CHART Art Fair to Show Works in Danish Amusement Park

News CHART, an Ambitious Danish Art Fair, Adds Experimental Section Sam Gaskin

Nordic art event CHART has announced a public art collaboration with the Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, the third-oldest operating amusement park in the World.

Fifteen specially-made works including sculptures, installations, and videos will be placed among the rides at Tivoli from 25 August to 25 September, coinciding with CHART, which runs from 25 to 28 August.

CHART director Nanna Hjortenberg told Ocula Magazine that the collaboration ‘will offer a new setting for art to be experienced, and—not in the least—celebrated.

‘An amusement park has the power to strip the art world of its usual pomp and circumstance, while simultaneously providing exciting challenges and opportunities for all parties involved,’ she said.

Participants in the Tivoli programme include: Pernille With Madsen, John Kørner, Kåre Frang, and Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen (Denmark), Þórdís Erla Zoëga, Kristinn E. Hrafnsson, and Hrafnkell Sigurdsson (Iceland), Kim Simonsson (Finland), Bella Rune (Sweden), Geoff McFetridge (Canada), and Austin Lee (United States).

Lee, who had his first solo museum show at Beijing‘s M Woods Museum in June, has designed a colourful patinated bronze sculpture called Donkey With Flowers inspired by Robert Bresson’s 1966 film Au Hasard Balthaza. It is a sad blue donkey from which hopeful bright yellow flowers sprout.

Lee said the work is about ‘accepting the lows of life but appreciating all the small beauty as well.’

Art Povera-inspired Danish multimedia artist Pernille With Madsen, meanwhile, has composed a new video work, Mise-en-Scene (2022) with altered footage shot among Tivoli’s attractions.

The Tivoli programme comes alongside institutional collaborations with art museums across the bridge in Malmö, a book fair, and a core programme of exhibitions, film screenings, and talks.

Other highlights of this year’s CHART fair include: Kaarina Kaikkonen’s blossoming flower sculpture made of hundreds of recycled shirts which will adorn the facade of the Kunsthal Charlottenborg, a 9.5-metre-long print by Tacita Dean presented by BORCH Editions, and an Augmented Reality sculpture park presented by artist-run digital art pop-up the Museum of Nordic Digital Art.

This year’s edition will feature 38 exhibitors in total from Denmark and the wider region. The full list of participants can be found here. —[O]

Main image: Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen. Courtesy Tivoli Gardens.