A Kassen

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Rolando Anselmi is pleased to announce the first solo exhibition of the Danish artists group A Kassen in its project room in Rome. This is the first of a series of solo presentations that will take place in the new venue. The project room will serve as a platform for ambitiously expanding the artistic program and orientation of the gallery by supporting site-specific projects realized inside the space itself.
For this occasion, A Kassen will present Pile of Clothes, a series of sculptures done in marble and bronze made by the craftsmen themselves on the basis of an instruction to simply do a cast or a carving from the clothes they are wearing. Each sculpture is done by a new craftsman and a new workshop in a various of countries. Clothing as the subject of the sculpture shares a long sculptural tradition and at the same time being an aesthetic gesture to the everyday necessity. The method of making the piece becomes the content and catalyst for viewing the diverse details of each pile. These are just another twist in A Kassen dissection of artistic conventions, which highlights one of the group’s hallmarks: the interest in self-reflexivity. The exhibition hinges on sculpture, but with a strong performative element. The psycho-logical effects usually pursued in portraiture are supplanted instead by absence and a hint at scenography.
Graduates of the Royal Academy of Denmark, the four members of A Kassen group (Christian Bretton-Meyer, 1976; Morten Steen Hebsgaard, 1977; Søren Petersen, 1977; Tommy Petersen, 1975) have been collaborating together since 2004. By creating thought-provoking and elegant works, A Kassen focus on the relationship between the form of an object and the perceived idea of the object itself. Starting from an idea or an element, A Kassen task themselves to manipulate and alter the object against a backdrop of questioning our interpretations of what we see. These interventions give way to subtle, eye-opening transformations, as their conceptual ideas become aesthetically dynamic and beautiful works. Central to their approach is the idea of linking the work to its environment, as well as to those who see it. Seeing both the viewer and the situation in which the work was made and exhibited as integral to the work is about the creation of a dialogue. By juxtaposing form and content, the nature of the object is examined in a way that asks the viewer to turn to their own surroundings, and explore their own understanding of it, as each subjective point of view creates a new dimension to the work.
Their solo exhibitions include Gennevillier Art Center, Paris and National Gallery of Iceland (2015); Officine and Den Frie Exhibition, Copenhagen (2014) Another Space, Copenhagen (2013) Reykjavik Art Festival (2012) Sørlandets Kunstmuseum, Kristiansand, Norway (2011) MUSAC- Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, León, Spain (2009) KBH Kunsthal, Krabbesholm, Skive, Denmark (2007) They were winners of Premio Arco Madrid for young artists (2015) and of the Carnegie Art Awards, at The Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts, Stockholm (2013). Their work has been featured in a number of group exhibitions, including UMOCA, Salt Lake City, USA (2014) Lunds Konsthall, Sweden (2013) Zabludowicz Collection, London (2012) Museum of Mexico City, Mexico (2012) Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen (2010) Rauma Biennale Balticum at Rauma Art Museum, Finland and Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Madrid (2010) Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge, UK, and Sculpture by the Sea, Aarhus, Denmark (2009).