Louisiana Channel
Richard Ford Interview: OK to Say Negro
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This search for nuance and duality is central to Camille Henrot's artistic philosophy. In her works, she deliberately disrupts rigid systems of knowledge and control in order to leave space for interpretation and alternative meanings.
“I try to protect, very ferociously, the space for interpretation,” she explains, emphasizing her desire to challenge viewers to engage with her work beyond surface-level understanding.
A recurring theme in Henrot’s work is the intersection between private and public spheres and how our personal problems are increasingly intertwined with technology. Thus, in works like “System of Attachment” and "Wet Job," Camille Henrot explores institutional structures and societal expectations of motherhood and caregiving roles.
“I think there's something with the hyper-personal; the things that seem the most personal, the most subjective, and the most anecdotal resonate globally. Because in the end, the depths of our inner lives are also what connects us to other people. Yet the things that mostly appear as commonalities are also the most divisive and complex because the things we all share are also the things we all have an opinion on. And so there are interesting areas of investigation for me because they are constantly unresolved. They are topics that leave an open space for interpretation and opinions, which is something I'm always interested in.”
Camille Henrot (b. 1978, France) lives and works in New York City. Her practice spans drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, and film, with her works exploring themes from literature and psychoanalysis to digital culture. In 2013, as a fellow at the Smithsonian Institute, she created her critically acclaimed film Grosse Fatigue, for which she was awarded the Silver Lion at the 55th Venice Biennale. The following year, she received the Nam June Paik Award, and in 2015, she was given the Edvard Munch Award. Henrot has had numerous solo exhibitions worldwide, including at the Middelheim Museum in Belgium; National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne; New Museum in New York; Schinkel Pavilion in Berlin; New Orleans Museum of Art; Fondazione Memmo in Rome; and Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery in Japan, among others.
Camille Henrot was interviewed by Nanna Rebekka in her studio in Manhattan in May 2023.
Editor and producer: Nanna Rebekka
Camera: Sean Hanley
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2023. Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, and C.L. Davids Fond og Samling.
#camillehenrot #artist #Art
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In her early twenties, Claudia Durastanti recalls an older writer’s advice: “You don’t write for yourself.” This revelation shifted her focus from a more intimate form of writing, journaling, to broader themes that highlighted the importance of connecting with an audience. “How can I be published if I was not read?” she asked, recognising that writing must resonate with others.
Durastanti describes her creative process as complex: “I’m not afraid of wasting ideas. I’m not afraid of wasting time or wasting materials. And I never throw out stuff.” She believes that even imperfect beginnings can lead to meaningful outcomes, comparing writing to music: “It’s like a song where new instruments can transform the piece.”
Among her favourite works, she highlights Virginia Woolf’s The Waves for its ability to “translate vibrations of life into language.” She also praises Don DeLillo’s Underworld and Cesare Pavese’s journal, Il Messiere di Vivere, as a touching exploration of personal reflection and connection. “There’s something nostalgic about a writer striving to reach others,” she notes and continues: “When you step out and realise you’re writing for something beyond yourself, it’s a really beautiful moment.”
Claudia Durastanti is a writer and translator born in New York in 1984 and raised in Basilicata, Italy. Durastanti is known for her exploration of identity and familial relationships. Her work includes novels, essays, and memoirs, with notable titles such as “Strangers I Know” (2022) and “Cleopatra Goes to Prison” (2020). She is the Italian translator of Joshua Cohen, Donna Haraway, Ocean Vuong, and the most recent edition of The Great Gatsby. Strangers I Know, a finalist for the Premio Strega in 2019, has been translated into twenty-one languages. Durastanti currently lives in Rome.
Emma Holten interviewed Claudia Durastanti at the Louisiana Literature festival in August 2023 at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark.
Camera: Rasmus Quistgaard
Edit: Signe Boe Pedersen
Produced by Christan Lund
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2024.
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet and C.L. Davids Fond og Samling.
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“I don’t see my artworks as artworks. I see them as real-life forms. They have a voice. They have a pulse. They have a heartbeat. They have a rhythm. They are very much alive.”
”When I was 25, I had an accident. So, I went through what you would call a near-death experience. And to me, that's the beginning of everything because it really made me think. When you come close to death, it makes you reflect on what it means to live.”
“What does it mean to exist physically? What does it mean to exist spiritually? Can you exist without a physical body? What happens after you die? What will survive you? What are all the things that compose the human existence?”
“We are interconnected with a great web of life; whatever we do, it's like being a spider in a spider web. Whenever we move, many other things move around us as a result of us, of our own movement. So, there is a great responsibility that comes with just the idea of existing in the world.”
Marguerite Humeau (b. 1986, Cholet, France) lives and works in London. She received her MA from the Royal College of Art, London, in 2011. Solo exhibitions of her work have been held at Lafayette Anticipations, Paris (2021); Kunstverein Hamburg (2019); Museion, Bolzano (2019); New Museum, New York (2018); Tate Britain, London (2017); Haus Konstruktiv, Zürich (2017); Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin (2017); Nottingham Contemporary (2016); and Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2016).
Humeau’s work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions, including Hayward Gallery, London (2024); Venice Biennale: “The Milk of Dreams” (2022); 23rd Biennale of Sydney (2022); Kunsthalle Basel (2021); the Istanbul Biennial (2019); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2019); MAMVP, Paris (2019); the High Line, New York (2017); Château de Versailles, France (2017); Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen (2017); FRAC Midi- Pyrénées, Toulouse, France (2017); Serpentine Galleries, London (2014); and Victoria and Albert Museum, Sculpture Gallery, London (2014).
In 2023, Humeau inaugurated a 160-acre earthwork, "Orisons,” in the San Luis Valley, Colorado, curated and produced by the Black Cube Nomadic Art Museum. Humeau’s work was included in the 15th Gwangju Biennale, South Korea, curated by Nicolas Bourriaud in 2024. She is represented by White Cube and CLEARING New York/Los Angeles.
Marguerite Humeau was interviewed by Marc-Christoph Wagner in her studio in London in October 2023.
Camera: Anthony Jarman
Edited by: Signe Boe Pedersen
Produced by: Marc-Christoph Wagner
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2024
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, and C.L. Davids Fond og Samling.
Cover photo: "Orisons” by Marguerite Humeau, 2023, curated and produced by Black Cube, A Nomadic Art Museum. Photography by Julia Andréone and Florine Bonaventure. Images are courtesy of the artist and Black Cube Nomadic Art Museum.
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#margueritehumeau #artist #art
In this short interview, the award-winning Senegalese writer Mohamed Mbougar Sarr discusses the enduring impacts of colonization, highlighting how its effects persist long after historical events have ended.
Sarr's writing often explores themes of identity, exile, and the interplay between African and European literary traditions. In this interview, the Prix Goncourt winner explains that while colonization may be over in a formal sense, its mental and cultural ramifications are still deeply felt.
As a writer working in French – Senegal's colonial language – Sarr faces the complex challenge of reconciling different cultural traditions. "I'm the heir of many, at least two cultural traditions, very, very different," he explains, referencing both French and Senegalese languages such as Wolof and Serer.
Sarr touches on the tension between Senegalese identity and the use of French, a language that is not only a medium of expression but also a colonial legacy. Sarr feels that colonialism's influence extends into how people think, interact, and organize their societies. French military presence and currency systems in former colonies remain reminders of this historical connection.
While acknowledging the complexities of his dual linguistic and cultural heritage, Sarr calls for a future built on mutual understanding. "We all want peace," he states, stressing the need to address the past in order to move forward.
Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, born in 1990 in Dakar, Senegal, is an influential novelist recognized for his literary prowess. His notable works include La Cale (2014), Silence du chœur (2017), and La plus secrète mémoire des hommes (2021), the latter of which won the prestigious Prix Goncourt.
Mohamed Mbougar Sarr was interviewed by Lotte Folke Kaarsholm at the French Embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark, in May 2023.
Camera: Rasmus Quistgaard
Edit: Signe Boe Pedersen
Produced by Christian Lund
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2024.
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, C.L. Davids Fond og Samling, and Fritz Hansen.
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Meet Esben Weile Kjær, a visionary artist who seamlessly blends pop, counterculture, and nostalgia into his unique artistic practice. The interview chronicles Esben Weile Kjærs' journey from a music management student to a celebrated visual artist, highlighting his transformative experiences with activism and squatting in his hometown, Aarhus. These experiences taught him how to transform spaces and create impactful social situations.
Through his innovative exhibitions and interdisciplinary projects, Esben Weile Kjær challenges social norms and explores modern life's overwhelming flow of information. Witness his fascination with brutalist architecture, consumerism, and the power of nostalgia as he creates complex, evolving artworks that bridge the gap between the white cube of art institutions and the vibrant pulse of real life.
Esben Weile Kjær graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 2022. With a background as a DJ and a degree in Music Management from the Rhythmic Music Conservatory (RMC), he brings a unique perspective to his art. Through his performances, installations, and sculptures, Esben Weile Kjær delves into the identity of his generation, examining how popular culture and technology shape our sense of community and freedom.
He has held several solo exhibitions, including at Kunstforeningen GL STRAND and Copenhagen Contemporary. His work has also been showcased internationally at prestigious venues such as Museum Tinguely in Basel, Centre Pompidou in Paris, Mumok in Vienna, and Berghain in Berlin.
Signe Boe Pedersen interviewed Esben Weile Kjær at Andersen's Contemporary in Denmark and at Espace Niemeyer in Paris, France, in June 2024.
Camera: Jarl Therkelsen Kaldan & Signe Boe Pedersen
Producer and film editor: Signe Boe Pedersen
Editor-in-Chief: Marc-Christoph Wagner
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2024
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, C.L. Davids Fond og Samling and Fritz Hansen
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Karunatilaka grew up in Sri Lanka, during the civil war that lasted from 1983 to 2009 and killed at least 100.000 people. Karunatilaka explains how he experienced the war “Whatever is said about Sri Lanka, there is plenty of material for novelists who are writing dystopian novels … growing up in Colombo it was a city of checkpoints, assassinations, bomb blasts, curfews … going to school you would see bodies lying on the side of the street, bodies burning on tires these are my memories of your mom telling me “don’t look to that side!” and you’d ask curiously “who was that person why were they killed?” And there wasn’t always an answer, because it could have been anyone.”
He goes on to explain how he found his literary voice: “With Carl Muller, suddenly I thought, I may not be able to wright as elegantly as Ondaatje, but I can certainly write like a drunken uncle”
And how fiction writers can narrate global conflicts and fill out the gaps that exist in our history: “We can go back to the past, and we don’t necessarily have to pick a side, but we can present the different narratives of the past.”
Shehan Karunatilaka (b. 1975) grew up in Colombo, studied in New Zealand, and later lived and worked in London. Now, he is back in Colombo, writing critically acclaimed novels and children’s books. His first novel Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew, won the Commonwealth Book Prize in 2012, the Gratiaen Prize, as well as the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature.
His second novel, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, followed the success of his first and won the 2022 Booker Prize.
Shehan Karunatilaka was interviewed by Astrid Agnes Hald at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark, in September 2024. In the video Shehan Karunatilaka is reading an excerpt from his novel The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida.
Camera: Jarl Therkelsen Kaldan
Produced and edited by Astrid Agnes Hald
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2024
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, C.L. Davids Fond og Samling and Fritz Hansen
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Liz Diller is one of the heroes of contemporary architecture. Even though she never wanted to become an architect. We visited her in her famous New York studio.
“To be an architect, you have to be a mind reader. You have to be an archaeologist. You have to be a psychiatrist and psychologist. You have to be a dreamer and a poet. And you have to be a politician also.”
“All of our work in the studio is about space making. And it's about the public. It's about challenging institutions and conventions. It's just a question of how many legal aspects there are in the way between you and the expression. Sometimes, you have to convince many people, like in our architectural projects dealing with cities. They are very expensive, and so you have to be able to speak with lots of tongues, different tongues, different voices to different people.”
One of Liz Diller’s most famous public projects is the High Line park in New York. It has become an iconic hangout for the city and a forerunner for similar projects worldwide.
“The High Line still is a mystery to me. When we began in 2003, it was just an obsolete piece of urban infrastructure that hadn't been used for over 20 years. It was all overgrown in a ruin. And the mayor at that time wanted to tear it down. Already, five blocks were torn down. And the property owners felt that the High Line devalued their property and wanted it torn down so they could build everywhere.”
“But we had this feeling, this sense that the very character of this overgrown, this sort of ruin was so beautiful. It was kind of the city's unconscious. When you go up there, it is about eight meters in the air, and it snakes through this part of Chelsea and the downtown west side of Manhattan, where you see things you're not supposed to see. It's the unofficial New York. It's not the beautiful New York that's on a postcard or a splash page for the city, for advertising, for tourism. It is a kind of nitty-gritty, nasty alternative New York, we loved that. And we said that we wanted to preserve this, and we wanted to protect the High Line from architecture.”
Liz Diller sees herself as more than just an architect but a designer and artist. Since the very beginning, working across disciplines has always been pivotal to her.
“Our work is sort of, I would say, across many, many fields. And often, when executing our work, it takes unusual people to help us because we don't know how to do everything. But when I think about the work that we've done, we're always bringing together librettists, composers, choreographers, scientists, weather experts, meteorologists, crime experts, you name it. We have a curiosity that's limitless, and we like to explore things we don't know anything about. In fact, I often say that the best work comes from doing things you're totally unqualified to do. You just jump off the cliff, and you do it, and you learn, and it's the best thing you've ever done.”
