Kirsten Ortwed, Rosemarie Trockel, Lawrence Weiner: Gogo

Fluid Mexican onyx, manipulated digital prints and text-based works scaled to match the urban space intertwine in this exhibition featuring three renowned and internationally acclaimed artists—Kirsten Ortwed, Rosemarie Trockel and Lawrence Weiner—each of whom has made their unique contribution to defining what we understand as contemporary art.

Gogo is the second exhibition in the series Elective Affinities, exploring connections between artists across time, place and media. Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art has invited sculptor Kirsten Ortwed, who will be exhibiting a wide selection of her works from 1990 to the present day, with a primary focus on sculptures and installations from recent years. Ortwed brings with her German artist Rosemarie Trockel and American artist Lawrence Weiner, both of whom she has known and worked with for decades. Rosemarie Trockel will exhibit new works including two large photo installations from from her “CLUSTER” series. Lawrence Weiner, who sadly passed away during preparations for the exhibition in December 2021, will be represented at the exhibition with text-based works made between 1988 and 2012, designed specifically for the angular architecture of Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art. Together, these works comprise an artistic conversation about the boundary between physics and metaphysics, about the everyday and the obscure.

Kirsten Ortwed has for decades has played a vital role in redefining the field of sculpture. Ortwed moved back to Denmark in 2021 after living and working abroad for an extended period. From 1982 she lived in Cologne, Germany and was active on the art scene there for many years as one of the few female sculptors. After representing Denmark at the Venice Biennale in 1997, she also started working in Italy. Informed by movements such as Minimalism, Conceptual art and Arte Povera, Ortwed’s works embrace industrial, geological and organic materials—always with a special attention to process and transformation.

Ortwed and Trockel have known each other and exhibited together since the 1980s. It was also during that period that Ortwed and Lawrence Weiner met and became friends. In 1999, they created an extensive exhibition at Malmö Konsthall, where works by Weiner interacted with a field of aluminium objects on the floor by Ortwed. The kinship between Ortwed, Trockel and Weiner is not one of shared aesthetics. It is first and foremost rooted in a drive to push the boundaries of art based on notions of resistance and alteration.

For further questions and/or press images please contact curator Magnus Thorø Clausen (mtc@denfrie.dk).