ASMUND HAVSTEEN-MIKKELSEN THE fUTUrE bEgINS AT HoME · Alain de Botton 1 Since the Age of Reason buildings have been regarded as active and educational and with an ability to influence

ASMUND HAVSTEEN-MIKKELSEN

THE fUTUrEbEgINS AT HoME

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building appear as an ordinary model. In his choice of subject matter, he plays on a collective memory of modernism’s spaces as Havsteen-Mikkelsen is interested in the mental space that buildings are exponents for, rather than the concrete space.

——— Dynamic OppOsitesA formal characteristic of Havsteen-Mikkelsen’s paintings is the fact that they are constructed over dynamic opposites present not only externally, between two paint-ing techniques for instance, but also internally in the individual styles. At first glance the work Spacey from 2008 seems composed with clear oppo-sites as the basic principles: On the level of subject matter this is manifest as the per-sonal dwelling versus the normative architectural structure, and in the composition light is contrasted with shade, inside with outside. Stylistically one finds Concretism (the clearly defined areas of pastose paint) versus realism (the work depicts a recog-nisable room), and opposites are also evident in the actual painting style which is both clear and distinct with no traces of the brush, only elsewhere to be light, loose and expressive. Looking closer, however, the opposites are dynamically interwoven. The model for Spacey is Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye. The subject is an architectural icon, originally created as a private residence but which never functioned optimally as such, as the house in many ways was unfit to live in. This in itself is a dynamic oppo-site, one of the modernist convictions being that the rationally conceived dwelling was to be comfortable and ease everyday life; the so-called “machine for living in”. This opposite is emphasised by Havsteen-Mikkelsen’s treatment of the motif which both opens up for the universal and the personal: Most traces of life have been dis-tilled away so that the subject appears to be pure with only the minimal space gen-erating structures remaining. In a way, the dwelling has been taken back to its pure form, to the model before residence is taken up, everyday life begins, and the inhab-itants make their personal marks on the house. Expressed through painting’s form, however, still the model is personalised and its universality is wrested from it. Compositionally the opposites are evident in the tight construction of geo-metric figures; an abstraction which recalls the Concretism of the 1950s, juxtaposed by free and expressive brushwork. The painting seems to be vibrating between a synthetic purity and a saturated textural effect. The mutual dynamics of the oppo-sites are given power because Havsteen-Mikkelsen allows the contrasts to be ex-pressed within the frames of Concretism, in that an exaggerated illusionist space is introduced in the work, capturing the viewer’s gaze but to such an extent that it seems unreliable, thus breaking the illusion. In this way, the realist painting’s space, which Concretism abandoned, is present in the work but without being maintained. It is exaggerated through the formal dynamics and thus the illusion is forced back to its concrete basis: the mere paint. This subtle duality is a general device that Havsteen-Mikkelsen employs in his works, and it is present at all levels, compositionally, stylistically and in the sub-ject matter. Furthermore, in a number of paintings, Havsteen-Mikkelsen employs this duality to create an atmosphere of “the uncanny” in his works – a theme he has ex-plored in previous solo exhibitions such as Meditations on the Uncanny and

——— the mental spaces Of architectureBelief in the significance of architecture is premised on the notion that we are, for better or for worse, different people in different places – and on the conviction that it is architecture’s task to render vivid to us who we might ideally be.Alain de Botton1