Elizabeth Diller is a partner of Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R). Alongside partner Ricardo Scofidio, Diller’s cross-genre work has been distinguished with TIME’s "100 Most Influential People" list and the first MacArthur Foundation fellowship awarded in the field of architecture. She has also received the Wolf Prize in Architecture. Most recently, she led two cultural works significant to New York: The Shed and the expansion of MoMA. Diller also co-created, directed, and produced The Mile-Long Opera, an immersive choral work staged on the High Line. Diller is a member of the UN Council on Urban Initiatives and a Professor of Architectural Design at Princeton University.
Liz Diller was interviewed by Marc-Christoph Wagner in her studio in New York in June 2024.
Camera: Sean Hanley
Edited by: Jarl Therkelsen Kaldan
Produced by: Marc-Christoph Wagner
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2024
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, and C.L. Davids Fond og Samling. This film is supported by Dreyersfond and Fritz Hansen.
#architecture
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We met with the artist at the Montenegro Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, in her exhibition It Takes an Island to Feel This Good. An exhibition that reframes the layered history of Mamula Island—a site once used as a fortress, prison, and concentration camp, now transformed into a luxury hotel.
Through fragmented archival images and symbolic shapes, Darja Bajagić challenges viewers to confront the tension between historical memory and contemporary reality without offering clear answers.
"My goal is to highlight the complexities of the world that we live in," Darja Bajagić explains, "and assert agency to the viewer."
Scavenging images from the dark web and state archives, Darja Bajagić explores the tension between what is seen and what is hidden beneath. Through imagery and formal decisions such as shape and composition, she subtly intertwines historical references and contemporary issues through a deliberately disjointed narrative style. The resulting work is intentionally ambiguous, echoing her ongoing theme of obscured and fractured narratives.
As an artist, Darja Bajagić resists offering her audience definitive interpretations, instead urging them to engage with the work on their own terms: "I don’t give instruction for the viewer on how to understand the work."
Darja Bajagić (B. 1990 in Montenegro) is an artist whose research-based work is known for its provocative exploration of contemporary and historical themes. She splits her time between Chicago and Montenegro. In 2014 she received an MFA from Yale University. Darja Bajagić’s work has been shown at international institutions such as Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden; Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-οn-Hudson, US); Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Poland and Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, Franc. In 2024, she represented Montenegro at the Venice Biennale.
Darja Bajagić was interviewed by Nanna Rebekka at Montenegro Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in April 2024.
Producer and editor: Nanna Rebekka
Cinematographer: Jarl Therkelsen Kaldan
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2023
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, C.L. Davids Fond og Samling, and Fritz Hansen
#artistinterview #art
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We talked to Runo Lagomarsino about his artistic practice, which is influenced by his personal history, a conceptual approach and the themes of colonialism, geography, and historiography.
The film encompasses the work La Place Entre Les Murs, in which the artist extracted silver from old photographic fixatives to create a piece that encapsulates the story of his family's exile from Argentina. This process materializes the transformation of personal and collective memories into tangible art. Lagomarsino also reflects on the significance of geography and the constructed dichotomy between the Global North and South. He challenges these notions by highlighting the interconnectedness of different regions and histories.
The film further examines Lagomarsino's installation "Las Casas Is Not a Home," which references Bartolomé de las Casas, a Jesuit priest who advocated for the humanity of Indigenous people in the Americas. This work, along with others, underscores Lagomarsino's interest in colonialism's legacies.
Through his art, Lagomarsino invites viewers to question established historical narratives and consider the invisible yet pervasive impact of exile and colonialism. The film captures his creative process and the conceptual approach to creating art that challenges traditional representations.
Runo Lagomarsino, born in 1977 in Lund, Sweden, is a distinguished contemporary artist whose oeuvre encompasses installations, sculptures, and drawings. His artistic practice critically engages with themes of colonialism, geography, and historiography, often interrogating the legacies of imperialism and the construction of historical narratives. Lagomarsino's work has been exhibited internationally, including prestigious venues such as the Venice Biennale and Moderna Museet.
Producer and editor: Signe Boe Pedersen
Cinematographer: Jarl Therkelsen Kaldan & Signe Boe Pedersen
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2024
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, C.L. Davids Fond og Samling, and Fritz Hansen.
#art #artistinterview
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We visited one of the rising stars on the global art scene, British painter Flora Yukhnovich, who recently moved her studio from London to New York.
“Nature is a really important part of my work, and I think of nature as something that's self–propagating, something that's organic, and that is about the accidents that happen in paint. My way of painting relies a lot on that sort of accidental nature and the idea that the painting grows itself. I’m sort of responding to things that are out of my control and happening on the canvas.”
Yukhnovich has been hailed as one of the great new masters of painting, destined to occupy a central place in art history. Using a sensuous visual language that lies between figuration and abstraction, Yukhnovich incorporates historical styles into her work – particularly Rococo. At the same time, she transcends conventional genre boundaries by traversing high culture and popular culture.
“When I started painting, I was afraid of color. I felt like it was quite unserious, and my paintings were very brown. I sort of lent into color at one point, and for me, there's something freeing, a bit tacky, about colorful paintings that I really enjoy. I think colour has the potential for creating associations more than anything else in painting. I think it's the strongest tool for making those connections.”
“I don't know that I agree that something can be decoration. I think most of it is dependent on how you, as the viewer, turn up to something and how committed you are to finding meaning in things. I think the idea that something is decorative and dismissed for that is a gendered idea. There's something interesting about how suspicious or fearful we might be of beautiful or decorative things. I think there's something very puritanical about that.”
Flora Yukhnovich is an acclaimed painter known for adopting the language of Rococo, reimagining the dynamism of works by eighteenth-century artists such as Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, François Boucher, Nicolas Lancret, and Jean-Antoine Watteau through a filter of contemporary cultural references including film, food, and consumerism.
Variation is a driving force in Yukhnovich’s work with her mark-making ranging from delicate flourishes to dramatic and gestural brushstrokes, heightening the rhythmic sensuality throughout her ambitious compositions. Existing in a constantly fluctuating state between abstraction and figuration, Yukhnovich’s paintings explore ideas surrounding dualities and multiplicities, transcending painterly traditions while fusing high art with popular culture and intellect with intuition.
Flora Yukhnovich (b. 1990) completed her MA at the City & Guilds of London Art School in 2017. Her work is included in international museum collections, including the Government Art Collection, London, UK; Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, DC, USA; The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, Canada; and the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia.
Flora Yukhnovich was interviewed by Marc-Christoph Wagner in London in August 2024.
Camera: Phillip Jørgensen
Edited by: Signe Boe Pedersen
Produced by: Marc-Christoph Wagner
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2024
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, C.L. Davids Fond og Samling, and Fritz Hansen.
#art #artistinterview
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We visited German artist Asta Gröting in her fascinating studio that used to house the city busses of Berlin.
“My path into art? My mother showed me how to create things. She handed me materials, and she transferred her enthusiasm for the material and her perseverance to me. So, I slowly found my way around and developed my own style.”
Asta Gröting’s work, since the 1980s, has embraced various media, from sculpture and drawing to performance, video, film, sound art, and art in the public domain. In works that span these different media, several thematic focuses have emerged, such as the connection between trauma and architecture or reflections on personal power relationships, some of which recur throughout her career, while others are delineated by reference to specific series.
“My generation was raised by a generation of parents who either took part in the war or had experienced it. I wanted to confront that.”
“I went to Berlin in 1993, where I saw those destroyed, shot-up facades. At first, I started photographing them. We all know what those facades have seen. Nazi Germany, that gruesome German history, and the era of the Iron Curtain that followed. I kept thinking about that, about the history in it, about the traumata, about the violence inside it, about the destruction, about the war.”
“Sometimes it can take me decades to find the right technique.”
Despite the diversity of her oeuvre, Gröting always draws us into her way of seeing. Her films and sculptures are interested in looking intently with a microscopic focus at surfaces, appearances, and effects to discover what lies beneath them. As the art critic Kirsty Bell stated: “Each piece seems to be seeded in the question, what is the nature of x?”
“I think art doesn’t have a task. I really hate it when it has a function. I should be free.”
Asta Gröting (b. 1961 in Herford) lives and works in Berlin. She studied sculpture at the Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and has been a professor at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig since 2009.
A selection of Gröting’s major solo exhibitions include Centre Pasquart in Biel/Bienne; KINDL – Zentrum für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Berlin; Kunstraum Dornbirn; Zentrum für Kunst und Medien, Karlsruhe; n.b.k., Berlin; Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz; Henry Moore Institute, Leeds; Marta Herford, and at Lindenau-Museum Altenburg. Important group exhibitions include, among others, the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Paris; James-Simon-Galerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin; Kunsthalle Bielefeld; 22. Bienal de São Paulo, the 8th and 14th Sydney Biennale, and the 44. Biennale di Venezia.
Gröting has earned several awards, including the Gerhard-Altenbourg-Preis given by Lindenau-Museums Altenburg (2023); Preis der Bayrischen Landesbank International S.A. (1996); Otto-Dix-Preis, Gera (1994); Förderpreis für Bildende Kunst des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen (1991); A.&W. Grohmann Fellowship, Baden-Baden (1990), Schmidt-Rotluff-Fellowship (1998); Stiftung Kunstfonds (1988).
Asta Gröting was interviewed by Marc-Christoph Wagner in her studio in Berlin in May 2024.
Camera: Jarl Therkelsen Kaldan
Edited by: Signe Boe Pedersen
Produced by: Marc-Christoph Wagner
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2024
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, C.L. Davids Fond og Samling, and Fritz Hansen.
#artistinterview #art
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"Your mind wants to move, and the best thing a work of art can do is take your mind with it, moving somewhere you never expected to move."
Anne Carson is interviewed by Norwegian bestselling writer Linn Ullmann, who begins the conversation by saying that Anne Carson is the writer Ullmann loves the most. The conversation shifts across Carson’s eclectic range of topics, from the Syrian refugee crisis to the death of her mother, offering moments of both deep reflection and humor. Carson reflects on how we navigate what we read:
"It always seems to me when contemplating the news, as we call it, how you can read a story about tragedy and trauma and enter into the sorrow of that and then close the paper and go make toast. How do we do that? How do we just let non-existence be right beside existence.”
Carson also discusses the challenge of living with Parkinson’s disease, a condition that has profoundly affected her writing. For a couple of months, Carson has attended a boxing class, and boxing has become a form of therapy:
"One of the recommended therapies for this disease is boxing because it teaches you to pay attention to hand-eye coordination of movement and also to sequences of actions."
“I'm basically an arrogant intellectual thinking I'm a little better than everybody else because I've read all these books. And these people in the boxing class are not mostly academics or intellectuals. In fact, they don't read at all as far as I can see. They watch TV and they come to boxing class. And I could dismiss them, therefore, because they're not like me. And I gradually learned not to do that. And when you don't do that, then you begin to see that they're each actually pretty unique, probably crazy, and willing to be nice to you. So, it just, you know, that kind of attention to details leads you somewhere truer than generalizing,” Carson states.
Carson also meditates on the passage of time and mortality, poignantly illustrated in her reflection on aging: "You wake up and you're a 70. Looking ahead, you see a black doorway. You begin to notice the black doorway is always there, at the edge, whether you look at it or not.”
Her views on life’s inherent unfairness are captured in a metaphor she develops from her admiration of John Keats' beautiful handwriting, "Life is not fair," she says, in a playful but weighted pun on both beauty and justice.
Anne Carson mentions French philosopher René Descartes, known for his famous sentence cogito ergo sum, I think, therefore I am. “But if you look at the sentence,” Carson says to Linn Ullmann, “it says dubito ergo cogito, ergo sum. I doubt, therefore I think, therefore I am. […] You see cogito ergo sum on T -shirts all over the world, but dubito has a bad press. So that that's very provocative. Everything starts in doubt, or it also could mean hesitation, but the same idea,” Carson concludes.
Anne Carson, born in Toronto, Canada, in 1950, is a poet, essayist, and translator. She is best known for her genre-defying works such as Autobiography of Red (1998), The Beauty of the Husband (2001), and Nox (2010). A classicist by training, Carson’s writing often incorporates elements of ancient Greek literature and philosophy. She has received numerous awards, including the Griffin Poetry Prize and the Lannan Literary Award. Carson has also taught at several prestigious institutions, including Princeton University. She is often mentioned as a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Cameras: Simon Weyhe, Jakob Sobakken & Rasmus Quistgaard
Edited by Signe Boe Pedersen
Produced by Christian Lund
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2024
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, C.L. Davids Fond og Samling, and Fritz Hansen.
#literature
0:00 On being uneasy at the center of the stage
5:17 On Merce Cunningham and John Cage
8:53 On ‘Wrong Norma’
11:44 On the resistance of reality to the representation of reality
17:35 On Decartes
18:35 On hesitation & doubt
20:20 On writing autobiographical
28:50 On paying attention to what people do
30:18 On fighting against Parkinson’s
44:10 On Sappho
48:02 On being in a translation
55:50 On writing about the mother
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We visited iconic American painter Robert Longo and met an artist who, with classic charcoal, records the time we live in.
“One basic nature of being an artist is this desire to share. So, I see something, and I want to tell you what I see. I remember, as a student, I had taken some acid. And I was walking down the street with a friend of mine. And in the tree, I saw Jimmy Hendrix. And I grabbed my friend and said, look, do you see Jimmy Hendrix's face in the tree? That's what art is. Art is like saying, this is what I see, and I want you to see how I see it.”
