The Inaugural Show

Kirkhoff’s Inauguration Show is a group exhibition with the represented artists Lucas Ajemian (US), AVPD (DK), BankMalbekRau (DK) and Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen (DK). Moreover, the artists Matthew Burbidge (UK) and Gitte Schäfer(D) participate. It is the first time the artists from abroad will show their works in Denmark. The artists work with many different media (video, paintings/drawings, sculpture, installation, photography and performance) and within different directions.

Lucas Ajemian (born 1975, lives in New York) works in a conceptual way across different media. An example is the artwork in the opening exhibition. Ajemian works daily in an American TV-station. Here he saw Madonna’s video, American Life, which she later withdrew because of its controversial anti-American contents. Ajemian has recreated the censured video by drawing the frames of the film (the most important frames, 300 in total). He has filmed the drawings with a 16mm camera. The final work The Quiet American is projected on the wall, running in loops in a visible and physical form.

AVPD (Aslak Vibæk and Peter Døssing, both born 1974, live in Copenhagen) have worked together since 1997. Their works are conceptual installations with departure in the field “body-architecture-virtual spaces” in relation to perception. They present a seven meters long model of a future project on the scale of 1:15. Everything is carved in MDF. The sculpture scurries along a stylised, topological landscape of grass, trees and rocks. The sculpture’s expression has reminiscence of Frank Lloyd Wright and Alvar Aaltos’ architectural models from the twenties. The sculpture’s surface is a camouflage, which reflects the surroundings like an organism. The interior of the sculpture is a long passage (100m if it will be realised), which marks the spectator with its eternal and white painted emptiness.

BankMalbekRau (Lone Bank (1970), Christina Malbek (1971), Tanja Rau (1970), live in Copenhagen) have worked together since 1999. Their point of departure is different iconographies, which are thematically connected to historical periods, the “city” and “nature”. BankMalbekRau creates visually beautiful and surprising optical relieves, collages and objects by “modest” materials. In the exhibition they show an overwhelming table, composed of 57 carved and painted MDF plates. A series of objects constitutes an iconographic mark of a dinner party, resembling a baroque style.

Matthew Burbidge (lives in Berlin and London) presents sculptures, collages and paintings. He works in a romantic and gothic visual universe with utopian architectural sculptures and models, which are abstract fragile structures reflecting each other. The works are made of wood, found material, wallpaper, shelves and small paintings, where some create an atmosphere of a deconstructed house: “Unheimlich” and apocalyptic; while others deal with mysticism and religion.

Christina Malbek (1971) presents a new painting, Panorama. She is part of the trio BankMalbekRau, but she contributes also with her own work. The painting is composed of one painting from Jutland, Denmark and another from the Alps. In Panorama she creates a visual recital of two topographies. The expression differs from the traditional landscape painting because of the cogent and vertical lines in many layers, which create perspective and space. Although the work approaches realism, the recognition is stopped by the powerful airbrush-colours. And therefore the painting forms an indefinable visual atmosphere.

Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen (born 1971, lives in Copenhagen) works primarily with video in relation to her examinations of socio-cultural relations, communities and nationalities. She presents a new video, Get Your Motor Running. The film treats the subjects about rituals, social behaviour and identity that surrounds the biker-milieu. Although the film is a documentary, she works with a series of formal methods (for example repetition and split-screen), which gives the work a different and surprising expression. The film is a humorous and well-informed audio- and visual description, where the discussion about gender differences is put forward.

Gitte Schäfer (born 1971, lives in Berlin) works with cultural emblems in her intimate paintings and drawings. She works with romantic or romanticized motives, which she collects from e.g. magazines, postcards and china. Schäfer has selected a series of new paintings and drawings for the exhibition. Among the pieces are her painted objects, made of MDF boxes, which are engraved and the tree appears as a mixture of engraving, object and drawings. Reading Room

The inauguration includes Reading Room designed by AVPD approaches the borderline towards a virtual architecture, where the point of departure is a pixel of 44X44 cm. The pixels cover walls, floor and ceiling in a structure of a grid with space between each pixel. In these spaces, shelves, benches, stools, tables and interior walls can be installed according to the needs and social activities. The room brings therefore the possibility to be expanded and reduced. The Room is inspired by Gerrit Rietveld’s architecture, El Lissitzsky’s Proun room and the first 3D computer game Wolfenstein.

The Inaugural Show

mit Lucas Ajemian, AVPD , Bank Malbek Rau, Matthew Burbidge, Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen, Gitte Schäfer