Since the Age of Reason buildings have been regarded as active and educational and with an ability to influence and change people’s mental spaces. The book The Architec-ture of Happiness by Alain de Botton is a cultural historical exploration of our build-ings with the presumption that they are not merely empty shells that provide roofs over our heads; rather they are exponents of our approach to the world. Architecture affects us and helps shape our world – we both create it and are created by it. That architecture is more than a framework, that it also provides a direc-tion for our way of living and thinking our lives, is the point of departure for the art-ist Asmund Havsteen-Mikkelsen (b. 1977). The exhibition The Future Begins at Home is a large-scale exploration of the fundamental architectural ideas behind our mod-ern dwellings today, presented primarily through paintings but also through site-specific works, dialogue based projects and sculptures. Asmund Havsteen-Mikkelsen saw his breakthrough in the middle of the previous decade with his evocative Hopper inspired subjects from the edges of the big city, which emphasised places void of identity and relations such as tunnels and petrol stations. Today the architectural structures still constitute the motivic foun-dation in his works, but his spatial explorations have moved from the depiction of fringe areas and transit rooms to the canonised edifices of modernism and habita-tions of today. His painterly explorations concern the architectural frames we erect around our lives and which take part in governing the way we lead our lives. Therefore, it is a recurring feature that Havsteen-Mikkelsen selects subjects that are often canonised and normative architectural buildings, such as Le Corbusier’s 1931 Villa Savoye in Paris or Richard Neutra’s Chuey House in California from 1958. In the cases where the point of departure isn’t famous buildings, Havsteen-Mikkelsen focuses on the archi-tectural structure and has the modernist traits carry the narrative, letting the

——— uK

DrEAMS ArE THE STUff THAT ArCHITECTUrE IS MADE of

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situations familiar things suddenly become unfamiliar, intimate things strange and safe things menacing. This distancing effect or “Verfremdungseffekt” takes place in a number of Havsteen-Mikkelsen’s paintings through their pictorial reduction, the striking cropping and the evocative mood attained through the colours’ derealised values. On a critical level, this aesthetic strategy in itself becomes a statement on the ability of architectural structures to produce Verfremdung where ideally they ought to produce freedom.

CHuEy HOuSE, 2008

Estrangement City. The term is derived from Sigmund Freud’s text “Das unheimliche” from 1919. Das unheimliche means the scary, creepy, directly translated “the un-home-ly”. With this ambiguous term Freud wished to draw attention to the fact that the familiar and intimate everyday rooms that surround us have an immanent abili-ty to turn into their opposite. With this he meant that the structures and forms of rationality on which our behavioural patterns are based, have an ability to make themselves independent and thus alienate us – the users – from them. In these

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is manifest in form as well as in painting style. The works appear as a closed form, free of inherent references to the world beyond and thus also free of references to the artist and his hand in the creation process. Their works are experimental explo-rations of creations of space. Richard Mortensen denoted the space in his works from this period “the egg shaped space” – a space which was both concave and con-vex, built from surface and line, and which worked against a classically perspectival space. Gunnar Aagaard Andersen took the space experiments to the next level, or-ganising his works from principles of repetition and fixed structures, making the re-pudiation of subjectivism increasingly concrete, and anticipating some of the explo-rations made by 1960s Minimalism. His works, however, also open up to an archi-tectural field, a social space, and compared with Havsteen-Mikkelsen, this move-ment is interesting because here is a connection between painting’s spatial experi-ments and the space of architecture. Havsteen-Mikkelsen expands Concretism’s ex-plorations by making them figurative – by allowing them expression in a figurative space which, however, is never pure figuration because the spaces either open too much or reject the viewer with their materiality, making it impossible to sustain the illusion – a device which is most evident in the works Spacey and Garage.

——— abstractiOn anD realism – a paraDOx anD a pOssibilityyet, Concretism isn’t the only player on the field, for Havsteen-Mikkelsen also em-ploys an expressive idiom and the meanings associated with it. The expressivity be-comes an element that adds meaning to the works, as a stylistic device which opens up to personal and intimate aspects; the quick, loose brushstroke versus the sharply delineated field as manifest for instance in the work Spacey. Generally, abstraction is a keystone in Havsteen-Mikkelsen’s paintings, whether the issue is Concretism’s geometric and universally founded abstraction (in e.g. The Institution) or an expressive and subjectivally borne abstraction (such as the work The Escape Button). It is evident in works such as Silo, 2010, Living Cells, 2011, and Shadows in the House, 2008, but also present as a compositional principle in works such as Garage, 2010, and Rotaprint, 2010. This insistence on the significance of the abstract may seem like a contradiction in terms, in that the works operate within a realistic field with clear subjects and illusionist spaces. However, it becomes obvious if one realises the fact that every stroke and figure has an abstract meaning which goes beyond form itself and supports the statements presented in the subject matter. Havsteen-Mikkelsen’s complete and poignant works emerge in the interplay between the formal-abstract layer and the incorporation of the art and architecture historical references into the work’s totality. In the work Living Cells the window openings in the architectural façade are treated as paintings from Abstract Expressionism: Mark Rothko in one window, Barnett Newman in the other. On the other hand, the façade’s industrial severity, the repetition of uniform habitation cells and the seriality with which the building appears recall Gunnar Aagaard Andersen’s Concretism and the subsequent Minimalism in the 1960s when artists such as Donald Judd and Robert Morris in their sculptures avoided a personal artistic expression by basing their works on in-dustrially produced modules. Havsteen-Mikkelsen employs stylistic traits from two opposite tendencies, Concretism and Minimalism on the one hand, Abstract

