New Voices in the Nordics: Esben Weile Kjær

In your artistic practice, you often blur the boundaries between sites, mediums and temporalities. One exhibition that comes to mind is 'HARDCORE FREEDOM' at Copenhagen Contemporary. Why is this important to you?

It is somehow the core of my work, the aim of wanting different methods and aesthetics to collide. I never signed off to one method or look. I like to play around with hierarchies of taste. For me it’s all about experimenting with and dissecting contemporary culture. When I work in-between music, sculpture, light, and performance, I feel my work is somehow whole and open.

I deeply admire the way you work with form. Your sculptures exude an unsettling allure and are often large-scale, meticulously crafted, and whimsy, such as 'BUTTRFLY!' (2023). How do you position yourself within the history of sculpture?

Thank you so much. My sculptures always have pretty direct references to art history. It is often already pre-existing sculptures that I’m fascinated by and then my work begins from there. I often take an existing work, it could be a sculpture from a Baroque castle, and then I mix it with something from contemporary pop culture.

I just met you in Venice for the preview of the 60th Venice Biennale: 'Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere,' curated by Adriano Pedrosa. I believe that city embodies many of the contrasts and qualities I'm interested in. When I walked through San Marco there were these lions with wings in bronze lying on top of columns. Around these sculptures you have extremely exclusive fashion stores and their fronts are decorated with big colourful flowers and shoes. Then you also have these weird galleries where you can buy a small Jeff Koons sculpture and a horrible small Donald Duck sculpture with graffiti on it.

There are a lot of similarities in these three places even though they are so different. They are all part of the same scenario. They are all surreal. I hate it, I love it, I get so confused, and try to show that confusion in my sculptures. I use painted bronze, steel and glass to make objects that looks like plastic. They are so conflicted in their own existence.

In your performances, such as 'HYPER!' (2022), the body is always placed in relation to other bodies in a fluid and ever-changing setting. What is your relationship with performance and its unfolding in real-time?

The setting of 'HYPER!' (2022) consists of these giant inflatable silver flowers that are made of the same material found on the surface of reflector boards you normally use in photo shoots. The performance is like a fashion show that is deconstructing itself from within.

The big meat eating flowers bounce around and the bodies become small and silly somehow. Fighting, kissing, falling, posing. Trying to create the perfect image but somehow getting eaten by the set itself. In my performances the bodies and the special effects are aligned. They perform together but not with the body as the main act.

The nightclub seemingly appears as a character, method, and experience in your work. What does it represent to you, and how does sound affect your work?

I think parties and gatherings in general have always interested me. I’m very interested in these rituals that exist and the architecture that facilitates them. The nightclub is one institution and the festival could be another. The casinos, the bars, the churches all host an exchange of money and pleasure. The nightclub does it too. All my teen years, I was DJing at clubs. My art practice evolved from that space.

Desire and angst frequently permeate through your practice. Why have you chosen to dedicate significant attention to these themes, particularly within the realm of pop culture?

I’m interested in the psychological impact of post-globalized pop culture. I’m trying to understand what this constant mediation I grew up with as the first generation ever does to us. Desire creates angst, I guess...

As we wrap up this conversation, could you offer the readers a glimpse into what lies ahead for you this year?

I’m working on a new body of work that will unfold over the summer and fall. I’m starting to rehearse a new performance piece tomorrow that I will show at The Museum der Moderne in Austria in July and at MMCA in South Korea in September.

My biggest solo show to date will open at Kunsten Museum of Modern Art in Aalborg, Denmark, in October. The title is ‘Solar System’, and the exhibition will feature a landscape of concrete sculptures that resemble buildings or monuments. Above these fragments, a large neon sun will shine, and in between, giant diamonds and shiny insects will live. I have been working on it for two years now, and I’m super excited about this show; I can’t wait to see all the elements come together.

My solo show at Trauma Bar und Kino in Berlin, opening during Berlin Art Week in September, will introduce some of these elements. I think people will recognise some of the methods I’m using here but will also be surprised by the new direction in the work.