OPEN CREATION AND ITS ENEMIES: Asger Jorn in Situation 

Open Creation and Its Enemies: Asger Jorn in situation curated by Ellef Prestsæter presents the singular trajectory of the Danish artist Asger Jorn (1914–1973), a founding member of avant-garde movements such as Cobra and the Situationist International. The exhibition includes commissioned works by Danish artist Anna Sofie Mathiasen as well as by the Institute for Computational Vandalism, who have been invited to engage with Jorn’s legacy from a contemporary perspective. 

For the exhibition Anna Sofie Mathiasen has produced a video essay titled Selvfølgeligheden (eng: The Obvious) and a series of video readings of Jorns books titled The Valencia Suite. 

These works are filmed and animated in “The animation box” which is included in the exhibition with its instructions manual (a series of silkscreen prints). She also shows the work Monster of All Planets, Unite! (Drawings mounted on the windows of IVAM’s façade) 

In her main piece The Obvious, we encounter two pigs who, just like Asger Jorn and his family, visited the town of Saxnäs in the summer of 1946. Following their encounter with local mosquitos, the pigs embark on a quest for knowledge about the meaning of art and life. Along the way they are helped by an enigmatic creature who introduces them to Jorn’s writings on ornamentation and a pan flutist initiating them into a world of profound banalities. Bringing to life a set of characters from the margins of Jorn’s work, The Obvious is a fable of life and learning, of animation and initiation. 

The Obvious is starring Kaya Wilkins, Unn Vibeke Hol, Kristoffer Cezinando Karlsen, Ellef Prestsæter, Michèle Bernstein, William Mathiasen and Anna Sofie Mathiasen. 

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