Berørt

09.05.2021–20.06.2021

Kaspar Bonnén, JEG TROEDE VI SKULLE BYGGE NOGET OP SAMMEN MEN JEG BLEV VED MED AT GRAVE, 2021. Photo: Mikkel Kaldal — Kaspar Bonnén, *JEG TROEDE VI SKULLE BYGGE NOGET OP SAMMEN MEN JEG BLEV VED MED AT GRAVE*, 2021. Photo: Mikkel Kaldal

Benedikte Bjerre, Eee-O-Eleven, 2021. Photo: Mikkel Kaldal — Benedikte Bjerre, *Eee-O-Eleven*, 2021. Photo: Mikkel Kaldal

Sonja Lillebæk Christensen, Skylden, 2021. Photo: Mikkel Kaldal — Sonja Lillebæk Christensen, *Skylden*, 2021. Photo: Mikkel Kaldal

What does an artistic response to the coronavirus crisis look like?
The artists Benedikte Bjerre, Kaspar Bonnén and Sonja Lillebæk Christensen each express their own ideas with sculptures for the exhibition project Berørt.

A project that began on 12 May 2020, when we could see a way out of the first tough lockdown period – unaware of the pandemic's dramatic return over the Christmas season 2020 and early spring 2021. But back then, anyone interested had the opportunity to share their thoughts about the corona crisis together with a picture of their hand on the digital platform Berørt. The many uploaded hands and related thoughts were now handed over to the SMK (National Gallery of Denmark), who invited the three artists to come up with an artistic response to being affected by corona. The artists had access to the database with uploaded hands and thoughts as inspiration or material in the development of their works.

The result is three completely new works, each of which provides a perspective on the Covid-19 Pandemic and the consequences of the crisis at a time when we have had to do without social activities, physical contact, closeness and touch.

The works will be presented in SMK's the museum garden on 11 March 2021 – The anniversary of the press conference, when Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced the lockdown of Denmark.
The works will be travelling around Denmark and will be shown outdoors at four different institutions, SMK, SMK Thy, Brandts in Odense and Kunsthal Aarhus until the end of Oktober 2021.

The three works will be part of Kunsthal Aarhus' Sculpture Park in the period 9 May – 20 June 2021.

The project Berørt was created in a collaboration between the Red Cross, Coop, Hjaltelein Stahl – Part of Accenture Interactive and SMK. For each hand, Coop donated 5 dkk to the most vulnerable and financed the artists' works.

Benedikte Bjerre, Eee-O-Eleven, 2021

Benedikte Bjerre (b. 1987) has contributed an aluminium sculpture, which forms the outline of a giant laptop

Benedikte Bjerre (b. 1987) has contributed an aluminium sculpture, which forms the outline of a giant laptop . During the COVID-19 pandemic, many have become intimately familiar with the screen as a platform for online meetings, teaching and entertainment. Benedikte Bjerre’s oversized computer also creates a physical space, pointing to those mechanisms of distancing that have arisen during the pandemic.

Benedikte Bjerre works with sculpture and installation art, often using familiar, found objects like consumer goods in works that may be simple in themselves, but which always point to complex contexts underneath it all.

Kaspar Bonnén, I THOUGHT WE WERE GOING TO BUILD SOMETHING TOGETHER BUT I KEPT DIGGING, 2021

Kaspar Bonnén (b. 1968) is an author as well as a visual artist, and for this project he has built a sentence out of old bricks

Kaspar Bonnén (b. 1968) is an author as well as a visual artist, and for this project he has built a sentence out of old bricks . The sculpture speaks of a feeling that many will recognise today: being bereft, alone and confused in difficult times. Friendships and relationships built up over many years may have proven difficult to maintain or have completely fallen apart during the
coronavirus pandemic.

Kaspar Bonnén’s texts and works of art explore how one may navigate the world sensitively. Often based on his own life, they nevertheless describe universal human experiences.

Sonja Lillebæk Christensen, The Blame, 2021

Sonja Lillebæk Christensen (b. 1972) has drawn inspiration from the many images of hands uploaded on the digital platform Berørt

Sonja Lillebæk Christensen (b. 1972) has drawn inspiration from the many images of hands uploaded on the digital platform Berørt , creating a video sculpture in which those hands are mixed with her own footage of people in some of the new situations and patterns of behaviour prompted by the COVID19 pandemic: social distancing, extensive use of hand sanitiser and elbow bumps.

Sonja Lillebæk Christensen’s primary artistic medium is video. Keenly interested in people, she delves into everyday scenes while adopting a personal and often documentary-like approach.

Benedikte Bjerre, Eee-O-Eleven, 2021

Kaspar Bonnén, I THOUGHT WE WERE GOING TO BUILD SOMETHING TOGETHER BUT I KEPT DIGGING, 2021

Sonja Lillebæk Christensen, The Blame, 2021

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