Rising to prominence in the 1980s as a leading figure of the Pictures Generation, Longo has long examined the effects of our image-saturated culture. The artist sources his subject matter from the media to create ambitiously scaled charcoal drawings that reflect on the construction of symbols of power and authority, including images of animals and nature, global conflicts, and protest movements.
“The thing about charcoal is it's incredibly primitive medium. It's so archaic. It's almost somewhat funerary because it's burnt. It's like it's dead. It's like it's a remnant of the earth. At the same time, I realized I could fool people into thinking that they're photographs.”
“I mean, the thing about us artists is that we have the Cassandra curse. We can see the future, but nobody wants to listen to us. Still, I find it a moral imperative to do the work I do. It’s really weird. I feel like I am the worm at the bottom of the bottle, taking in all these poisons.”
Robert Longo was born in 1953 in Brooklyn and grew up in Long Island, New York. He graduated high school in 1970, the same year as the Kent State University Massacre in Ohio, spurring Longo to become involved in political organizing. One press photo in particular became symbolic of the social unrest, winning a Pulitzer Prize. The dead student pictured was a former classmate of Longo’s, forever influencing his relationship with media images.
Longo is known for his monumental hyperrealistic works: powerful, dynamic charcoal drawings whose virtuoso technique and the visual force of the motifs mesmerize the observer. For his models, Longo uses photographs that record dramatic situations at the moment of their greatest tension. The artist is concerned with depicting power—in nature, politics, and history. He utilizes visual material that has been reproduced thousands of times and has long been a part of pop culture, of our collective visual memory. Longo isolates and reduces the motifs to raise their visual impact to a higher power. By enlarging the subject and intensifying the lighting into a dramatic chiaroscuro, we find ourselves before gigantic, previously unseen theatrical images. Longo draws on existing images, references reality secondhand, and creates impressive “copies” of the original black-and-white photographs, which pale beside their transformation into colossal charcoal drawings.
“I always think that drawing is a sculptural process,” Longo has explained. “I always feel like I'm carving the image out rather than painting the image.”
Besides countless solo exhibitions, Longo’s works have been shown at the Whitney Biennials in New York in 1983 and 2004, as well as at the 47th Venice Biennale. He is part of the collections of the Albertina in Vienna, the Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Gallery in London, and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, among many others.
Robert Longo was interviewed by Marc-Christoph Wagner in his studio in New York in June 2024.
Camera: Sean Hanley
Edited by: Jarl Therkelsen Kaldan
Produced by: Marc-Christoph Wagner
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2024
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, C.L. Davids Fond og Samling, and Fritz Hansen.
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Since childhood, Latvian artist Amanda Ziemele has been captivated by the visual qualities of the world, perceiving and engaging with her surroundings in ways that would later shape her approach to abstract painting. Taking inspiration from everyday situations and encounters with the material world around her, Amanda Ziemele creates work that transforms these observations into spatial experiences.
In this interview, Amanda Ziemele reflects on how to understand abstract art as a dynamic interplay between material, perception, and everyday experience. “I would say it’s something relational. It always has a relation to something in real life, in everyday life,” she explains.
Amanda Ziemele describes herself as a painter, though her art often goes beyond the traditional boundaries of painting, integrating elements of installation and exploring the relationship between space and form – as well as the interaction between the viewer and the work.
“Being there and spending time with the works and just giving a chance to get to know them, those common moments that you shared together, i think they’re really worth it,” Amanda Ziemele concludes.
Amanda Ziemele (b. 1990 in Riga, Latvia) is a contemporary artist known for her innovative and exploratory approach to painting. She earned her BA in Arts from the Painting Department at the Art Academy of Latvia and completed her diploma studies in the Interdisciplinary Painting Study Programme at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts.
Ziemele’s work has been widely recognized and celebrated. Her work is featured in various collections, including the Latvian National Museum of Art, the VV Foundation, and the Zuzāns Collection. In 2021 she won the Purvītis Prize for her solo exhibition “Quantum Hair Implants.” She has held several solo exhibitions, including “Sun Has Teeth” at the Latvian National Art Museum in 2023 and “Lazybones” at Natalia Hug Gallery in Cologne, Germany, in 2021. In 2024, Amanda Ziemele represented Latvia at the 60th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale with her project “O day and night, but this is wondrous strange…and therefore as a stranger give it welcome.”
Amanda Ziemele was interviewed by Nanna Rebekka at Kunsthal Møn44 in connection with the group show “Back to Future.”
Camera: Rasmus Quistgaard (Møn), Jarl Therkelsen Kaldan (Venice)
Editor and Producer: Nanna Rebekka
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2023
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, C.L. Davids Fond og Samling, and Fritz Hansen.
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“I have to admit that my country feels very unstable right now. I grew up with a sense of stability that democracy was guaranteed and that you can work the system in a way where your voice really matters and counts.”
“I always felt that power should be challenged. And now, I crave institutions because they're so destabilized. And we need these institutions. I want to help bring them back.”
“In architecture, it’s all about bringing a lot of voices together and finding some expression that actually is really what you want to do, what you think is best, but is also able to convince people, educate people maybe, and you get educated too.”
Elizabeth Diller is a partner of Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R). Alongside partner Ricardo Scofidio, Diller’s cross-genre work has been distinguished with TIME’s "100 Most Influential People" list and the first MacArthur Foundation fellowship awarded in the field of architecture. She has also received the Wolf Prize in Architecture. Most recently, she led two cultural works significant to New York: The Shed and the expansion of MoMA. Diller also co-created, directed, and produced The Mile-Long Opera, an immersive choral work staged on the High Line. Diller is a member of the UN Council on Urban Initiatives and a Professor of Architectural Design at Princeton University.
Liz Diller was interviewed by Marc-Christoph Wagner in her studio in New York in June 2024.
Camera: Sean Hanley
Edited by: Signe Boe Pedersen
Produced by: Marc-Christoph Wagner
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2024
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, and C.L. Davids Fond og Samling. This film is supported by Dreyersfond and Fritz Hansen.
#architecture
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“I’m working with the National Gallery of Denmark on an exhibition related to Nordic women artists from the 1800s who weren’t recognized during their time. That affected their careers and the way they created art in ways that have certain similarities to how I work and how many women of my time work,” Ix Shells explains, drawing a poignant parallel between the challenges faced by these historical artists and her own experiences.
Ix Shells grew up in Panama surrounded by technology, thanks to her father, an electrical engineer who sparked her early curiosity about computers. When she was 14, her father passed away, leaving her with the computer he had given her, which became a refuge and a gateway to creativity. This early exposure to technology led her to explore creative coding and architecture, blending these disciplines to form the foundation of her artistic practice.
“I think everything that connected was poetry to me. And as I spent so much time online, I started to see patterns within. I would look at patterns, and they looked like cities or structures that I've seen in real life.”
Ix Shells started creating digital artworks and sharing them on Instagram. After learning about blockchain technology and Web3, she began selling her first NFT artworks to support herself and her career. However, Ix Shells clarifies that her motivation for using these technologies isn't driven by the buzz around NFTs but by a desire to preserve her work and memories.
“Web3 is what we call the next internet. It's information that is encrypted in a decentralized system. And I think if you learn about this technology, maybe you can start preserving what you've done without having to worry about the other part of NFTs that people know, which is about investments and collections or being famous. It's not about that. It’s about preservation.”
Ix Shells is deeply passionate about the digital worlds she creates, viewing them as vibrant extensions of her imagination and a means of preserving art history. She believes that blockchain art offers a unique way to safeguard memories and cultural legacies, ensuring they endure in a rapidly changing technological landscape.
“I think [technology] can help change the way we archive or preserve our art. In a way, it can be like a large museum that is more communal,” Ix Shells concludes.
Ix Shells (b. 1990 in Panama) is a pioneering generative artist whose work intersects digital technology and art preservation. Ix Shells has exhibited internationally, with her art featured in collections and exhibitions at prestigious venues like MoMA, New York; Buffalo AKG Art Museum; and SMK – The National Gallery of Denmark. She holds the distinction of being the highest-selling NFT artist, with her piece "Dreaming at Dusk," created in collaboration with the Tor Project. Her innovative use of Web3 technology has redefined how art can be preserved and shared in the digital age.
Ix Shells was interviewed by Nanna Rebekka at SMK – The National Gallery of Denmark in connection with the exhibition Against All Odds – Historical Women and New Algorithms.
Producer and editor: Nanna Rebekka
Cinematographer: Jarl Therkelsen Kaldan
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2023
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, C.L. Davids Fond og Samling, and Fritz Hansen.
#art #artistinterview
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“I would be a novelist over a documentarian. I love research. I love finding facts. I love gathering information, history, and ideas. And yet, that space of imagining is ultimately what's really important. And I like that openness, that invitation for someone to enter the picture, relate, and empathize. I do hope that people are able to reflect on their own time, looking at these pictures.”
“I don't know that I see these paintings as proposing any kind of answers. I do remain hopeful, although it's difficult at times. I think there are countries, but then there's people who make up the countries, and we're part of that.”
“Another thing that has been introduced in the paintings recently is the issue of or the idea of change, the idea of cycles, the idea of things happening over and over again, and thinking about progress as not a destination. And seeing that not as a failure, but as somehow a beautiful part of being a human.”
Jaclyn Conley (b. 1979) was born in Ontario, Canada, and is now based in New Haven, Connecticut. Conley has exhibited nationally and internationally at venues including The Painting Center, NY, NurtureArt, NY, Projective City, Paris, Wynick-Tuck Gallery, Toronto, and the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield CT. Conley has been an artist in residence at NXTHVN, the Vermont Studio Center, and The Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver, Canada. She was the recipient of a Connecticut Office of the Arts Fellowship, Canada Council for the Arts Visual Arts Project Grants, an Elizabeth Greenshields Award, and a Fellowship from the Sam and Adele Golden Foundation.
Conley’s work is featured in several prominent collections, including Ann and Mel Schaffer Family Collection, South Orange, NJ; Barack and Michelle Obama Family Collection, USA; Burger Collection; Ellen and Stephen Susman Collection, TX; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Italy; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; ICA Miami, FL; Jay Chou Collection, Taiwan; Jesse Williams Collection, Woodland Hills, CA; Kistefos Collection, Norway; Maloney Collection, IL; Marian Collection, Belgium; Vanhaerents Collection, Belgium; Vanthournout Collection, Belgium.
Jaclyn Conley was interviewed by Marc-Christoph Wagner in her studio near New Haven, Connecticut, in May 2024.
Camera: Jarl Therkelsen Kaldan
Edited by: Jarl Therkelsen Kaldan
Produced by: Marc-Christoph Wagner
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2024
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, C.L. Davids Fond og Samling and Fritz Hansen.
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Pamuk explores the narrative techniques employed by literary giants like Joseph Conrad and Virginia Woolf to manipulate readers' perceptions of time.
He admires how Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain effectively suspends the reader in a timeless space, making them "forget about the passing of time." Pamuk also notes how Conrad's complex narrative structures, as seen in Nostromo, challenge conventional storytelling by disrupting chronological order, although he humorously admits, "I don't advise that too much to my readers or to would-be writers."
The author also discusses how his own works reflect his deep engagement with time, both aesthetically and technically. He explains how the structure of chapters in a novel can serve as markers of time, allowing readers to experience the "life's pace of passing time" in contrast to the narrative's pace. "Chapters in novels help us to feel the existence of time," Pamuk notes, highlighting the subtle ways in which time permeates his storytelling.
Pamuk acknowledges that time becomes even more precious with age, intensifying the existential questions that arise about life's meaning. "The most valuable thing, the time is finishing," he remarks, underlining the urgency that time imposes on both life and art.
Orhan Pamuk, born in Istanbul in 1952, is one of Turkey’s most acclaimed novelists. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2006 and is known for works such as My Name is Red (2001), Snow (2004), and The Museum of Innocence (2009). ‘A Strangeness in My Mind’ (2015) and ‘The Red-Haired Woman’ (2017) and Nights of Plague (2022) He is also the recipient of numerous other prestigious literary awards such as the 2002 Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger and the 2003 International Dublin Literary Award. Orhan Pamuk lives in Istanbul, Turkey
Orhan Pamuk was interviewed by Malou Wedel Bruun at Admiral Hotel, Copenhagen, in February 2024.
Camera: Jakob Solbakken
Edit: Signe Boe Pedersen
Produced by Christian Lund
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2024.
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, C.L. Davids Fond og Samling, and Fritz Hansen.
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We met American artist Eric Fischl for an extraordinarily honest conversation about his life, art, and urge to confront taboos.
“Growing up, the interior of our house was one of chaos, constant chaos, harm, and pain. And the exterior looked like everybody else's house. All of those experiences are certainly formative.”
“The process of becoming an artist is discovering the themes of one's life, of my life. And my ambition is to search for and capture authenticity; the authentic moment, the authentic sense of what it is to be human.”
Eric Fischl mentions the topic of puberty as an example:
“It is something that doesn't get talked about. It gets dismissed. It gets passed off as if young people are going through a difficult period. But this loses what it is. It is something profoundly physical. So, part of my ambition and practice has been to bring the body back into the conversation.”
Postwar America has been central to Eric Fischl’s practice and paintings. Often, he has been critical of aspects of American life and society. When the attacks of 9/11 happened, though, he did not doubt that it was time to gather behind his country and culture:
“I thought that if America ever needed artists, now was the time. I believe artists have the gift to bring order to chaos, giving it a language, shape, and image. It becomes the currency of exchange within society and culture so that people can talk to each other, connect with each other, and stay connected. Because at the center of something like 9/11 or these kinds of disasters, it blows everybody apart. And then, you know, how do we get our way back to each other? That is where art is the glue.”
