DANISH ARTIST 'ASGER JORN'...EXHIBITION AT IVAM FROM 16 FEBRUARY-18 JUNE 2023 • 24/7 Valencia

THE TRAJECTORY OF DANISH ARTIST: ASGER JORN

The Institut Valencià d’Art Modern invites the people of Valencia through its doors for an exploration of the unique career of Danish artist, Asger Jorn. Located on the banks of the River Turia, IVAM is one of Spain’s leading modern art museums committed to bringing culture closer to society. As a founding member of European avant-garde movements such as Cobra and the Situationist International, Jorn was one of Scandinavia’s most influential and internationally recognised artists. Often acclaimed as an abstract painter, the scope of Jorn’s work warrants a broader explanation. This exhibition, curated by Norwegian art historian, Ellef Prestsæter, showcases the impressive scope of Jorn’s practice and comprises of myriads of paintings, drawings, prints and publications from all stages of Jorn’s career. Jorn believed in the power of experimental art and his work is anchored in the contemporary present’s relationship to artistic production.

IVAM once again brings us a new and exciting contemporary art exhibition that evokes and encourages open interpretations. Entitled ‘Open Creations and its Enemies’, the exhibition gets its name from one of Jorn’s articles written in 1960. Jorn firmly believed that art defied explanation, was open-ended and generated a proliferation of interpretations. The ‘enemies’ that the title refers to is arguably the paradigm that art must be mediated and rationalised- a viewpoint that the curator believes “underestimates both the art and the visitor”.

During a stay in Saxnäs in 1946, the Danish artist created a unique drawing with pen and transparent paper by tracing a series of drawings and inviting his artistic friends to do the same. Similarly, before entering the exhibition at IVAM, visitors are invited to take part in a collective experiment at a drawing station leaving their own individual mark, transcending in Jorn’s own words “all limits of time and space”. Without giving too much away, the range of art that follows is impressive and strikes an interesting balance between the popular and the extraordinary. IVAM’s director, Nuria Enguita and curator, Ellef Prestsæter urge those who intend on visiting to actively make connections between the works and give equal importance to the smaller works in order to fully grasp the narrative of the exhibition.

Developed in close collaboration with the Museum Jorn in Silkeborg, the exhibition is accompanied by a comprehensive book that features translations of canonical texts by Jorn and is available for purchase in Valencian, Spanish and English. Open to the public from the 16^{th of} February to the 18^{th of} June, this exhibition is not to be missed! Displaying the impressive parameters of Jorn’s multifarious work, ‘Open Creations and its Enemies’ is a unique exhibition that thrives on the subjective perspectives of all the individuals who will visit it.

Report by Imogen Hockings

Article copyright ‘24/7 Valencia’

Photo copyright Miguel Lorenzo

IVAM

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Mondays: Closed