Johan Tirén is invited to do a site-specific exhibition project at Astrid Noack’s Atelier. The project consists of two parts, a shorter residency in May (postponed to October 2020), followed by an exhibition in February 2021. The idea is that the experiences, and findings from the research stay, is developed into a public project to be shown in ANA or in the surrounding public space of Ydre Nørrebro.

In the project with the preliminary title “While the city grows” Tirén will from an artistic point of view look into some of the key issues and questions we face in todays urban development. For whom are we building the “new” city, what happens to the people and the businesses that are already in place? And if everything is planned, where do we find the openings that the unplanned is offering us today?

Johan Tirén (b. 1973) holds an MFA from Malmö Art Academy (2004) and has studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (1998–2003). He works in different media, such as drawing, graphics, video, and text, and uses his research-based artistic practice both inside the art institution and outside, for instance in city planning processes with a special focus on social problematics concerning sustainability and planning. He strives to be open and precise in his artistic work, looking for a political acuity that does not loose sight of art’s poetic qualities. Tirén has exhibited widely, for instance at Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art, Galleri Tom Christoffersen, and Overgaden, and has together with colleague Anna Högberg done public commissions for Statens Konstråd and Örebro Kommun.

The project is supported by: 

The exhibition programme at Astrid Noack’s Studio is supported by The Danish Arts Foundation and Nørrebro Lokaludvalg.

Obst. Amb. / birth / pregnant

22-10-2013 Kl. 01:00

I para I am.first time pregnant,

GA 39 + 0 I am. pregnancy Age

VA I am. Water drainage / you are. from kl. 14.30 / you are expected. Parturition. Night. natural

UDV. US I am one. external examination / you are. I usually. You are in a hvst-Main position

I am. Uterus soft and tender on palpation

You are. Fundus / I am. top of uterus / there is. ca. 3 fgr. There is. finger widths / there are. Processus xiphoideus / the tip of a sternum

fundus plural fundi

fundus is. The large cave organ is further away from an opening.

Fundus is. The top. Hollow. Part of the uterus and

Fundus is. The back. Internal part of the eye that accommodates the retina and associated blood vessels

Caput is. the head. BI is. Pelvic inlet. FS is fetal beauty is SF is Science Fiction. You are. 3500 grams

(Excerpt from Nanna Lysholt Hansen’s audio/video sculptureZira Mater Matrix, 2020)

Nanna Lysholt Hansen’s project in Astrid Noack’s Atelier consists of three parts: an exhibition, a live performance and a book publication. The title of the exhibition Mother Mould is taken from the English term for ‘a supporting shell around a mould’. By focusing on the surrounding material – ‘the supporting shell’ – ecologies and technologies in the creation process are emphasized. Interfaces, cast and mold, are examined as two contingent parts. Organs are created in direct contact with the mother body. Creation takes place through a temporary organ; the placenta. Through the placenta, the fetus and mother exchange genetic material and some of these micro-chimera cells live on in the mother’s body after birth. The boundary between individuals is thus dissolved.We are a biologically cohesive liquid symbiotic organism. The mother is chimera, a hybrid of machine and organism, a fictional creature, the ultimate cyborg. In her exhibition in Astrid Noack’s Atelier, Nanna Lysholt Hansen uses the cyborg mother as a figure to think through with the aim of rethinking kinship, subjectivity and knowledge production.

In the series The Chthonic Ones (2016-2020), which is part of the exhibition, Nanna Lysholt Hansen works sculpturally with the anatomy of the clitoris, a tentacular organ which was not mapped until as recent as in 2005 with the help of new 3D scanning technologies. The title of the series is borrowed from biologist and philosopher Donna Haraway’s concept of the chthulucene. A concept that thinks of an individual’s identity as fluid, amorphous and diverse. The chthonic means in/of/under the ground/earth. In ancient Greek mythology, the subterranean, the chtonic deities, are associated with the fate of the dead as well as with the fertility of the earth. Haraway suggests a return to the chthonic, the earthbound, recycling and composting, as a necessity for survival in a world destroyed by the exploitation of the earth’s resources. We must think of ourselves as compost, bound together as fungi, lichen, mould.

As part of the exhibition, a body-sized clitoris made of concrete will occupy the construction site that currently surrounds Astrid Noack’s Atelier. Based on her own body as material, Nanna Lysholt Hansen will initiate a study of spatial and temporal processes. The body will enter into a direct relationship with the surrounding architectural space – the studio as well as the construction site – and aspects of memory, gender, language and narratives will be challenged in relation to the gaze of the body over time. The artist recalls her ongoing memories about the female body, pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood and uses these experiences as material in Mother Mould.

The exhibition opens on Thursday 24 September and is the first part of Nanna Lysholt Hansen’s project in Astrid Noack’s Atelier. Later this year, Nanna Lysholt Hansen launches her upcoming artist book and presents a live performance. These events will be announced later.

In connection with the exhibition Mother Mould, the platform bastard arranges a conversation between Nanna Lysholt Hansen and writer, art critic and author Mette Garfield in Astrid Noack’s Atelier Thursday 24 September 5-6 PM. www.bastard.blog

The exhibition is open Friday and Saturday 2-5 PM or by appointment 60329184.

The project Mother Mould is supported by The Danish Arts Foundation, the Beckett Foundation and Rådet for Visuel Kunst, City of Copenhagen.

Nanna Lysholt Hansen is educated from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art in Copenhagen (2006-2011) and Kingston University, Faculty of Art, Design & Music in London (2002-2005).

Performative photographic workshop for all interested in Astrid Noack’s Mobile Children’s Studio in Mimersparken behind the Staffed Playground, Borgmestervangen 51, 2200 Copenhagen N

Week 39: Wednesday at 13-16, Thursday at 13-16, Friday at 13-16 and weekend at 10-15

Week 40: Monday at13-16, Tuesday at 13-16

In Malene Jorck Heide-Jørgensen’s OPEN AIR PHOTO BOOTH participants are invited to create their own group portrait under the sun. On light-sensitive sheets the image exposes more slowly than we are used to, and in this way the participants will have the opportunity to dream under the open air, while an imprint of their bodies slowly emerges step by step.

The workshop is based on the old photographic technique Cyanotype, and participants will have the opportunity to try cyanotype for themselves before trying out large body-sized formats. The preparatory work for the large formats takes place in marked areas on the square next to the studio. As a group participants are encouraged to play and experiment and most importantly reach an agreement; once the sheet is spread out, the exposure process is underway!

The square around the studio will become an open exhibition space and the images will depend on the active participation of the audience, the course of the weather and other common unpredictability. It’s a rare opportunity to have an alternative family portrait taken or to hang out with your friends in a different way. Feel free to bring your knitting kit, your dog or your favorite teddy bear. If you are not completely done with your ice cream, include it in the picture. Most things can be exposed if it doesn’t move during the exposure, which of course depends on the weather and other unpredictabilities.

Malene Jorck Heide-Jørgensen is interested in photography as a process and as a body. With the sun’s late summer rays, the time at which the body leaves its imprint is extended and, in contrast to the digital screen’s exposures of carefully selected data, the body is given the opportunity to sense how the photograph will take shape in the public space.

Malene Jorck Heide-Jørgensen graduated from the Glasgow school of Art in 2006. She works primarily with photographic media, from which she examines movement, heritage and space. KIND OF BLUE #2 – OPEN AIR PHOTO BOOTH is her first performative work in which she explores the relationship between private and public spaces under the sun.

The project is supported by The Danish Agency for Culture and Palaces: ”Pulje til kunstneriske sommeraktiviteter i Danmark” and Dj-ophavsretsfond.