Eric Fischl is an internationally acclaimed American painter and sculptor whose achievements throughout his career have made him one of the most influential figurative painters of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Fischl was born in New York in 1948. He graduated from the California Institute of Arts in Valencia in 1972 and was a teacher between 1974 and 1978 at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax. Fischl had his first solo show, curated by Bruce W. Ferguson, at Dalhousie Art Gallery in Nova Scotia in 1975 before relocating to New York City in 1978.
Eric Fischl has exhibited extensively throughout the United States and Europe. Recent solo exhibitions of his work have been held in institutions such as Dallas Contemporary in 2018 in Dallas, Texas; the Albertina in 2014 in Vienna, Austria; the Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Malaga in 2010 in Malaga, Spain; the Kestnergesellschaft in 2007-2008 in Hannover; Germany, the Stadtkirche Darmstadt in 2006 in Darmstadt, Germany; and the Delaware Center of Contemporary Art in 2006 in Wilmington, DE. He has also participated in exhibitions at major institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Musée Beaubourg in Paris, France, and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Fischl’s work has been featured in over one thousand publications.
Alongside his wife, the painter April Gornik, Eric Fischl co-founded The Church in Sag Harbor. This nonprofit arts center hosts a residency program, a rotating set of exhibitions, workshops, lectures, and a browsing library. Fischl was also the founder, president, and lead curator of America: Now and Here. This multi-disciplinary exhibition of 150 of some of America’s most celebrated visual artists, musicians, poets, playwrights, and filmmakers was designed to spark a national conversation about American identity through the arts.
Eric Fischl is a Fellow at the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Science. He lives and works in Sag Harbor, NY.
Eric Fischl was interviewed by Marc-Christoph Wagner at his studio in March 2024.
Camera: Matthew Heymann
Edited by: Jarl Therkelsen Kaldan
Produced by: Marc-Christoph Wagner
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2024
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, C.L. Davids Fond og Samling and Fritz Hansen.
#artistinterview #ericfisch #painting
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Born in 1946 in Ankara, Gülsün Karamustafa grew up during a period of turbulent political evolution in Turkey, marked by a transition to a multiparty system, numerous military coups, and increasing political polarization. This turbulent political environment profoundly shaped Karamustafa’s work, infusing it with themes of political struggle, resistance, and oppression.
Yet, Gülsün Karamustafa stresses that art is only a backdrop that can inspire political change: “I don’t believe that by itself art can change the world. Art can be a backup for everything… but activism is something that you go and fight yourself.”
Thus, in her youth, Gülsün Karamustafa took to the streets to express her dissatisfaction. In the 1970s, she participated in anti-government student protests, which led to her imprisonment, and her being denied a passport to travel for 16 years.
“You cannot separate artists from any crisis in the world. They are sensitive, they are reactive… But for being the activist, you have to take your battle instrument and go and fight for it,” Gülsün Karamustafa concludes in this short video.
Gülsün Karamustafa (b. 1946 in Ankara) lives and works in Istanbul. In her artistic career, which spans over five decades, she has examined themes around gender, globalization, and migration, and today she is considered an important critical voice in the global art scene. Her installations, paintings, sculptures, and videos have been exhibited in numerous international art institutions, including the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Jewish Museum, New York; Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Geneva; Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel; Kunstmuseum Bonn; SALT Galata, Istanbul; and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. In 2024, Gülsün Karamustafa represented Turkey in the Venice Biennale.
Gülsün Karamustafa’s work is held in many public and private institutions, including Tate Modern, London; Guggenheim Museum, New York; Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; MOMENTUM, Berlin; Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; and MUMOK, Vienna.
Gülsün Karamustafa was interviewed by Nanna Rebekka in connection with the exhibition ‘Back to Future’ at Kunsthal 44Møen.
Camera: Rasmus Quistgaard
Produced and edited by: Nanna Rebekka
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2023. Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, and C.L. Davids Fond og Samling.
#art #contemporaryart #artistinterview
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Meet American artist Trevor Paglen and his ground-breaking work on AI and the technological systems shaping our world.
“For most of my career, one of the big themes I've been trying to understand is our relationship with infrastructures and technologies. In other words, how do we change the landscapes around us? And in doing so, how do we change who we are?”
Over the years, Paglen has investigated communication systems, surveillance systems, and technologies that we use to interact with each other.
“Is AI going to take people's jobs? Yes, absolutely. Is AI going to increase economic inequality? Yes, absolutely. We see the beginnings of that with what are essentially surveillance systems using AI. So, for example, your car spies on you, sends information about how carefully you drive and how closely you adhere to traffic laws to insurance companies who can then use that information to modulate how you pay your insurance.”
“Now what is going to happen is that increasingly, the entities we interact with online will be generated for us individually. So right now, people have to make TikTok videos, and the algorithm curates them in order to capture our attention. In the very near future, those videos or that media will just be individually generated for us.”
“We will increasingly live in a world where each of us will contain dramatically different world views. And this, of course, will amplify a lot of trends like polarization, political manipulation, and disinformation. I think that's going to be far more dramatic than what people are imagining. And if so, I'm not sure how you have a concept like democracy.”
Trevor Paglen (b. 1974) is an artist whose work spans image-making, sculpture, investigative journalism, writing, engineering, and numerous other disciplines. He holds a B.A. from U.C. Berkeley, an MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago, and a Ph.D. in Geography from U.C. Berkeley.
Paglen’s work has had one-person exhibitions at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Washington D.C.; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Fondazione Prada, Milan; the Barbican Centre, London; Vienna Secession, Vienna; and Protocinema Istanbul. He also participated in group exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Tate Modern, and numerous other venues.
Paglen has launched an artwork into distant orbit around Earth in collaboration with Creative Time and MIT, contributed research and cinematography to the Academy Award-winning film Citizenfour, and created a radioactive public sculpture for the exclusion zone in Fukushima, Japan.
Paglen is the author of several books and numerous articles on subjects including experimental geography, artificial intelligence, state secrecy, military symbology, photography, and visuality. His work has been profiled in the New York Times, the New Yorker, the Wall Street Journal, Wired, the Financial Times, Art Forum, and Aperture. In 2014, he received the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Pioneer Award, and in 2016, he won the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize. In 2017, Paglen was named a MacArthur Fellow.
Trevor Paglen was interviewed by Marc-Christoph Wagner at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, Denmark, in March 2024 on the occasion of the exhibition The Irreplaceable Human.
Camera: Jarl Therkelsen Kaldan
Edited by: Signe Boe Pedersen
Produced by: Marc-Christoph Wagner
Copyright: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2024
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, and C.L. Davids Fond og Samling.
#artistinterview #art #ai
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We met the artist in Chiesetta della Misericordia in Cannaregio, Venice, Italy, where she shed light on how she grapples with life’s fundamental questions and the human condition as an artist.
“My work is not about religion,” Yu Hong explains, “It’s only about life.” Nonetheless, she is open about how grand religious painters like Caravaggio, Tintoretto, Titian, and Bosch have influenced her practice. Religious painting, Yu Hong explains, asks the same universal questions: “Who we are, where do we come from, where we are going, what life and death mean, and how we should live.”
The interview takes place against the backdrop of Yu Hong’s exhibition ‘Another One Bites the Dust’, presented by the Asian Art Initiative of the Guggenheim Museum, New York. The exhibition features figurative and narrative paintings: a newborn baby, covered in blood and fetal fat, connected to its mother by an umbilical cord, and a ten-part painting, suspended in the choir, each depicting a scene of different physical stages of life.
With their golden backgrounds and formal installations, the works respond to the Renaissance architecture context of the Chiesetta della Misericordia. Reflecting on the effect of the church space, Yu Hong concludes the interview: “You can feel the history. I hope that people come here to feel the church and the space - and then see the work. To think about yourself, your life, and your future.”
Yu Hong (b. 1966 in Xi’an, China) studied oil painting at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), where she is now a teacher. She is known and celebrated for her depictions of the female experience and perspectives in figurative painting, ranging from intimate portrayals of human relationships to epic allegories of the apocalypse.
Yu Hong is part of the New Generation artists—a group of young artists who broke away from the state-sponsored Socialist Realism in China. In 1990, she organized the groundbreaking exhibition “The World of Women Artists” and in 1993 and 1997, she participated in the Venice Biennale. Yu Hong has exhibited internationally at the SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing; and Long March Space, Beijing, among others.
Yu Hong was interviewed by Nanna Rebekka in Chiesetta della Misericordia, Venice, in April 2024.
Cinematographer: Jarl Therkelsen Kaldan
Editor: Signe Boe Pedersen
Producer: Nanna Rebekka
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2024.
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, C.L. Davids Fond og Samling, and Fritz Hansen.
#Painting #YuHong #ContemporaryArt
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We met one of the pioneers of contemporary architecture, Andrés Jaque – founder of the Office for Political Innovation and Dean at New York’s Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.
“I think architecture has a power many people cannot see. I was trained in a school of architecture that was mostly focused on style and beauty, understood as something that was autonomous. But I think now we're seeing that architecture has the great potential to deeply intervene with the structures by which we constitute ourselves as a collective. And that, for me, it's a very different way of doing architecture.”
“The name of our office, Office for Political Innovation, is very intentional. First, because it is claiming that architectural practices are political practices. For me, this is crucial. The type of politics we talk about is not the politics of political parties. It's something that is divisive, that is disputed, that is distributed, that is evolving in time, and that can only be managed through political tools. So for me, claiming that architecture is a political activity is claiming that its mission is to create, let's say, alliances between actors and entities that are very heterogeneous and that otherwise would never be able to collaborate or to gain solidarity.”
“Well, now there are two ways of imagining the future and how architects and architecture will contribute to it. One is thinking of, for instance, the culture of sustainability. Sustainability is something that is allowing us to keep doing business as usual, but changing a few things so that our emissions, our consumptions are adapted to the limits that we're facing. I think that's not enough. I think we have to be much more clever in understanding that the crises that we're experiencing now are the result of intersecting paradigms, the intersecting paradigms of carbonization, colonization, racialization, anthropocentrism, technocracy, and patriarchy. We have to understand that all of them work together. So, I think we have to acknowledge that the crisis we are experiencing now and facing now is basically the evidence that all these layers of reality are cracking. They're very thin. They're not something that, let's say, is even possible to imagine that will perpetuate. But what is very interesting is that in the cracks are many beautiful things that are growing.”
Andrés Jaque founded the Office for Political Innovation in 2003. He has brought a trans-sectional approach to architectural design, practicing architecture as the intervention on complex composites of relationships, where its agency is negotiated with the agency unfolded by other entities.
Andrés Jaque is a Professor and the Dean of Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. He has also been the director of the Advanced Architectural Design Program at GSAPP and a visiting professor at Princeton University and The Cooper Union.
Andrés received his PhD in architecture from the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid, where he also received his M. Arch. He has been an Alfred Toepfer Stiftung’s Tessenow Stipendiat and Graham Foundation grantee. In 2018, he co-curated Manifesta 12 in Palermo and is the Chief Curator of the 13th Shanghai Biennale, Bodies of Water.
His books include Superpowers of Scale (2020), Mies y la gata Niebla: Ensayos sobre arquitectura y cosmopolítica (2019), More-Than-Human (with Marina Otero and Lucia Pietroiusti) (2020) and Transmaterial Politics (2017).
Office for Political Innovation (OFFPOLINN) is an international architectural practice based in New York and Madrid. The office develops projects that transition across scales and mediums, intended to bring inclusivity into the built environment.
In 2016, OFFPOLINN received the Frederick Kiesler Prize for Architecture and the Arts from the City of Vienna. The office was also awarded the SILVER LION for Best Research Project at the 14th Venice Biennale and the Dionisio Hernández Gil Award.
OFFPOLINN’s work is part of the collections of MoMA and the Art Institute of Chicago, among many others.
Andrés Jaque was interviewed by Marc-Christoph Wagner in April 2024. The recording took place in connection with a lecture given by Andrés Jaque at the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen.
Camera: Jarl Therkelsen Kaldan
Edited by: Jarl Therkelsen Kaldan
Produced by: Marc-Christoph Wagner
Copyright: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2024
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, and C.L. Davids Fond og Samling. This film is supported by Dreyersfond and Fritz Hansen.
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To mark the 30th anniversary of the Korean pavilion at the Venice Biennale, artist Koo Jeong A explored the division of Korea and the potential for a common future using people’s scent memories of Korea.
We followed the artist during the installation of ODORAMA CITIES to discuss the concepts of home and nation-state—and how scent contributes to memories of these entities.
In an open call, Koo Jeong A asked, “What is your scent memory of Korea?” Over 600 people, including North and South Koreans as well as non-Koreans, responded with stories about the smells they associate with their memories of Korea. “There are descriptions of fog, descriptions of the sun and the snow. Very abstract and the incredible connection between all the materials,” Koo reflects.
Together with the curatorial team and professional perfumers, Koo Jeong A developed 16 distinct scents, all reflecting aspects of Korea, from the smell of rice and the sea to the smell of electronics and grandparents. Thus, in their installation at the Korean Pavilion, concrete materials are present only through scent, while infinity symbols take physical forms, such as wooden sculptures and carvings on the floor. All of this points to Koo Jeong A’s ongoing investigation into the space between the material and immaterial, endlessness and the infinite.
