Simone Aaberg Kærn
OPEN SKY
25.5-20.8 2006
Press preview: Tues., 23 May, 11 a.m.
Opening: Wed. 24 May, 7 p.m.-9 p.m.
Contact: Lena Leeb-Lundberg
tel. 46 (0)40-34 12 94 or
lena.leeb [at] malmo.se
Open Sky is Simone Aaberg Kærns first major solo exhibition and focuses on the sky and flight. Her theme is the battle for free airspace and our dream of being able to fly of looking up to the sky and just taking off. Aaberg Kærn has done just that she has flown her own plane right into the war zone in Afghanistan. The plane was a forty-year-old single-engine Piper Colt 108. This small, fragile plane is included in the exhibition, which will fill the entire space of Malmö Konsthall this summer.
Over the past ten years, Simone Aaberg Kærn has had the sky and flight as her recurring theme in a series of videos, installations, and works of performance art often in combination with a historical and social representation of the woman as subject. Her inspiration comes from the women fighter pilots of times gone by who were given the chance to try out their wings when the chaos of war opened up unexpected opportunities. Best known is her series of portraits called Sisters in the Sky of women fighter pilots during World War II. The series is owned by the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art and was displayed at the Venice Biennale in 1999. Her new work about her journey to Kabul is a powerful installation incorporating painting, sound and an entire airplane. The journey also resulted in a documentary film entitled Smiling in a War Zone.
This is the first time that the various aspects of her now decade-long flight project and artistic career are displayed under the same roof. Subjects to which she has devoted years are now highly topical. The world is currently experiencing a battle over airspace and outer space. From a global perspective, the sky and airspace are a place of battle over power, prestige and politics. At the same time, the sky is a place of refuge for individuals, a place onto which they project their wishes and dreams.
Simone Aaberg Kærn was born in 1969 in Copenhagen, where she lives and works. She studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts from 1993-1998 and at Goldsmiths College of Fine Art in London from 1995-1997. In 1996, she gained her pilots licence at the Clacton Aero Club in the UK and has even competed in aerobatics.
Members of the press are cordially invited to a preview Tuesday, 23 May, at 11 a.m. in Malmö Konsthall.
Together with Simone Aaberg Kærn, director Lars Grambye will introduce the exhibitíon.
For further information and images, please dont hesitate to contact us. You can also download text and images from: www.konsthall.malmo.se
Opening Wednesday 24 May, 7 p.m. – 9 p.m.
Contact: Lena Leeb-Lundberg tel. 46 (0)40-34 12 94 or
lena.leeb@malmo.se
Next exhibition: Malm2 Contemporary Art from the Öresund Region
9.9 5.11 2006
Ulf Carlsson (SE), Ylva Friberg (SE), Leif Holmstrand (SE), Peter Holst Henckel (DK), Sophia Kalkau (DK), David Krantz (SE), Truls Melin (SE), Julie Nord (DK), Hans Scherer (SE), Tina Scherzberg (DK), Andreas Schulenburg (DK) och Eva Steen Christensen (DK).
