When Pipilotti Rist’s video installation “Homo Sapiens Sapiens “hits the ceiling in Louisiana’s Hall Gallery from Thursday 7 January 2010, the audience will be elevated into a colour saturated, Paradisiac universe amidst the darkness of winter. The work is viewed lying down with your eyes gazing at a sensual firmament where two naked Eve figures float innocently and lustily around. The work has been created by the popular Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist and can be seen as a striking and poetic conclusion to the group exhibition “THE WORLD IS YOURS”, the museum’s current comprehensive presentation of international contemporary art. The work will be on show at Louisiana until 25 April 2010.
Pipilotti Rist
For more then twenty years Pipilotti Rist (b. 1962) has played a striking role in international contemporary art. Her works revolve around themes like gender and the feminine and she is represented by several works in the Louisiana Collection, including the video installation Sip My Ocean.
Homo sapiens sapiens was shown for the first time in the loft of the San Stae church in connection with the Venice Biennial in 2005. However, apparently its imagery was not considered quite suitable, for the church authorities chose to close it down, allegedly because of technical problems. When the work is ‘premiered’ at Louisiana, Pipilotti Rist herself will be present at the museum and will participate in a special event in connection with the opening.
The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art is located in northern Zealand with a panoramic view across the Øresund. The museum frames the sculpture park facing the sea and the interaction between art, nature and the museum architecture is quite unique.
Louisiana is an international museum with a considerable collection of modern art. The museum’s permanent collection includes more than 3000 works and is one of the largest in Scandinavia. It takes its point of departure in the period after 1945 including artists like Picasso, Giacometti, Dubuffet, Yves Klein, Andy Warhol, Rauschenberg, Henry Moore, Louise Bourgeois, Philip Guston, Morris Louis, Jorn, Baselitz, Polke, Kiefer, and Per Kirkeby.
Every year Louisiana offers 4-6 temporary exhibitions, presenting both great modernist artists and the latest international contemporary art in the series Louisiana Contemporary. Throughout the years the museum has persisted in taking the international view as a premise for its exhibitions and Louisiana’s status implies that the museum is able to attract future exhibitions and artists of a standard available to only very few Scandinavian museums.
www.louisiana.dk/dk
Image: Pipilotti Rist, “Portrait”. Photo: ©Gorgio von Arb