Koo Jeong A (b. 1967, South Korea) is a multidisciplinary artist who lives and works everywhere. Their practice includes architectural elements, texts, drawings, paintings, sculptures, animations, sound, film, words, and scents. Through the years, they have been known for a practice that blends conceptual art with environmental elements, exploring themes of impermanence, memory, and the interplay between nature and human intervention. Koo Jeong A has exhibited in numerous international exhibitions, including solo and group shows at institutions such as the Palais de Tokyo in Paris and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo. Their work is included in museum collections across the globe, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Centre Pompidou, and Tate Modern.
Koo Jeong A was interviewed by Nanna Rebekka in the Korean Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in April 2024.
Producer and editor: Nanna Rebekka
Cinematographer: Jarl Therkelsen Kaldan
Additional footage:
Coex K-Ppop Square, Seoul
Video credit: CIRCA
'density' in Frieze Sculpture, London
Video credit: Acute Art
EHM [Event Horizon Malmö], Malmö Konsthall
Video credit: Markus Bengtsson
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2023 Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, C.L. Davids Fond og Samling, and Fritz Hansen.
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Reflecting on his formative years, Sarr shares, “When I was a young child, maybe it's the first thing that I discovered with the feeling that my life would have something to do with literature.” He recalls the transformative power of tales from his family, particularly the women whose voices painted vivid narratives alternating joy and terror. These early experiences, according to Sarr, established literature as his lens for understanding political, existential, and social questions: “My first option is to find out something in books, to open books, to open novels, to open essays, philosophy essays or literature, to discover and to understand things.”
Sarr describes the complexity of his favorite tale, which changes with each telling, embodying the traditional motif of twins symbolizing opposing forces. This theme resonates in his own writing, where he explores the duality of tradition and modernity. Sarr emphasizes the inherent solitude in the writing process, a solitude intensified by his experience as a migrant, which drives his creative expression: “I believe that literature starts with the feeling that you have lost something, and you are alone.”
The interview further delves into the political dimensions of literature, discussing the legacy of African writers like Yambo Ouologuem and the challenges of navigating multiple literary canons. Sarr candidly reflects on the continued relevance of these issues: “Literature is a political thing as well. I wish the political dimension wasn't sometimes harsh for some people.”
Sarr concludes by celebrating the enduring power of books, envisioning a future where African writers can freely draw from diverse literary traditions: “We can use every canon we want, we can just create what we want and I think it's the most beautiful part of that story.”
About Mohamed Mbougar Sarr: Born in 1990 in Dakar, Senegal, Mohamed Mbougar Sarr is an influential novelist recognized for his literary prowess. His notable works include La Cale (2014), Silence du chœur (2017), and La plus secrète mémoire des hommes (2021), the latter of which won the prestigious Prix Goncourt. Sarr’s writing often explores themes of identity, exile, and the interplay between African and European literary traditions.
Mohamed Mbougar Sarr was interviewed in May 2023 by Lotte Folke Kaarsholm at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark.
Camera: Rasmus Quistgaard
Edit: Signe Boe Pedersen
Produced by Christian Lund
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2024.
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, C.L. Davids Fond og Samling, and Fritz Hansen.
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Watch the full interview with Yuko Mohri on our channel.
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Watch the full interview with Jacob Holdt on our YouTube channel.
#photographer #photographer #americanhistory #artistinterview #contemporaryart
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Taryn Simon's work explores and exposes the hidden systems, structures, and rituals that shape our human condition. In this interview, the American artist spekas about how loss has become central to her artistic investigation and discusses her collaboration with professional mourners from around the world.
“The idea of people who guide and shape loss and are brought in in this incredibly critical moment and personal and emotional moment, I wanted to explore it, and at one point thought about doing so photographically. Then it became completely clear that it's something that actually cannot be captured in that form, nor would it give it any justifiable presence.”
We met Taryn Simon during the build-up of the sound installation ‘Start Again the Lament’ in Cisternerne, a former underground water reservoir in Copenhagen. Here, the recorded laments of professional mourners reverberate in the enormous water-filled space. Laments, Taryn Simon explains, carry significant critical potential. Not only are they culturally determined manifestations of grief, they also guide us through critical moments of discontent and disorder:
“If you look at the history of professional mourning, it's often been marginalized by different governments and systems because it's a threat to a certain order. The ways in which people and communities respond to loss are extremely important because everything can change in that moment, and it's a threatening space when there's that level of discontent and chaos.”
Taryn Simon (b. 1975) is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans photography, text, sculpture, and performance. Her work uncovers hidden systems and structures, influencing both individual and collective behavior. Simon has exhibited internationally, with notable installations at institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tate Modern, and the Guggenheim Museum. ‘Start Again the Lament’ continues her exploration of loss and mourning, evolving from previous works such as ‘An Occupation of Loss’ and ‘Laments from Quarantine.’
Taryn Simon was interviewed by Nanna Rebekka at Bakkehuset in Frederiksberg, Denmark, in March 2024.
Producer and editor: Nanna Rebekka
Cinematographer: Jarl Therkelsen Kaldan
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2023 Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, C.L. Davids Fond og Samling, and Fritz Hansen.
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We meet Stephen Shore, one of the most outstanding photographers of our time, who took a close look at the USA from above.
“For about 30 years, from the early 70s to the early 2000s, my primary camera was an 8x10 inch view camera, which is like a big 19th-century camera on a tripod. The physical nature of the camera, the size, all lead to very conscious decision-making. With the drone is completely different. I have no idea. The drone could be half a mile away from me. And I move it to the right; I move it forward 10 feet. I have absolutely no idea what will come into the picture, and it's very exciting. I am on this voyage of discovery.”
“The perspective has been in my mind since the late 70s. And a critic who was looking at the pictures said, it's like a God's Eye View. And I think it means that there's a view that is more encompassing than what we could see on the ground at eye level. But not so far up that it becomes just topographic. But it is close enough for it to be human almost.”
Stephen Shore was born in New York in 1947. His photographs are attentive to ordinary scenes of daily experience, yet through color--and composition--Shore transforms the mundane into subjects of thoughtful meditation. A restaurant meal on a road trip, a billboard off a highway, and a dusty side street in a Texas town are all seemingly banal images, but upon reflection, they subtly imply meaning. Color photography attracted Shore for its ability to record the range and intensity of hues seen in life.
In 1971, at age twenty-three, he became the first living photographer to have a one-person show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. His 1982 book, Uncommon Places, became a bible for young photographers seeking to work in color because, along with that of William Eggleston, his work exemplified the fact that the medium could be considered art.
Stephen Shore’s work has been exhibited and collected at and by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Library of Congress, Washington DC, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He has received numerous awards, which you can find listed here: 303gallery.com/artists/stephen-shore/biography. Since 1982, he has been the director of the Photography Program at Bard College in New York’s Hudson Valley. Under the title Vehicular & Vernacular, the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson in Paris opened a vast retrospective of Shore’s work in May 2024.
Stephen Shore was interviewed by Marc-Christoph Wagner at 303 Gallery in New York on the occasion of his show presenting new drone photographs of the American landscape.
Camera: Jarl Therkelsen Kaldan
Edited by: Jarl Therkelsen Kaldan
Produced by: Marc-Christoph Wagner
Copyright: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2024
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, and C.L. Davids Fond og Samling.
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“As an artist, I work dialogically. The dialogue of art means that text and motif and everything behind, next to, before, and after the motif matter as much to me in my work as the motif and the text.”
“The great thing about art and poetry is its openness. It’s something uncontrollable. It’s like an open work of art with boundless gifts. It has a generosity not found in regulations, traffic signs, and treaties. But it’s always there in paintings and poetry. In art and poetry.”
Claus Carstensen (b. 1957) is a Danish artist, poet, writer, curator, and former professor at The School of Visual Arts at The Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen, where he taught painting from 1993 until 2002. He has had a long row of solo shows, including What’s Left (Is Republican Paint) at ARoS – The Art Museum of Aarhus (2015, catalog), Ether Body at The National Gallery of Denmark (2019), and The Day the 70s Died at Randers Art Museum (2021, catalog in two volumes). He has participated at The Biennale of Sydney (1992), 22. Bienal Internacional de São Paulo (1994), and The Venice Biennale (1997).
Carstensen has executed a wide range of public commissions, e.g., the University of Copenhagen, the Danish Parliament, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, and the maximum-security prison Storstroem Faengsel. His latest curatorial projects were the transhistorical group exhibition Becoming Animal at Den Frie, Copenhagen (2018, catalog published by Hatje Cantz Verlag) and RES PUBLICA at Museum Sønderjylland i Tønder (2024, catalog published by Hatje Cantz Verlag).
He has published 15 collections of poetry and six essay collections and edited several anthologies.
Camera: Simon Weyhe
Edited by: Signe Boe Pedersen
Produced by: Marc-Christoph Wagner
Copyright: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2024
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, and C.L. Davids Fond og Samling.
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We visited one of the great architects of our time, David Chipperfield, who has had a strong personal connection to the Spanish region of Galicia for almost half his life.
“Clearly, having spent 30 years in this little fishing village, you see the sea not only as a physical thing but nearly as a cultural thing. The people here are shaped by their relationship to the sea.”
“We all tend to experience the sea on a nice day: ‘Now, it's a nice day, let's go to the sea.’ But if you live by the sea, you don't have a choice about nice days or bad days. And if you're fishing, you can't just decide to go fishing on a nice day.”
David Chipperfield studied architecture at the Kingston School of Art and the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. He worked for Douglas Stephen, Richard Rogers, and Norman Foster before founding his own practice in 1985 and establishing a design methodology that is now used across five offices in London, Berlin, Milan, Shanghai, and Santiago de Compostela.
David Chipperfield is a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects and an honorary fellow of both the American Institute of Architects and the Bund Deutscher Architekten. Among the accolades he has received are the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, awarded in 2009, and a knighthood for services to architecture in the UK and Germany, awarded in 2010. He has received the RIBA Royal Gold Medal for Architecture (2011) and the Praemium Imperiale from the Japan Art Association (2013), both given in recognition of a lifetime’s work. David Chipperfield was appointed a member of the Order of the UK's Companions of Honour in 2021, Commander of Spain's Orden de Isabel la Católica, and member of Germany's Orden Pour le Mérite für Wissenschaften und Künste in 2022 for his services to architecture internationally. In 2023, he was selected as Laureate for the Pritzker Architecture Prize.
In addition to design work, David Chipperfield has taught and lectured at schools of architecture worldwide. In 2012, he curated the 13th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale under the title Common Ground. He served as the mentor for architecture from 2016–17 for the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. In 2017, he founded Fundación RIA, a private, non-profit entity that works towards meaningful economic, environmental, and cultural development in Galicia, Spain. The team focuses on interdisciplinary studies, pilot projects, and strategic territorial planning, connecting global challenges to a specific context. It is rooted in close collaboration with Galicia’s communities, government, industry, and academic institutions and draws together international and local expertise. In June 2024, the foundation moved into its newly renovated premises in the center of Santiago de Compostela.
David Chipperfield has published numerous books and articles, including On Planning – A Thought Experiment (2018), a publication that explores and theorizes the urban qualities of contemporary urban developments. In 20202, he was the guest editor of the Italian design magazine Domus.
David Chipperfield was interviewed by Marc-Christoph Wagner in Galicia in April 2024. This short video is part of a larger project in the making.
Camera: Rasmus Quistgaard
Edited by: Rasmus Quistgaard
Produced by: Marc-Christoph Wagner
Copyright: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2024
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, and C.L. Davids Fond og Samling. This film is supported by Dreyersfond and Fritz Hansen.
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"I'm interested in how history and reality are written and perceived," she states as she sits down to unveil some of the layers of her practice.
In her delicate watercolor paintings, silk works, and video installations, Phan invites audiences to reconsider how concepts like history and reality are created. By turning to forgotten oral histories and changing the perspective from which we perceive historical events, Phan seeks to challenge how conventional history is written. "Even something extremely mundane, like the life of an animal or the spirit of a tree, could have the same weight and importance as a major historical event," she explains.
Phan's artistic approach is rooted in her upbringing in a Buddhist family, which also permeates her relationship with time. She notes, "The way I perceive time in the Asian context is more circular. Like tides going up and down." One way in which Phan challenges Western notions of linear time is through her moving image works:
“For example, in the video piece Becoming Alluvium, I try to manifest my understanding of time through a series of reincarnations. Reincarnations in a literal way, in which the characters in the film transform and reincarnate into different lives. So basically, if I add another life, the story can be expanded to an infinite point.”
Thao Nguyen Phan (b. 1987) lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Originally trained in lacquer painting, Phan's works span multiple disciplines, including artist moving images, which she studied under American video artist Joan Jonas as a 2016-2017 Rolex Protégée. In 2019, Phan was shortlisted for the Hugo Boss Asia Art Award, and in 2018 she was granted the Han Nefkens Foundation-LOOP Barcelona Video Art Production Award, in collaboration with Fundació Joan Miró. Phan has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions worldwide, including Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan; Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen; Tate St Ives, Cornwall; and The 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, The Milk of Dreams.
Thao Nguyen Phan was interviewed by Nanna Rebekka in Phan’s solo exhibition Reincarnations of Shadows at Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Thao Nguyen Phan was interviewed by Nanna Rebekka in her exhibition Reincarnations of Shadows, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Producer and editor: Nanna Rebekka
Cinematographer: Jarl Therkelsen Kaldan
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2023
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, C.L. Davids Fond og Samling, and Fritz Hansen.
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Maria Stepanova’s multifaceted career spans various genres and forms, including poetry, essays, and novels. She is widely recognized for her literary and journalistic contributions that explore themes of memory, history, and identity.