——— active use Of traDitiOnHavsteen-Mikkelsen works actively with the tradition of painting, drawing heavily on the explorations made in the past sixty years by movements such as Concretist painting; explorations whose results are continued and at the same time developed in his work practice, in that they support and offer substance to the themes he deals with in his subject matter. He uses Concretism as form; it lies beneath his subjects, pulsating, giving composition and space to the paintings, but he also employs the meanings that Concretism brings as art historical position. The Concretists opposed a type of painting and art borne by expressivity, spontaneity and consequently subjectivism. Works by Danish artists like Gunnar Aagaard Andersen, Albert Mertz and Richard Mortensen are characterised by geo-metric and structural strictness, and all openings which might lead to figurative ref-erences and on from there to symbolic and conceptual worlds are closed off. In their paintings the expressive brushwork – so essential to CoBrA and the subsequent Abstract Expressionism – is banned. The universal, not the personal, is key, and this

SPACEy, 2008

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abstraction is tied to the space creations of Concretism. Skreber performs the same balancing act between realism and abstraction as seen in Havsteen-Mikkelsen but where Concretism lies as an abstract undercurrent in Havsteen-Mikkelsen, in Skreber’s works it is monochromatic painting that provides the foundation. Furthermore, both artists are indebted to a painter like Luc Tuymans whose rela-tively simple subjects always open up for a story of other dimensions, allowing a col-lective remembrance to play along. For in both Havsteen-Mikkelsen and Skreber, the stories of the depicted places and spaces are a salient factor in the narratives generated in the paintings, and although completely different stories are empha-sised, both of them play on a collective remembrance, as when Havsteen-Mikkelsen takes Villa Savoye as his point of departure or Skreber Columbine High School in Colorado as his. But as explained, the personal does play a subtle role in Havsteen-Mikkelsen’s works; not in the subject matter, which assumes a collective remem-brance, but on a stylistic level where the personal angle is made via the meanings embedded in the Abstract Expressionist painting tradition. Havsteen-Mikkelsen explores architecture, which is a field that by defini-tion is collective and social. He “modelises” the depicted rooms, making them ap-pear as rooms that are familiar to us, even when we have never actually been in them. We know them because they have set a precedent for a building style that is prevalent today. At the same time Havsteen-Mikkelsen gives us the rooms anew be-cause they have been filtered through painting’s textural and spatial elements. Together the works constitute a kind of thought diagram which enables us to reflect on our space creations that are always embedded in collective patterns of meaning and thus help create society’s notions of itself. For the rooms and the buildings are not empty shells – they want something with us, they hold the requirement for a certain way of life, a certain pattern for the good life and the perfect society.

——— the architectural space anD the mental space“In reality, the architects of the Modernist movement, just like all their predecessors, wanted their houses to speak. … They wanted their houses to speak of the future, with its promise of speed and technology, democracy and science. … Despite their claims to a purely scientific and reasoned approach, the relationship of Modernist architects to their work remained at base a romantic one: they looked to architecture to support a way of life that appealed to them. Their domestic buildings were conceived as stage sets for actors in an idealised drama about contemporary existence.”2

