Jury Statement 2017

Jury Statement
Spring Exhibition 2017

Our relationship with art is maintained by a desire and a need for a space where everything can be done. We want to be surprised, influenced by good and evil – we want to mirror ourselves in art and its diversity – perhaps to let the idea that there is (yet) something authentic, truthful and clean living on.

The artists at this year's Spring Exhibition are no exception, and their works clearly demonstrate that art remains sought after as a space for human reflection and reaction to life, the physical, the spiritual and in these years, not least the digital. The internet is both source, subject and mirror image at once, we seem most comfortable with the recognizable infinity for hours spent in front of the screen commenting or moralizing over others' posts. Art is digitized, perhaps unsurprisingly, just like ourselves. The digital medium offers great flexibility in expression, great abstraction ability and play with the meta-i, the self and then the extra I's we freely juggle in cyberspace. It is a democratic medium and accessible medium. The handicraft as we know it through, for example, a detailed drawing, a virtuoso done painting or the elaborate sculpture, takes up less space at this year's Spring Exhibition. Here are only a few examples of the dyed and worked textile, the complex architecture model or the original design that embraces both function and aesthetics. But the work's electronic and digital focus is a pervasive longing, a craving or a desire for something that has been and must be found. The earth, our streams and the empty plastic bottles that inhabit them form the basis of several works of art this year. As a concrete orbit carrying pollution around the planet, the waste reminds us of the break-up with nature almost a long time ago — that we feed on it, and on it, but not with it.

A similar deprivation echoes in the works of a different character, with semi-religious, mystical phenomena that also occupy many of this year's exhibiting artists. A longing for something original and then a paradoxical awareness that we may have passed this opportunity long ago — why religious longing is taken over by visions of doom or doom. Dark music, dark stills, impure and clunky characters falling over themselves. We see in the works a focus on the physical doom of the planet, the sea, the world, the solar system – and of the mental doom when the individual can no longer maintain his intake of chia seeds or the number of likes. At once tormented and pampered, the problems of the Western world live in the self, not in Aleppo or Trump's United States. Throughout this year's exhibited works are also a rendition of the selfie culture, this co-dependent subculture we have collectively decided to keep. This year's exhibiting artists comment diligently on the phenomenon and do not disappoint on the self-staging front.

A unanimous jury has selected and reviewed all the works of art submitted. We have focused on highlighting quality and potential. This year's candidate field for the Spring Exhibition shows that art as a reflection room lives and survives, that the art space remains very diverse and open, with works that primarily work through photo and video in particular.

On behalf of the overall jury consisting of Hanna Nilsson (SE), Torben Ribe (DK), Stig L. Andersson (DK), Line Clausen Pedersen (DK) is welcomed to the 160th annual Committee of the European Union. Spring exhibition. The jury hopes the audience will find great enjoyment and joy in this year's selected artworks and delve into the many bids for art anno 2017.

By Line Clausen Pedersen