When offering advice to young writers, she hesitates, because she never gives any advice. Still, she says:
“Maybe, the most important thing and he skill we have lost during the last couple of decades is an ability to look into the future with some degree of hope.”
She is not sure whether we want to get into the future, “but maybe we can ask ourselves to try wanting it” and look forward to something unknown, which, she adds, is an essential part of the writing process.
Maria Stepanova, born in 1972, is a Russian poet, essayist and journalist. She is the author of more than 10 collections of poetry. ‘War of the Beasts and Animals’ came in the US in 2021 along with ‘The Voice Over’ (2021), which includes a selection of Stepanova’s poetry and essays originally published in Russia between 1996 and 2016. In Russia she has received many important literary prizes, including the Pasternak Prize and the Andrei Bely Prize in 2005, and the Moscow Account Prize in 2006, 2009, and 2018. Stepanova’s work has been translated into English, Hebrew, Spanish, Italian, German, Finnish, French, Danish, and other languages. In 2021 ‘In Memory of Memory’ was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Stepanova was appointed Siegfried-Unseld Guest Professor at Humboldt Universität in Berlin in 2018–2019. In 2007, Stepanova founded Openspace.ru, an online magazine dedicated to Russian-language arts and culture. She served as editor-in-chief of Openspace.ru until 2012, when she left the publication along with the majority of her editorial staff due to a withdrawal of funding from private investors. Stepanova disagreed with investor oversight amid the uncertain Russian political landscape; this droves her to found Colta.ru, the first Russian media outlet supported entirely by crowdfunding, providing Stepanova more editorial freedom as editor-in-chief.
Lotte Folke Kaarsholm interviewed Maria Stepanova in August 2022 in connection with the Louisiana Literature festival at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark.
Camera: Rasmus Quistgaard
Edit: Signe Boe Pedersen
Produced by Christian Lund
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2024
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, C.L. Davids Fond og Samling and Fritz Hansen.
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We visited British artist Ryan Gander in his studio in Suffolk. Once a sports and leisure centre, Gander’s studio is now a home for playful artistic experimentation and collections of curious objects, each with its own story.
A walk through the studio reveals a series of items, from Japanese novelty goods to tiny Christmas crackers displayed in a vending machine in alphabetical order. “That's a Japanese masturbation tool for men. And then down the bottom we've got marijuana, which is illegal in this country. You can totally get raided, although the weed seems to run out really quickly,” Gander remarks, his tone a blend of humor and candidness.
His studio walls are lined with photographs and post-it notes, each representing a nascent artwork. “People always say: You have so many ideas. I don’t have any more ideas than anybody else in the world. It’s just that I write them all down and stick them on the wall,” he explains. This systematic approach ensures a steady flow of creativity, transforming mundane moments into profound artistic statements.
Among the highlights of the visit is a new painting inspired by his parents' 35mm slides. “For me, this is like the perfect painting for my practice because it's basically an image. But the image again is in the viewer's head,” he notes. This painting, like much of his work, invites viewers to complete the narrative, emphasizing art’s interactive and subjective nature.
Gander’s reflections extend beyond his studio to broader societal concerns. He discusses the role of time in appreciating art, asserting, “Art is for the privileged. It’s not about the privilege of money. It’s about the privilege of time. To enjoy art, you need spare time. And spare time is the greatest privilege.”
Ryan Gander (b. in 1976, Chester, England) has established an international reputation through artworks that materialize in many forms – from sculpture to film, writing, graphic design, installation, performance, and more. Gander studied at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK, the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam, NL, and the Jan van Eyck Akademie, Maastricht, NL. Gander has been a Professor of Visual Art at the University of Huddersfield and holds an honorary Doctor of the Arts at Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Suffolk. In 2017, he was awarded an OBE for services to contemporary art. In 2019, he was awarded the Hodder Fellowship at Princeton University. In 2022, he was made RA for the category of Sculpture. As well as curating exhibitions, he is a committed educator, having taught at international art institutions and universities. He has written and edited a variety of books and presented television programs on and about contemporary art and culture for the BBC. Major projects and commissions include Kunsthalle Bern, CH; Pinault Collection, Bourse de Commerce, Paris; Space K, Seoul; Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne; Café Aubette, Strasbourg; Musée d‘art Contemporain de Montréal; Aspen Art Museum; Liverpool Biennial; Sydney Biennale; Performa, NY; High Line, NY; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; dOCUMENTA (13), Kassel; Locked Room Scenario, commissioned by Artangel, London; 54th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale; Intervals at The Guggenheim Museum, NY; Public Art Fund, NY.
Ryan Gander was interviewed by Malte Fals in June 2023. The conversation took place in Ryan Gander’s studio in Woodbridge, Suffolk, United Kingdom.
Camera: Jakob Solbakken
Edited by: Malte Fals
Produced by: Malte Fals and Marc-Christoph Wagner
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2023
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, and C.L. Davids Fond og Samling.
#artist #contemporaryart
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In this short video, acclaimed writer Antiguan-American Jamaica Kincaid delves into the personal history and experiences that influenced her decision to change her name and sets the stage for understanding the emotional landscape of her early years.
Kincaid speaks candidly about her complex relationship with her mother and the independent spirit that drove her to make significant changes in her life.
Jamaica Kincaid is known for her incisive prose and exploration of themes such as colonialism, identity, and family.
Kincaid attributes her resilience and achievements to her own determination and fortune, rather than familial support. She remarks, “This is something I did on my own, through sheer luck really. I suppose I was brave enough to risk being lucky.” This insight offers a glimpse into the self-reliance that characterized her journey.
A striking example of her adventurous spirit is illustrated by an anecdote from her teenage years. Kincaid recounts, “I hitchhiked all by myself up to San Francisco, saw The Doors, and came back down.” This daring trip underscores her courage and willingness to embrace risk.
Despite the dangers she faced, luck often seemed to be on her side. Kincaid recalls, “I wasn't killed, you know, by some serial killer, because I got hitchhiking on the side of the road and I'd get into a truck with some people I didn't know.” These experiences contributed to the fortitude that has marked her literary career.
Throughout the interview, Kincaid's reflections are imbued with a sense of ownership over her destiny. She firmly asserts, “You can't take credit for this,” addressing her mother’s attempts to claim influence over her success. This statement encapsulates Kincaid’s belief in her self-made path.
Jamaica Kincaid (born 1949) is an Antiguan-American novelist, essayist, gardener, and gardening writer. She was born in St. Johns, Antigua, in the Caribbean. At 16, she settled in New York after leaving Antigua to work as an au pair, then studied photography at the New York School for Social Research and attended Franconia College in New Hampshire. Around 1973 she changed her name from Elaine Potter Richardson to Jamaica Kincaid, partly because she wanted anonymity for her writing. She was a staff writer for the New Yorker magazine from 1974-to 96. Kincaid published her first book ‘At the Bottom of the River’, a collection of short stories, in 1983. Her first novel ‘Annie John’ appeared in 1985 – the story of a 10-year-old growing up in Antigua. The novel ’Lucy’ came in 1990. ‘The Autobiography of My Mother’ (1996) is a novel set in Dominica and told by a 70-year-old woman looking back on her life. ‘A Small Place’ (1988) is a short book about the effects of colonialism. Kincaid published more books about gardening, including ‘My Garden (2000). Her novel ‘See Now Then’ (2013) won the Before Columbus Foundation America Book Award in 2014. Jamaica Kincaid is often mentioned as a contender for the Nobel Prize in literature.
Jamaica Kincaid was interviewed by Danish writer Merete Pryds Helle in connection with the Louisiana Literature festival in August 2021 at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark.
Cameras: Rasmus Quistgaard
Edit: Jarl Therkelsen Kaldan
Produced by Christian Lund
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2024.
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, C.L. Davids Fond og Samling and Fritz Hansen.
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We encountered the artist Yuko Mohri seated among still-life compositions of rotting fruits with electrical wires and rhythmically dripping sculptures of water tubes and everyday objects. Here, in her installation ‘Compose’ in the Japan Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale, Mohri sat down to explain her artistic approach and the foundations of her work.
Set against the collective trauma of natural catastrophes of earthquakes and tsunamis in her home country, Japan, Mohri's art reflects on recovery and resilience. Drawing inspiration from her teenage years in an experimental punk band, her art invites viewers to engage with the environment through a lens of continuous negotiation and adaptation.
A part of her work is inspired by Tokyo's metro stations, where water leaks are managed with makeshift solutions. Mohri draws parallels between these everyday improvisations and her own DYI-style kinetic installations. "It's like an improvised sculpture, confronting a little emergency," she notes, highlighting the negotiation between crisis and coexistence using everyday objects.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mohri found herself in lockdown, isolated from others, and therefore missing elements of instability. At this time, she became intrigued by the changing nature of fruits, which appear stable but undergo constant moisture level changes, which can be measured in terms of electrical resistance. "The fruit itself actually passes electricity, but it's changing the resistance depending on the rotting process," she explains. This instability became the foundation of an electrical system that generates music and light based on the fruits' condition.
Through her installations, Mohri encourages viewers to engage with their surroundings, fostering a broader perspective on the relationship between people, art, and the environment. "I hope this small negotiation can create another view," she concludes.
Yuko Mohri (B. 1980 in Kanagawa, Japan) is an artist whose work explores the interaction between art and everyday life in installations that combine sound, found objects, and kinetic elements. Yuko Mohri has exhibited internationally, including at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Centre Pompidou-Metz and Pirelli HangarBicocca. Mohri has received several awards, including the Nissan Art Award and a grant from the Asian Cultural Council. In 2024 Yuko Mohri represented Japan at the 60th International Art Exhibition Venice Bienale curated by Sook-Kyung Lee and commissioned by The Japan Foundation.
Yuko Mohri was interviewed by Nanna Rebekka in the Japan Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale.
Producer and editor: Nanna Rebekka
Cinematographer: Jarl Therkelsen Kaldan
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2023
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, C.L. Davids Fond og Samling, and Fritz Hansen.
#Art #ArtistInterview
0:00 Introduction
01:10 Venice Biennale
01:49 ‘Decomposition’
03:12 From Punk to Art
04:13 ‘Moré Moré’
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American artist Charlie Roberts is known for his intimate figurative paintings, which depict the complexities and nuances of modern life in bright colors and intricate detail.
To Roberts, painting is, first and foremost, narrative. Growing up in a small town in Kansas, Roberts recalls a mural in the local post office depicting workers in the fields. “It was probably a fresco or egg tempera, and it was just beautifully done. And it's a picture telling a story.”
In this interview, Roberts explains how the rich, narrative-filled works of Pieter Bruegel and Thomas Hart Benton, as well as how rap music has influenced his art. Discussing the evolution of figurative painting, Roberts notes its recent shift from nostalgia to contemporary relevance. He draws inspiration from the specificity and anti-nostalgic nature of rap music:
“Rap music is specific and it's obsessed with dating itself and it's obsessed with referencing. It's like anti-nostalgic. And I think that is so potent for me.”
Roberts' works often celebrate and critique modern life, reflecting personal insecurities and the complex interplay of consumer culture. This includes a fascination with finance and modern societal structures, incorporating these themes into his art with a critical yet appreciative lens.
“Mostly my paintings are sort of celebrations and things I'm interested in, but they're also a lot about sort of, I mean, there's a lot of personal class insecurity cooked into the paintings and, and the sort of reflection on the consumer culture that's so attractive and horrific at the same time.”
Charlie Roberts was born and raised in Kansas, United States. He graduated from Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, Vancouver, Canada, in 2005. He is known for collecting and sampling elements from contemporary pop culture and hip-hop to art history in his praxis, which spans wood carving, ceramics, painting on canvas, and watercolor on paper. Roberts currently lives and works in Oslo, Norway.
Christian Lund interviewed Charlie Roberts in Roberts’ studio in Oslo, Norway, in 2022.
Camera: Rasmus Quistgaard
Edited by: Nanna Rebekka
Produced by: Christian Lund
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2023
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, C.L. Davids Fond og Samling, and Fritz Hansen.
#CharlieRoberts #Artist #Painting
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We visited Christina Quarles in Los Angeles and met more than just a fabulous painter.
“I love the idea of not being born an artist. A lot of times, there's this mythology around artists that there's just some sort of inherent genius that gets passed down from the heavens. And I think actually one of the things that makes being an artist so fulfilling as a practice is that it is a practice. It's something that you do over a lifetime, and it’s something that is both a combination of acquired technical skills and also just living in the world, and you're always changing.”
Having said this, Quarles, throughout her entire life, has had a special interest in the figure.
“You're painting or drawing a body, but you're in your own body. We're constantly oscillating between the desire to be seen and understood and the desire to be an authentic self.”
“And it's those moments of excess and those moments of lack that I try to express in the paintings. As well as to create a sense of meaning.”
Christina Quarles (b. 1985) is a Los Angeles-based artist whose practice works to dismantle assumptions and ingrained beliefs surrounding identity and the human figure. Quarles received an MFA from the Yale School of Art in 2016 and holds a BA from Hampshire College. She was a 2016 participant at the Skowhegan School for Painting and Sculpture. She was the inaugural recipient of the 2019 Pérez Art Museum Miami Prize, and in 2017, she received the Rema Hort Mann Foundation Emerging Artist Grant.