In The Architecture of Happiness Alain de Botton points out that in some parts of the architectural Modernism, one finds an undercurrent of future optimism that is an expression of how the perfect life is to be lived and arranged. This aspect of modernism is key in Havsteen-Mikkelsen’s works, but viewed from a contempo-rary context and with a knowledge of the criticism levelled at modernist architec-ture since the ‘60s. When modernism today fascinates Havsteen-Mikkelsen, it is precisely because it grappled with that aspect of architecture, that it implicitly holds a demand for a certain way of life – a recipe for the good life. That architecture thus is presumed to affect one’s mental state is not new. Since the revolutionary architects’ reflections in the Age of Reason, this aspect has been, if not at the heart of, then at least an important factor in the creation

Expressionism on the other. The focus for Abstract Expressionism is the actual act of painting, making the work characterised by the painter’s personal imprint. It is a different matter with the Minimalist works in which the mechanically produced modules show no sign of human interaction in their creation process. In Living Cells these two radically different artistic creation strategies are combined; the industri-ally manufactured versus the personally borne. The windowpanes open up for indi-viduality in the work’s appearance but are all locked into the overall grid, into the very architectural structure. In this way, Havsteen-Mikkelsen employs the stylistic and compositional planes to comment on the level of subject matter (a newly erected housing estate in the Ørestaden neighbourhood), thus making a subtle comment on the way in which we live and build today, where what should be open spaces and planes turn into structures that lock individuality. The same strategy is evident in the work The Institution, 2009, in which ex-pressiveness has been downplayed and is only present in a few red strokes. The painting is dominated by geometric figures in cool greens and blues and with a clear separation between the individual planes. On a stylistic level this becomes a state-ment about the precedence of the universal over the personal. The depicted institu-tion appears created for universal purposes, despite an everyday life in which peo-ple are in and use the rooms, but the rooms are unreal, making the viewer critically question the way in which institutions today legitimise themselves. Were they made for the users or for their own sake?In the aesthetic strategy that Havsteen-Mikkelsen employs, the communicative power of the stylistic elements is added to the themes suggested by the subjects and titles; at the same time he stretches and alters the boundaries of the realistic paint-ing.

——— revitalising realism in paintingHavsteen-Mikkelsen is revitalising realism in painting both through his use of ab-straction in the composition and his use of the narrative force of realism without abandoning its textural nature. This is a trend evident in a broad spectrum of con-temporary painters, including Tal R, Kaspar Bonnén and John Kørner, and outside of a Danish context in painters such as Luc Tuymans, Matthias Weischer, Gerhard Richter, Peter Doig, Dirk Skreber and Clara Klein, to name but a few. Despite differ-ences, a common denominator for these artists is that they work with figuration in painting while drawing on experiences from other media and genres, such as con-ceptual art, as well as the experiences inherent in abstract painting. To a large part of these artists, the personal and intimate space is an essen-tial issue. This applies to Tal R and Kaspar Bonnén where the basis for the subject matter is everyday life, its objects and situations. Although the personal is an impor-tant feature in Havsteen-Mikkelsen’s works, it is not present in the choice of subject matter. Therefore, it seems more obvious to suggest references to artists on the in-ternational stage as those mentioned above, whose subjects are more universal. Klein’s abandoned rooms are rendered with such minimalism that their actual use is not evident. With no people or other clues to introduce a scale in the works, they are freed from any limited meaning and function, taking on an abstract character. The same movement is found in Havsteen-Mikkelsen’s The Institution, in which

