea Lind-Valdan. Tongue drawing # 1, 2012. Marker on A4 graph paper. Private collection.
Willumsens Museum has a long tradition of inviting artists into the museum's vaults and giving them free rein to select precisely what from the collection arouses their curiosity, wonder or admiration. These artist-curated exhibitions take their starting point from JF Willumsen's life and work, but move far beyond his world. They bring us into the present and give us a personal look at Willumsen's art – an "artist's look" – which is often associative, playful and testing. They are often more daring than the art historical narratives that are based on chronology and stylistic connections. They show new points of connection across time and place and value in other ways – a small sketch suddenly gains relevance, while the main works are put on hold for a while.
In continuation of this tradition, Willumsens Museum has invited the visual artist Stense Andrea Lind-Valdan (b. 1985) to curate an exhibition at the museum. Lind-Valdan, who also uses the initials SALV, is a graduate of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and has established herself on the Danish art scene in recent years through visual art, photography, performance and text. The invitation from the museum has resulted in the sensual, feminist-oriented and both joyful and serious MAMA MIA. Here, paintings, drawings, photographs and films by a number of contemporary artists are mixed with carefully selected sketches by Willumsen from the museum's collection.
In MAMA MIA, the self-important, masculine artist persona of JF Willumsen is thrown overboard for a while, and his works stand side by side with contemporary art's explorations of gender, sexuality and identity. As with Willumsen, the private and intimate aspects of the invited artists are exhibited and staged, often with dance and the body in focus. The stereotypical and idealized are challenged in works where, among others, non-binary dancers perform the Brazilian frevo dance in a video work by Bárbara Wagner & Benjamin de Burca. The American artist Laurel Nakadate dances in front of men who have sought her out, and exhibits desire and power relations, but also deep loneliness. Bobbi-Johanne Østervang dances heavily pregnant to Rihanna's Rude Boy and reveals the sensuality of the pregnant body. Stense Andrea Lind-Valdan's own works are also included in the exhibition, including her prints of her own body and videos of performances.
Bobbi-Johanne Østervang. Where the varnish had worn down to the floor, 2022. Oil pastel on birch wood, 100 x 50 cm. Courtesy the artist.
Laurel Nakadate. Oops!, 2000. Three-channel video, 3:40 min. Courtesy Gallery Tanja Wagner.
JF Willumsen. Sketch for “The Painter Receives the Musician”, undated. Watercolor on paper, 35,8 x 15,2 cm. Willumsens Museum.
The participating artists in the exhibition are Orsolya Bagala (DK), Elke Krystufek (AU), Jules Fischer (DK), Dorothy Iannone (USA/DE), SALV (DK), Al Masson (DK/FR), Laurel Nakadate (USA), Maria Pasenau (NO), Bárbara Wagner & Benjamin de Burca (BR), JF Willumsen (DK) and Bobbi-Johanne Østervang (DK).
The exhibition is accompanied by a performance program with the participation of Al Masson, Jules Fischer, SALV and Cath Mathilde Borch Jensen – music by Annemette Pødenphandt.
A digital catalogue can be downloaded from the museum's website and will also be published in a limited edition of 75 pieces. Each copy includes an original work by SALV, made as a print of his own body.
Stense Andrea Lind-Valdan, who also uses the initials SALV, is educated at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and has established herself on the Danish art scene through visual art, photography, performance and text with a feminist, body- and media-exploring practice.
Andrea Lind-Valdan
Forget it
Performance at Willumsens Museum
June 18, 2022
The exhibition is supported by:
The Augustinus Foundation, the Supreme Court Attorney L. Zeuthen's Memorial Grant, the William Demant Foundation and the Danish Arts Foundation.