Quarles’s work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions, including ‘The Milk of Dreams,’ the 59th International Art Exhibition at La Biennale di Venezia, curated by Cecilia Alemani, and in ‘Manifesto of Fragility,’ the main exhibition of the 16th Lyon Biennale of Contemporary Art, curated by Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath, both in 2022. Selected solo exhibitions include In the Shadow of Burning Light, Gammel Strand, Copenhagen (2024); Collapsed Time, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2023); Christina Quarles, MCA Chicago (2021); In Likeness, Hepworth Wakefield (2019).
Christina Quarles was interviewed by Marc-Christoph Wagner in April 2024. The interview took place in her studio in Los Angeles, USA.
Camera: Travis LaBella
Edited by: Signe Boe Pedersen
Produced by: Marc-Christoph Wagner
Copyright: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2024
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, and C.L. Davids Fond og Samling.
#artistinterview #art #artist
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Hadley discusses the significance of her first book, stating, "I crossed a threshold into another place where first of all I learned how to write truthfully from myself in writing that book." She emphasizes the profound impact of realizing that "somewhere out there there are people who want to read your words and who will in your words recognize what you said and what you're talking about."
The interview also explores the perpetual challenge of discerning the vitality of one's work. Hadley candidly admits, "The question of how to know when something is alive that you're working on is the anguishing question. And it never goes away." She describes the internal battle between self-assurance and self-criticism, noting, "You have your good angel sitting on one shoulder saying, trust yourself, that sounds good, that sounds clever. And your bad angel on the other shoulder saying, it's awful, it's unalive, it's pretentious."
Navigating this delicate balance is a continuous process for Hadley. She advises young writers to persist through doubt, asserting, "You have to keep on pushing and there are some days when you're doubtful, but actually what you do on that day retrospectively turns out to have been good." This persistence, she suggests, is essential despite the lack of a definitive answer to overcoming self-doubt.
Tessa Hadley was born in 1956 in London, United Kingdom. She is a critically acclaimed British writer known for her insightful exploration of human relationships and everyday life. Hadley’s notable achievements include the publication of several acclaimed novels and short story collections, including “Accidents in the Home,” “The London Train,” and “The Past,” which was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize. Her works have garnered widespread praise for their rich characterizations, elegant prose, and profound insights into the human condition. Hadley’s writing has earned her numerous awards and honors, establishing her as one of the preeminent voices in contemporary literature.
Tessa Hadley was interviewed by Danish writer Merete Pryds Helle in connection with the Louisiana Literature festival in August 2023 at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark.
Camera: Rasmus Quistgaard
Edit: Signe Boe Pedersen
Produced by Christian Lund
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2024.
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, C.L. Davids Fond og Samling, and Fritz Hansen.
#literature #writing
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We visited Iranian-American painter Ali Banisadr in his Brooklyn studio and entered a world with many worlds inside.
“I was always interested in how things exist in memory. They are always moving and shifting, and they're ungraspable sometimes, like the clouds.”
Banisadr draws freely from a comprehensive knowledge of the history of painting to create a distinctive visual language. His gestural brushstrokes recall the unbridled energy of de Kooning’s Abstract Expressionism, while the work’s intensity of mood and dreamlike detail evoke mid-twentieth-century Surrealism in the vein of Francis Bacon.
“Making art was making me feel safe because I feel like it was a world that had control over.”
“New York, in some ways, reflects the way I am. It's a place where you have many people from many places; there are many dimensions to it. It feels more home than any other home I've ever had.”
Much like the Old Masters Bruegel and Bosch, who Banisadr cites as influences, the artist’s work conceives of a concurrent, existentially absurd flurry of activity as seen from above. The personal and artistic narratives across the artist’s work are distilled through a dazzling mastery of art history, philosophy, and world events, offering a nuanced perspective of human nature. His expansive paintings are rich with figurative allusions rooted in autobiographical narratives, sonic recollections, invented stories, world history, collective memory, and mythology. Banisadr creates complex, turbulent worlds whose syncopated rhythms corral a multitude of references from across art history – including Abstract Expressionism, Renaissance and Medieval art, alchemical imagery, Mesopotamian antiquities, and Persian miniatures—as well as references to our own tempestuous times.
“I always ask myself: What can art do when there's chaos and madness happening? What is its role? I don't know, but when I think about the Guernica painting, for example, I always think what did Picasso say about Guernica? I'm not sure. But we have Guernica, the painting, which keeps reminding us of this universal human suffering.”
Ali Banisadr was born in 1976 in Tehran, Iran. In 1988, Banisadr left Iran with his family and went to California with his family at the age of twelve. While living in San Francisco, he became involved with the local graffiti art community while studying psychology. He later moved to New York City, where he earned a BFA at the School of Visual Arts (2005) and an MFA at the New York Academy of Art (2007), and he continues to live and work in Brooklyn, NY. His first major monograph was published by Rizzoli Electa in 2021, with an introduction by Negar Azimi and contributions by Robert Hobbs, Joe Lin-Hill, and John Yau.
In 2025, Banisadr will have his first major survey in the US at the Katonah Museum of Art in NY. In 2021, a solo exhibition of the artist’s works was installed in dialogue with the permanent collection of the Museo Stefano Bardini in Florence, Italy. Banisadr was also invited to create a group of site-specific paintings for the exhibition, inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy and installed in the nearby Palazzo Vecchio. Other solo exhibitions have been staged at the Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece (2020); the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT (2020); Gemäldegalerie, Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, Austria (2019); and Het Noordbrabants Museum, Den Bosch, Netherlands (2019). His work has also been included in significant group exhibitions, including at the Heydar Aliyev Center, Baku, Azerbaijan, the Venice Biennale (2013-14) and Prague Biennale 6 (2013).
Banisadr’s work is included in significant public collections worldwide, among others the Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece; the British Museum, London; the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo, NY; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Het Noordbrabants Museum, Den Bosch, Netherlands; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Museum der Moderne, Salzburg; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT, among others.
Ali Banisadr was interviewed by Marc-Christoph Wagner in his studio in Brooklyn, New York, in March 2024.
Camera: Sean Hanley
Edited by: Jarl Therkelsen Kaldan
Produced by: Marc-Christoph Wagner
Copyright: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2024
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet and C.L. Davids Fond og Samling.
#contemporaryart #artistinterviews
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We met Indy Johar, co-founder of Dark Matter Labs and one of the most interesting innovators of contemporary architecture.
“I could see the role of architecture wasn't about architecture. It was about unlocking the capacity of being human.”
“What we started to realize was the implied world we see around us. So physically, you could pretty much look at everything around us and see behind it—all the code that constructs it. And to change the world that we need to change, you have to recode all that code. Whether it's ownership, materiality, standards, or how we own materials, all these are codes. Let’s reimagine.”
“Democracy in the 21st century is not just the vote. It's about our capacity to bring society together, and that requires new forms of organizing, which I think are now available to us.”
Indy Johar was born in Acton, West London, and has lived there his whole life. He is an RIBA-registered architect, serial social entrepreneur, and Good Growth Advisor to the Mayor of London. Indy is focused on the strategic design of new super-scale civic assets for transition, specifically at the intersection of financing, contracting, and governance for deeply democratic futures.
Indy is a co-founder of Dark Matter Labs and of the RIBA award-winning architecture and urban practice Architecture00. He is also a founding director of Open Systems Lab, seeded WikiHouse (open source housing), and Open Desk (open source furniture company). Indy is a non-executive International Director of the BloxHub in Copenhagen, the Nordic Hub for sustainable urbanization. He is on the advisory board for the Future Observatory and is part of the committee for the London Festival of Architecture. He is also a fellow of the London Interdisciplinary School.
Indy was 2016-17 Graham Willis Visiting Professorship at Sheffield University. He was Studio Master at the Architectural Association in 2019-2020 UNDP Innovation Facility Advisory Board Member from 2016-20 and RIBA Trustee 2017-20. He has taught & lectured at various institutions, including the University of Bath, TU-Berlin; University College London, Princeton, Harvard, MI and New School. Indy is a Professor at RMIT University. He was awarded the London Design Medal for Innovation in 2022 and an MBE for Services to Architecture in 2023.
Indy Johar was interviewed by Marc-Christoph Wagner in April 2024. The recording took place in connection with the conference FABRICATE 2024, hosted at CITA, Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen.
Camera: Jarl Therkelsen Kaldan
Edited by: Jarl Therkelsen Kaldan
Produced by: Marc-Christoph Wagner
Copyright: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2024
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet and C.L. Davids Fond og Samling. This film is supported by Dreyersfond and Fritz Hansen.
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Agnieszka Kurant's work explores the complexities of late digital capitalism, where society has become a factory for data production and exploitation. A key term for Kurant is collective intelligence, which highlights how various elements, including molecules, animals, and humans, can interact to shape the world. Thus, Kurant is more interested in creating systems for collective intelligences to evolve than just creating a form.
For example, in the series "A.A.I.", she outsources work to termite colonies, fascinated by their ability to build intricate structures without hierarchical guidance. Kurant sees parallels between the exploitation of termites by corporations and the exploitation of human labor in digital capitalism. The title A.A.I. means artificial artificial intelligence, which is not a machine learning model but the aggregated labor of millions of people working online, simulating the work of an algorithm. Kurant stresses that artificial intelligence is currently a planetary system of exploiting the collective intelligence of our data because A.I. algorithms are trained on the digital footprints of all internet users.
Kurant's works often serve as "traps," visually appealing but embodying contemporary political and economic critiques. She investigates the invisible labor that sustains the digital economy, including the extraction of minerals for technology and the destruction of ecosystems. Through works like "Chemical Garden," she creates quasi-life forms using chemicals mixed, reflecting on the intersection of the natural and artificial, organic and inorganic, digital, biological and mineral in our environment. She also explores the history of currencies and objects used for exchange, linking it to the evolution of digital currencies like Bitcoin. Additionally, Kurant's works engage with the changing nature of technology and communication. For example, in "Conversions," she uses artificial intelligence to capture online discussions and translate them into evolving paintings, reflecting the emotional impact of digital interactions.
Agnieszka Kurant was born in 1978 in Lodz, Poland. She is the recipient of the 2019 Frontier Art Prize and the 2020 LACMA A+T Award. Her solo shows include Castello di Rivoli (2021), Mudam Luxemburg (2024), Hannover Kunstverein (2023), and Sculpture Center (2013). In 2015, she created a work for the façade of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, and in 2021-22 a permanent commission for the MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge. Her works were exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Pompidou Center, Istanbul Biennial; Sydney Biennial, Milano Triennale, Palais de Tokyo, the SFMOMA, the De Young Museum, Whitechapel Art Gallery, Frieze Projects and Performa Biennial. In 2010 she co-authored the Polish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture. In 2023, she was part of the exhibition The Irreplaceable Human at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. Her upcoming exhibitions include the Gwangju Biennial and commissions for the Bourse de Commerce - Pinault Collection in Paris, and the Centre Pompidou. Kurant’s monograph Collective Intelligence, co-edited by Stefanie Hessler and Jenny Jaskey will be published by Sternberg Press/ MIT Press in 2024. Agnieszka Kurant lives and works in New York.
Marc-Christoph Wagner interviewed Agnieszka Kurant in November 2023 at the library of Designmuseum Danmark.
Camera: Jarl Therkelsen Kaldan
Edit: Signe Boe Pedersen
Produced by Signe Boe Pedersen and Marc-Christoph Wagner
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2024
#contemporaryart #artistinterviews
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, C.L. Davids Fond og Samling, and Fritz Hansen.
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Tiller speaks candidly about his upbringing and its impact on his work ethic and writing process. He describes his approach to writing as a structured job, stating, "I stand up and try my best to approach writing as a regular job, with fixed workdays." He contrasts this with the perception of writers as bohemian, stating, "It is very little bohemian when you see it from day to day."
Throughout the interview, Tiller examines the challenges and opportunities in being a writer in today's world. He reveals, "I am not the kind of author who feels comfortable stepping out into newspapers," emphasizing his preference to express his viewpoints through literature. Despite his reluctance to engage directly in political debates, Tiller recognizes the political undertones in his work: "It is an existentialism that is buried, but it is also highly political in its understanding of issues like climate problems and loss of nature."
Reflecting on his early career, Tiller recalls the pressure and media attention he faced, saying, "I was very unsure about how to fill this brand-new role in my life as an author." He discusses how he has learned to relax and focus on his writing over time, noting, "Now that I am much more established, I am able to relax much more and think, as I said earlier, that I will speak through literature."
Tiller emphasizes the importance of fiction in exploring and revealing truths about society, stating, "Fiction and fiction literature, I think, are very important for being able to say something about not just society but also existence." He acknowledges the potential of literature to give voice to diverse perspectives and experiences that might otherwise go unheard.
Carl Frode Tiller (b. 1970) is an author, historian, and musician. His works are in Nynorsk (lit. “New Norwegian”), one of the official Norwegian standard languages. Tiller is known for his novels that delve into contemporary issues and personal narratives. His work often explores themes such as identity, memory, and the complexities of modern society. Tiller debuted in 2001 with the novel Skråninga (Downward Slope), recognized as the best initial work of the year with the Tarjei Vesaas’ Debute Prize. ‘Downward Slope’ was nominated for the Brageprisen (the Brage Prize). In November 2007, Tiller was awarded the Brageprisen for his novel ‘Innsirkling’ (Encirclement). In the fall of 2007 ‘Innsirkling’ received the Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature and was nominated for the premiere Scandinavian literature prize, the Nordic Council’s Literature Prize.
Klaus Rothstein interviewed Carl Frode Tiller in connection with the Louisiana Literature festival in August 2022 at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.
Camera: Rasmus Quistgaard
Edit: Signe Boe Pedersen
Produced by Christian Lund
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2024
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet and C.L. Davids Fond og Samling.
