Node / Knudepunkt
04-10/2018, Architecture of Skagen - before and now, residency and exhibition by ONSDAGSKOLEN, Odde Nature Centre, Skagen, Denmark
Juhee and I participated in a 1-week residency to create an exhibition about the architecture of the town Skagen with fellow 6 artists, which would be shown to the public between April and October at the Skagen Odde Nature Centre, the building designed by Jørn Utzon.
During the residency, we witnessed the transitions of Skagen that had taken in the past, and was happening in the present. The transformations were slow to be detected with our naked eyes compared to norm phenomenons we come across everyday, however, they were super fast regarding that it was a phenomenon of population, architecture, and landscapes.
Working with Foldens Hotel and Kappelborg (/Borgerskolen), we focused on the human interactions and constant flux that have been taking place within the two sites: the hotel being a meeting point for young people in various social events in the 60s; the former school re-opening as a cultural hub for locals in 2011. Also reflecting the parallels with the dominant theme of transformation in Skagen over the past century, we decided to create a space in which temporary communities would be formed, demolished, and re-created.
As a result of all that and other inputs (e.g. constant consumption of pseudo-Danish breakfast and lunch, basic and heavy dinner, cycling against the wind of 22m/h, hunting for buoys and ropes, talking to fishing industry men), we produced few meaningless but productive, repetitive movements, a fishy scent inside the Odde Nature Centre, and with the help from the other 6 artists, managed to finish our installation, Node/Knudepunkt.
Taking inspirations from duplication and patchworks of the architectural shifts, we presented the installation which by its movement creates different pathways and potential collective consumption within the exhibition space, however temporary they may last. Through the contribution from Selstad North Trawl A/s and Cosmos Trawl A/S, collaborators could work with the materials which represent the fishing industry; the starting point of the fluidity of the town Skagen.
