From January to the end of June 2012, the Danish Presidency will place a focus on modern and innovative Danish art, crafts and furniture. The decoration of the building is the result of a collaboration between the Danish Presidency, the Danish Arts Foundation and Danish Crafts, two official organisations under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture.
Nature, minimalism, imaginationand innovation are the characteristics of Danish art and design, and the Danish decoration of the building displays a choice selection of works that exemplify these characteristics. The Atrium is furnished with a sofa group designed by two young Danish furniture designers, Anne Mette Jensen and Morten Ernst, from the company Erik Jørgensen, while the carpet comes from Ege Carpets.
The foyer, the space behind the Atrium, is designed as a lounge area andintroduces the work of both new and more established furniture designers and, on the whole, some of the best in Danish design. Soft lighting – a prominent characteristic of Danish interior design – is used to create a relaxed and inviting atmosphere. In the foyer, the Puls Gallery from Brussels has on display a selection of Danish crafts in three changing exhibits.
The Atrium and the foyer were curated and decorated by Dorthe Mandrup.
In selecting the various works of art for higher up in the building, level 50, special consideration has been given to the distinctive character of the space. Thus, a colourful, festive, non-figurative painting by Lars Nørgaard was chosen for the delegates’bar.
Lars Nørgaard
Lars Nørgaard’s artwork in the delegates’ bar is an expressive painting with an energetic expression that contains both abstract and surreal elements. The surrealistic elements are taken from the artist’s many minimalistic line drawings.
Lars Nørgaard was born in 1956 and trained at the Danish Design School in Copenhagen and the Academy of Art College in San Francisco, USA. His works are on display at the National Gallery of Denmark and many other museums. Recently, he had a solo exhibition of his work at KUNSTEN Museum of Modern Art Aalborg.
In the Presidency Room and the adjacent lounge, also on level 50, the walls have been decorated with two fine art photographs by Thomas Bangsted that show landscapes and seas from the northern hemisphere, thus bringing nature into the space.
Ege Carpets and the furniture company Fritz Hansen contributed to furnishing the two rooms. The chairs selected were designed by the famous architect and designer Arne Jacobsen, who also designed the sofa table in the Presidency Room, while the less functional tables were designed by Kasper Salto.
Thomas Bangsted
Thomas Bangsted’s works are two fine art photographs that set human creations in contrast with beautiful landscapes and infinite horizons. At the same time, human industry and nature blend together in a rustic fusion.
Thomas Bangsted was born in 1976 and trained at the Glasgow School of Art, Goldsmiths College at the University of London and Yale University School of Art. Today, he lives in New York. He has exhibited his work in Europe and North America and has taken part in photofestivals in New York and Prague. In the summer of 2011, he had an exhibition at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York.
On the barely lit wall outside of the Presidency rooms, an art video by Pernille With Madsen is shown that displays a shop interior in a number of surprising movements and angles. What is outside and what is inside? The static and stiff ideas of the viewer give way for the creative possibilities of the imagination.
Pernille With Madsen
Pernille With Madsen’s art video contains a number of experiments that each create productive confusion with regard to the viewer’s relationship between space and scale.
Pernille With Madsen was born in 1972 and trained at the Jutland Art Academy. She has exhibited at Kunsthal Nord, the Faculty of Fine Arts of Cuenca, Guangdong Museum of Art and many other places.
In the windowless corridor area opposite Pernille With Madsen’s art video exhibit hang two large paintings with typical Danish nature motifs from the seasons of summer and winterby Søren Martinsen. These paintings also help bring nature into the space and into the corridors of the Council building.
Søren Martinsen
Søren Martinsen’s two paintings both seem realistic and documentaristic, but through the intrusion of the artist, both works also point to a fictive inner space.
Søren Martinsen was born in 1966 and trained at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and Goldsmiths College at the University of London. He has taken part in a large number of exhibitions both in Denmark and abroad.
Contact the Danish Foreign Ministry, Hans Christian Aaskov,
hanaas@um.dk