Jakob Kudsk Steensen: Berl-Berl / Vertigo

Jakob Kudsk Steensen: Berl-Berl
Jakob Kudsk Steensen is a visual artist working with storytelling via 3D animations and sound. He creates immersive installations with particular focus on the climate. His work Berl-Berl is a song for the udefinable—morphing, liminal and mystical. Berl-Berl mourns what is lost and embraces what is new.

The exhibition is located at ARoS’ level 1 where Jakob Kudsk Steensen makes use of the entire gallery space, the open space in front of the gallery, and the staircase leading down to it to create a total experience. The architecture has been entirely given over to the virtual and sensory universe of the work where large-scale LED screens divide up the space. 

The title Berl-Berl originates from the ancient Slav word, Berl, meaning a swamp. The word is believed to form the etymological root of Berlin, the name of the German capital, located at what used to be extensive wetlands, now much reduced. Inspired by Slav traditions where songs and verses were generally employed to navigate swamps and wetlands, Jakob Kudsk Steensen began an important collaboration with the musician ARCA on writing new songs to be experienced as part of the work. 

Berl-Berl is commissioned by Light Art Space (LAS) and was initially presented in the legendary Halle am Berghain in Berlin in the autumn of 2021. The exhibition was a great success with more than 31,000 visitors and much international media attention. 

On view from June 4 to October 23, 2022

More about Berl-Berl here.

Vertigo
An exhibition that expands the concept of vertigo to reflect an age of dramatic change.

We usually associate the term vertigo with the physical and sensory experience of being disoriented. It is a physical reaction to an external force that affects us, causing the world to blur and flicker before our eyes and making us lose our bearings.

In Vertigo ARoS extend the concept to comprise a mental state that mirrors a world marked by the violent changes that we have all been experiencing in recent years. The digital society, pandemics and climate upheaval are all highly topical phenomena while, at the same time, rendering both the present and the future intangible and abstract

The exhibition presents five installation works by five prominent contemporary artists from different parts of the world. In addition to their visual qualities the works share a high degree of complexity, thus reflecting the contemporary world in which they were created. Without actually being political the works relate to society at large by pointing to the complexity of human existence, to name just an example. 

Artists in Vertigo 
Cao Fei (b.1978, China): Nova, 2019
Jeremy Shaw (b.1977, Canada): Phase Shifting Index, 2020
Julian Charrière (b.1987, Switzerland): Vertigo, 2021
Trisha Baga (b.1985, USA): Mollusca & The Pelvic Floor, 2018
Ann Lislegaard (b.1962, Denmark): Crystal World, 2006

On view until September 11, 2022. More about Vertigo here.

Press and communications
Anne Riis: ari [​at​] aros.dk / T +45 2888 4464
Jens Henrik Daugaard: jehd [​at​] aros.dk / T +45 2888 4467