#writing #literature
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We met prize-winning photographer Hrair Sarkissian from Syria, whose thought-provoking images show us the presence of the absence.
“Most of the work I do is pretty much related to history. Even though something happened decades or centuries ago, it's still very relevant today because there’s so much emotion, feeling, and tragedy there.”
“And for me, the most interesting, the most important thing in my work is the emotions of the people all over the world who live through these traumas. If you pass in front of these images without knowing what they are, I don't think you would stand in front of them and have a very long gaze at each image. But once you realize the title, that's where you get a wake-up call.”
“I am driven by or attracted to the idea of the invisible things we keep seeing. I want to wake up the viewer because we keep doing the same things that we did 100, 200, 300 years ago.”
Hrair Sarkissian (b. 1973 in Syria) lives in London. He earned foundational training at his father’s photographic studio in Damascus and is considered one of the leading conceptual photographers of his generation. Spanning photography, moving images, sculpture, sound, and installation, Sarkissian’s practice creates meditative dreamscapes in some moments and deathscapes in others—sites where the muted voice, absent from the frame, is temporarily offered space to breathe.
Sarkissian is on the Advisory Board of the Arab Image Foundation in Beirut. His 2020 exhibition at The Modern Art Museum of Forth Worth, curated by Dr. Omar Kholeif, was the first solo exhibition of a Syrian artist in the United States. Selected recent exhibitions include the British Art Show 9, the 14th Sharjah Biennial, the Brighton Photo Biennial, the Sursock Museum in Beirut, the Imperial War Museum in London, the Baltic Contemporary Art Centre in Newcastle, the 10th Bamako Encounters African Biennial of Photography, the Armenian Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennial (awarded the Golden Lion), Tate Modern in London, the New Museum in New York, and the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo. Sarkissian is the recipient of multiple awards, including the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize which he won in 2024.
His mid-career survey exhibition opened in October 2021 at the Sharjah Art Foundation and toured the Bonniers Museum in Stockholm (2022) and the Bonnefanten Museum in Maastricht (2022/23). The exhibition brought together two major new commissions and more than a dozen of his most significant bodies of work from the preceding 15 years.
Hrair Sarkissian was interviewed by Anders Mørch in March 2024. The recording took place at Fotografisk Center in Copenhagen, Denmark, in connection with Sarkissian’s exhibition, The Presence of Absence.
Camera: Anders Mørch
Edited by: Anders Mørch
Produced by: Marc-Christoph Wagner
Copyright: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2024
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet and C.L. Davids Fond og Samling.
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Holdt's perspective on America's social dynamics is shaped by his personal encounters with individuals from different walks of life. His photographic work offers a glimpse into the lives of people often overlooked by society, capturing their struggles and resilience. As he recalls, "The minute I came to America, I fell in love with the country." Despite facing challenges and hostility, Holdt was driven by his curiosity and desire to understand the source of anger and pain he observed in the streets.
The interview reveals Holdt's unwavering commitment to saying "yes" to every opportunity, embracing the vagabond lifestyle, and consistently opening his heart to others and vice versa. He states, "a vagabond is one who consistently says yes if somebody picks you up." This openness allowed him to connect deeply with people, often forming lasting bonds that provided him with remarkable insights into the complexities of their lives.
Jacob Holdt's work goes beyond photography; it serves as a conduit for sharing the realities of social and economic disparities. His dedication to portraying the human condition is evident in his reflections: "America is much more than the one I show." His nuanced perspective challenges audiences to confront uncomfortable truths and reconsider their preconceived notions.
Jacob Holdt, born in 1947 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Holdt's journey began with his involvement in anti-war activism and hitchhiking across the United States. His seminal work, "American Pictures," became a critical success, shedding light on the struggles of the underprivileged in America. Holdt's work has been exhibited internationally, (including the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, ARoS Museum of Modern Art, Musee Niepce and The United States Congress), earning him recognition for his impactful contributions to the world of photography and social commentary. Learn more through Jacob Holdt’s homepage http://www.american-pictures.com/english
Jacob Holdt was interviewed by Christian Lund at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in January 2022.
Camera: Rasmus Quistgaard & Johan von Bülow
Edit: Johan von Bülow
Produced by Christian Lund
0:00 The Beaty of Failure
01:41 The Rule of the Vagabond
04:58 “We Don't Want You”
09:03 Moving Into the Shack
12:30 Selling Blood to Afford Film
15:42 Saying Yes to Exploitation
20:05 Photographing intimacy
22:40 Relating to Black Women
26:25 The Gap Between Rich and Poor
30:00 Poor Whites
32:24 Understanding Ku Klux Klan
41:20 Coming to America
46:05 American Pictures
52:00 Entertainment about the poor?
54:49 Acts of Love
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2024
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, C.L. Davids Fond og Samling, and Fritz Hansen.
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“I would advise people to stay available to their processes. And to not be afraid to make crappy stuff,” Jessica Stockholder says and continues: “The problem that one has in one’s work, that’s the subject.” To her, there’s too much focus on getting things right.
In her own art, if something isn’t working, she’ll, for example, turn the piece upside down or cut it in half: “I don’t think I make mistakes in my art because I take advantage of them.” She explains further: “I think people are too concerned about not making mistakes. Being right. Getting the answer right. Passing the test. We’re not taught in schools to be invested in the process.”
Jessica Stockholder (b. 1959) is a Canadian-American artist who currently lives and works in Chicago, IL, USA. She is known for her site-specific installation works and sculptures, often described as “paintings in space.” She is educated at Yale University, the University of Victoria, the University of British Columbia and the Camden School of Art, London. She has exhibited widely in museums and galleries internationally. Her work is represented in permanent collections of museums, including the Whitney Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago; SF MoMA; MoCA LA; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; The British Museum, London; and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. Recent solo museum exhibitions include Stuff Matters and the Centraal Museum, Utrecht and Relational Aesthetics at the Contemporary Austin in 2019. Her work has also recently been shown at Leo Koenig Gallery, New York; Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago; Raffaella Cortese Gallery, Milan; Galeria Max Estrella, Madrid; and many more.
Jessica Stockholder was interviewed by Roxanne Bagheshirin Lærkesen at her studio in Chicago, IL, in February 2023.
Camera: Sean Hanley
Edited and produced by Roxanne Bagheshirin Lærkesen
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2023
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, C.L. Davids Fond og Samling, and Fritz Hansen.
#art #artistinterviews #contemporaryart
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We asked the English conceptual artist Jeremy Deller if he thinks art has the power to change the world. With a master's degree in Art History and a body of work that engages in fan culture, music history and political history, Deller has a deep knowledge and interest in the interplay between culture and society.
In 'Our Hobby is Depeche Mode' (2006), a documentary co-directed with filmmaker Nick Abrahams, Deller portrayed the hardcore international fan base of Depeche Mode and how their passion for the band turned into an all-encompassing hobby. ”I think art can offer personal salvation in the way that religion did once. I think it can change people's lives on an individual basis. Whether it can change whole societies. I'm not sure,” Deller reflects.
As a canonized British artist, Deller has experienced how collectors and art world patrons praise the transformative powers of art and artists. Deller, on the other hand, does not share this belief. Whereas art may change the trajectory of individuals' lives, the power to make big structural changes resides elsewhere. He concludes: “If you're looking for artists to change the world, I think you're probably looking in the wrong place.”
Jeremy Deller was born in London in 1966. His practice encompasses installations, performances, videos, and public collaborations. He was awarded the Turner Prize in 2004 and represented Great Britain at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013. Deller's collaborative projects include "We're Here Because We're Here," where volunteers dressed as World War I soldiers for a collective remembrance experience. His works have been exhibited internationally, including Buenos Aires, Hong Kong, Mexico City, New York City, Moscow, Singapore, Tokyo, and Copenhagen.
Jeremy Deller was interviewed by Nanna Rebekka in his studio in North London in February 2023.
Camera: Kyle Stevenson Produced and edited by: Nanna Rebekka
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2023.
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, and C.L. Davids Fond og Samling.
#art #contemporaryart #artistinterview
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Ólafsdóttir describes her experience as a writer in a minority language, noting the unique challenges and opportunities it presents. "I was someone who wrote in a minority marginal language that no one understands, Icelandic," she explains. She emphasizes the power and potential of language, not only as a tool for communication but also as a means of miscommunication and misunderstanding.
Throughout the interview, Ólafsdóttir touches on various aspects of her writing process and philosophy. She discusses the importance of creating a "safe space" for readers, stating, "My goal is to make them finish the book. That would be excellent. That would make me happy." She also speaks about her desire to surprise and engage readers, offering them new perspectives and insights into their own lives.
Ólafsdóttir's novels often explore complex themes, such as the human condition, the environment, and cultural loss. In one of her recent works, she delves into the topic of dying languages, highlighting the loss of unique ways of thinking and cultural expressions as languages become extinct. "By the end of this century, if this goes on, 90 percent of the languages will be extinct," she laments.
The conversation also covers Ólafsdóttir's journey to becoming a writer, which she describes as a gradual process. She initially worked full-time as a teacher and art historian, writing her first novels in the evenings after putting her children to bed. Despite these challenges, she always knew she would become a writer. "I just had to find time to get [the stories] out, and the voice, the right voice, and the maturity also," she shares.
Ólafsdóttir's works are deeply influenced by her experiences studying and living in various countries. She mentions the impact of French and Italian literature on her writing, as well as her appreciation for visual art, particularly the work of French artist Pierre Soulages. "I see and write a bit in images," she remarks.
Ultimately, Ólafsdóttir believes that literature has the power to provide comfort and perspective to readers, even in the face of existential threats. She sees writing as a means of offering hope and reassurance: "One of the things I find so beautiful with humans is how we try to somehow say to each other, 'It would be all right.'"
Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir was born in Reykjavik, Iceland, in 1958. She is a renowned novelist, playwright, and poet known for her works that explore complex themes such as identity, relationships, and the human experience. Ólafsdóttir's notable achievements include receiving the Nordic Council Literature Prize in 2018 for her novel ‘Hotel Silence’ and the Icelandic Literary Prize for her novel ‘Miss Iceland’ in 2019. In 2023 her novel Eden appeared. Her works have been translated into numerous languages, establishing her as one of Iceland's most significant contemporary writers.
Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir was interviewed by Klaus Rothstein in August 2023 in connection with the Louisiana Literature Festival at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark.
Camera: Rasmus Quistgaard
Edit: Signe Boe Pedersen
Produced by Christian Lund
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2024.
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, C.L. Davids Fond og Samling, and Fritz Hansen.
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We have visited up-and-coming artist Elaine Cameron-Weir in New York, who has an immense love for transforming materials.
“My love of observation brought about this love of material. I am fascinated with the real world more than the depiction of it. And then the in-between that sculpture can be. It exists materially in front of us.”
Elaine Cameron-Weir’s work is informed by the array of systems and structures humans have created to deal with the unknown – scientific inquiry, religion, modes of governance, or creative practices. Her sculptures incorporate part-objects repurposed from their scientific, medical, military, or faith-giving functions into reliquaries or representations of larger systems of belief and power.
"Why am I drawn to materials and objects from industries like the military, medicine, or religion? The short answer is that there are systems of power. They are systems that humans use to create meaning, and art is one of those systems of power.”
“I think about the function of art a lot. Like what it does, what's the purpose, and it has a purpose. I believe that you can model something beyond what you have in front of you.”
Her installations combine found fragments with definitively handmade elements, using techniques as varied as vitreous enameling, glass casting, metalworking, and leather tooling. Together, these arrangements are often suspended from the ceiling, seemingly levitating from the ground, yet are simultaneously held in tension by gravity and an architectural framework of pulleys and cables. Materials can also be ephemeral, incorporating heat, light, and scent, suggesting transformations of solid matter into dust or diffusion into the atmosphere.
Cameron-Weir’s sculptures often form uncanny mirror images through symmetrical details that emphasize the dualistic nature of any narrative or narrator. Although her practice resists straightforward characterization or iconographic interpretation, Cameron-Weir’s works offer the possibility of passage through a portal or beyond a threshold, further facilitating the transition from one state to the next.
“I want to show or offer my thinking for someone else's consideration. Not to adopt, but just a message has been sent.”
Elaine Cameron-Weir was born in 1985 in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada. She lives and works in New York. Past solo exhibitions at institutions include Dressing for Windows (Exploded View), SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, USA (2022); STAR CLUB REDEMPTION BOOTH, Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, USA (2021); exhibit from a dripping personal collection, Dortmunder Kunstverein, Dortmund, Germany (2018); Outlooks, Storm King Art Center, New Windsor, USA (2018) and viscera has questions about itself, New Museum, New York, USA (2017). Her work has featured in major group exhibitions including The Milk of Dreams, curated by Cecilia Alemani at the 59th Venice Biennale, Italy (2022); New Time: Art and Feminisms in the 21st Century, BAMPFA, Berkeley, USA (2021); Present Tense, Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA (2019), as well as the Belgrade Biennale, Serbia (2021); the Montreal Biennial, Canada (2017) and the Fellbach Triennial of Small-Scale Sculpture, Germany (2016).
Elaine Cameron-Weir was interviewed by Marc-Christoph Wagner in March 2024. The recording took place in her studio in Brooklyn, New York, and in her show A WAY OF LIFE at Lisson Gallery, New York.
Camera: Sean Hanley
Edited by: Signe Boe Pedersen
Produced by: Marc-Christoph Wagner
Copyright: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2024
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet and C.L. Davids Fond og Samling.
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