COPENHAGEN – Enter the Kunsthal Charlottenborg until August 6 and the kunsthal (art gallery) of the Royal Danish Academy of Art will look more like a kirken – or church. With its south wing transformed by Danish artist Alexander Tovborg, the long Scandinavian summer days illuminate the gallery through its tall windows, dressed in psychedelic pinks, oranges and blues that bathe the entire space in a light bewitching.
Kirken (the church) is a solo exhibition and immersive installation that investigates church art and architecture by creating a church-like space. It’s a contemplative move for Tovborg, who has long explored mythology, religion and ancient stories in his work. Kirken feels both meditative and aesthetic, sacred and artistic.
Upon entering the south wing, my eyes were immediately drawn to the stained glass windows, whose themes include ‘Madonna’, ‘Adolescent Jesus’ and ‘What did God do on Sunday?’ As the sun slowly turns, the gallery rests in the tinted colors of the windows (due to its northernmost location, Denmark can bask in the sun for more than 17 hours per summer day).
Next to the huge windows, Tovborg often places a smaller work. In “Dåb” (Baptism), for example, a hand-cast baptismal font in front of the lighted windows depicts what looks like a person with a child, perhaps a reference to the Nativity scene. Placed in isolation on the ground, devoid of water, it invites reflection on the shape of the holy water font alone. In “Noa (efter syndfloden)” (Noah after the Flood), turquoise and ocean blue wash over a small painting that shows an abstract figure that appears to be resting, perhaps holding a cup.
Other painted works impose themselves by their monumentality. “Æblet I” and “Æblet II” (The Apple I and II) show large painted apples lining the upper walls of the two important rooms in the far corners of the gallery. Looking up we also face the skylights, which now look like portals. In the first version, the apples are bright red and round; in the second, they are a little darker, more flattened. Between these two rooms is another space containing a massive mosaic-like painting entitled “Beatrice”, a reference perhaps to Saint Beatrice de Silva, a nun and mystic who founded the Order of the Immaculate Conception.
Through Christian eyes there is a story in these three rooms about women in religion – the famous apple of Eve and the women who built the institution of the Church. But I wonder if Tovborg also invites us to examine contemporary art’s own myth. Kirken works because modern galleries themselves have quasi-religious qualities, with white walls and empty spaces creating an atmosphere conducive to contemplation. As Sol LeWitt wrote in his “Phrases on Conceptual Art,” “Conceptual artists are mystics rather than rationalists. They jump to conclusions that logic cannot reach. Rational judgments repeat rational judgments. Illogical judgments lead to new experiences.
“Art contains mystery. It contains doubt,” says Tovborg in a video installation outside the gallery, where he talks about the exhibition. “It contains belief. You can simply replace faith with love, and that is my practice. Reflecting on the architecture and construction of a church, he continues: “A church is a construction. We do not necessarily go to a church to meet a divine creator but to get closer to him. You don’t understand God, but you understand more about humans’ relationship with God.
Kirken (the church) keep on going at Kunsthal Charlottenborg (Kongens Nytorv 1, Copenhagen, Denmark) until August 6. The exhibition was curated by Naja Rasmussen, Chief Curator of the Kunstmuseum Brandts, and Simon Friese, Director of Designer Projects.
