PRESS RELEASE         (ENG)

Pernille Egeskov – Belonging

Vendsyssel Art Museum presents the exhibition Belonging by visual artist Pernille Egeskov (b. 1970), with new works created specifically for Vendsyssel Art Museum. The exhibition will be shown 18 January – 3 May 2020.
The exhibition Belonging focuses on the theme of belonging and is a clear extension of Pernille Egeskov’s existing work practice. Belonging is treated in the exhibition in a broad sense; geographically, to nature, to culture, to one’s family, one’s partner, one’s body, one’s gender or one’s religion.
Belonging is an extremely interesting and relevant topic in a world where it is both physically and digitally possible to move, and where many are unfortunately forced to flee; when do you feel like you belong somewhere? When do you feel at home?

The artist often finds the raw material for the production of works from citizens from selected regions throughout the country. Egeskov has a unique ability to see opportunities in matters that most people would have long since considered insignificant. A certain fragility seems to permeate several of Egeskov’s works, when traces of a lived life are found, selected, pursued, stored and deposited in textiles, paper and discarded objects, which are now included in new contexts than those originally intended.

Affiliation in Vendsyssel
For a period over the autumn of 2019, Pernille Egeskov stayed in the Vendsyssel Art Museum’s artist residence and studio with the aim of collecting the voices of the people of Vendsyssel.

The exhibition presents interviews with citizens of different age groups, gender and length of residence in Vendsyssel, who are all asked about their perception of when one belongs – or does not belong – to a given place; in this case Vendsyssel. Both the fumbling for words or the opposite – a precise and prompt answer of shorter or longer scope – as well as words that were said and words that were not said, now each contributes in its own way to drawing a clear picture of a citizen living in Vendsyssel – a part of the country that is separated from the rest of Jutland by the Limfjorden to the south and by Tranum to the west. Among the participants are also politicians, including the mayor of Hjørring Municipality, Arne Boelt.

Based on the Vendel residents’ understanding of identity and belonging to their own part of the country, Egeskov processes and presents topics and stories about belonging that concern us all. Elements from the interviews will give rise to recognition in the audience, while others will perhaps rather induce wonder, curiosity, enjoyment and reflection in the viewer himself.

Multifaceted considerations unfold through materials such as found objects, textiles with inherent meanings and organic material – as when, for example, she uses human hair as sewing thread.

Egeskov’s works often appear abstract, but process subjects and hide stories that concern us all.

The concept of belonging unfolds and further elaborates Egeskov in his work practice in the form of
concrete, visual and physical works at the exhibition Belonging, to which private layers of meaning are elevated to big questions. In a poetic way, the local transcends in a universal context in Egeskov’s artistic universe.

Belonging is an extended version of the special exhibition of the same name, which was shown at Bornholm’s Art Museum over the autumn of 2019.

A big thank you must go to the Statens Kunstfond for crucial support for this project.

For further information please contact:

Museum director Sine Kildeberg
Mail: sk@vkm.dk / Phone: +45 98 96 43 27

Museum inspector Kathrine Hejborg Kristensen Mail: khk@vkm.dk / Tel.: +45 98 96 43 22

Sincerely
Vendsyssel Art Museum