art
ARKEN
When we travel, we always try to go to museums. If there is a thematically interesting exhibition or if the architecture of the museum is outstanding, we are always on fire.
For us, museums have always been and still are places of intellectual enrichment and sources full of creative urge. Our thoughts penetrate deep into unknown, inventive worlds there and fade out everything else. Our eyes focus only on what opens up to them there and then try to delve into textures, styles, ways of making and backgrounds. After a visit to a museum, therefore, new ways of thinking often open up for us. And the urge to become creative again or to work with our own hands awakens anew.
We then resolve to be more curious and to look at the world with different eyes or from unusual perspectives. Because museums remind us what an inspiring effect the colourful world of art can have on us...
Just 20 km south of Copenhagen – right on the beach at Ishoj – stands the ARKEN. Like two white sails of a futuristic ship, the museum seems to roam the dunes surrounding it. Even from the outside, the daring architecture is flanked by several installations. Inside, international, Nordic and Danish artworks and installations impress, exhibited in individual galleries or in flowing rooms. The refined simplicity of the spatial arrangement gives the works an unagitated stage.
Especially in the permanent exhibition, ARKEN focuses on contemporary works that deal with almost philosophical questions and profound dimensions of human existence. What does it mean to be human, how do we live our lives together and what are the basic prerequisites for finding our way in life? What do we strive for? Where are we going and what do we hope for? Thematically corresponding works of art by a wide variety of artists are skilfully interwoven here, standing on their own and yet influencing each other, thus encouraging the visitor to look at, question and reflect.
Outstanding artists who have a permanent place in ARKEN are the British "enfant terrible" Damien Hirst and the German Anselm Reyle. Both are represented in the museum with their own galleries dedicated to their works. The controversial Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is represented with one of his major works: "Circle of Animals" / Zodiac Heads from 2010. Danish and Nordic artists such as Olafur Eliasson, Elmgreen and Dragset, Jeppe Hein and Tal R are also represented in the museum.
But as in so many other museums, ARKEN surprises its visitors not only with a fascinating permanent exhibition, but also regularly with great special and solo exhibitions that are part of the museum's changing repertoire.
When we visited ARKEN in September 2021, we were extremely lucky not only to be able to wander through the solo exhibition of the Iranian artist Farshad Farzankia. No, shortly before, the exhibition "Blomsten i Kunsten" (Flowers in Art) celebrated its premiere. Flowers are more than just a decorative or enriching accessory in a home. We use them to express our affection, ask for forgiveness or make amends, wrap ourselves in their comforting scents, let our souls speak through them and heal our bodies with their help. And so it is little wonder – even more – inevitable that flowers have found their way into art.
The large autumn exhibition at ARKEN tells of mankind's fascination with the world of flowers, highlighting not only outstanding artists but also their floral interpretations of diverse relationships between flowers and people in art. This included, from 4 September 2021 to 9 January 2022 at ARKEN, not only great masters such as Claude Monet, Andy Warhol and Karl Blossfeldt, but also the works of 52 international and Danish artists such as J. L. Jensen, David Stjernholm, Wolfgang Tillmans, Nanna Abdell, Jeff Koons, Hilma af Klint and Melanie Bonajo, to name just a few.
At the end of the exhibition, we ask ourselves, "Where do we go from here?" What is at the end of the rainbow? Is it a pot of gold? Or yet the power to create something of our own, to become creative again and to see the world with different eyes? We remain curious and let ourselves be surprised by the inspiring effect the colourful world of art will have on us...
Denmark, September 2021. | All words and photos by The Sturgheons.