of buildings. In the architecture of the eighteenth century, this line of thought was implemented in the creation of public institutions such as the prison system, and in Denmark this was manifest in the neoclassicist C.F. Hansen’s penitary in Copenhagen. The penitary was designed with single cells as isolation and prayer were regarded as the inmate’s road to a moral life. People were considered in the de-sign of the building; not as they were but as they should be. The architecture of modernism took the next step from public edifices to residential rooms, still with the assumption that architecture was more than a framework for the way we ex-press our lives, that it is also provided a direction for it. This is staged in a painting such as Garage, the subject of which is based on Jacques Tati’s satirical film Mon Oncle from 1958. The film is about the everyday life of the nouveau riche couple the Arpels in what should be a house with all modern amenities, a modernist gem. But something is amiss; in the absurd and funny por-trayal of the couple’s everyday life it transpires that the real inhabitants of the house are not the couple, because they are subjected to the furniture, the garden, the tech-nical installations and the house itself. They are living a modernist dream of the res-idence and life of the future but in realising that dream, the mechanics and the sys-tems take over, pushing the dreamers out on a sidetrack. They are turned into ill-placed extras in their own lives. In his book The Good Life – A Guided Visit to the Houses of Modernity, the ar-chitect Iñaki Ábalos describes the Arpels’ house as a representative of a positivist outlook.3 In this context, Madame Arpel’s brother, Monsieur Hulot, functions as the outside element that shows the distortion and the holes in the system. Where Monsieur Hulot appears as a parasite whose mere presence makes the positivist dream of the perfect life crack, similarly the expressive brushstrokes and the pure painterly and abstract fields in the work Garage function as the elements that dis-solve the realist representation. The orange railing in the bottom left corner is far more than a functional railing – it consists of expressive and painterly strokes which speak to the act of painting, referring to itself, free of a function. The orange brush-strokes seem to function as preliminary sketches in the painting but they do not sketch the composition or the figures. Rather, they are loose and expressive strokes on the dark green background that lies like an obscure maelstrom underneath the painting’s subject, tearing it free of a realistic basis. With the realism of the subject, the strokes seem without function and so contribute to the dissolution of the real-ism. And this dissolution is supported by the realism itself. The garage’s big, dark, inscrutable void sucks in the viewer’s gaze but at the same time is reserved and closed – no shapes appear from the darkness. The illusion is there but is broken by being dissolved in the disparate elements of the surface. Garage becomes a work that both deals with the necessity of retaining the dream about the future and is a re-minder that the complete rationalisation of our lives contains the danger that we cannot be present ourselves in the perfect life. In a work like The Future as a Sphere from 2011, there are clear allusions to the idealism of both the Age of Realism and modernism, but in his own way Havsteen-Mikkelsen explores their shared belief in emancipation through science. Although the subject is inspired by a building by Bernard Tschumi and Rem Koolhaas from Parc de la Villette in Paris, the sphere in the centre of the picture al-so refers to Étienne-Louis Boullée’s never erected eighteenth-century monument to LIVING CELLS (detail/detalje), 2010

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——— DK

DrøMME Er DET STof ArKITEKTUr Er gjorT Af

——— arKiteKturens mentale rumTroen på arkitekturens betydning bygger på den opfattelse, at vi på godt og ondt ændrer os med vore omgivelser – og på en overbevisning om, at det er arkitekturens opgave at give os et levende indtryk af, hvem vi ideelt set kunne være.Alain de Botton1

Siden oplysningstiden er bygninger blevet opfattet som agerende og opdragende og med en evne til at have indvirkning på og forandre menneskets mentale rum. Bogen Lykkens arkitektur af Alain de Botton er en kulturhistorisk undersøgelse af vores byg-ninger ud fra den antagelse, at de ikke blot er tomme skaller, der giver os tag over hovedet; de er derimod eksponenter for vores tilgang til verden.

Newton and to Richard Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic domes from the 1960s. The spherical motif has other references than to the history of architecture since it also opens up to allusions to fortunetelling and uncertain statements about the future, and furthermore the sphere does not offer a glimpse of the future but a distortion of the present – of the sphere’s immediate surroundings. There is a painterly oppostion between the sphere and its surroundings: Whereas the area beyond the sphere con-sists of clearly defined and separated fields in which the individual brushstrokes are not evident, the sphere is executed in a lighter, more expressive style with strokes and colours blending, only to disappear in hues of white at the top of the sphere. The future shown by the work is neither idealised nor structured but is a distorted re-flection of the future that is expressive, personal and uncertain. Thus, it is not an infatuated fascination with architecture that sustains Havsteen-Mikkelsen’s works, but a recognition of how important it is to reflect on the framework in which we live our lives. The subjects he explores are the social as-pects of the spaces and the concomitant life world with its mental space. With paint-erly means he takes the subject back to its foundation, to the model for the building, thus reacting critically to the idea behind it. Critically and deliberately he works with the traditions embedded in painting’s history, compositionally and stylistically discussing the content found in his subject matter. The strict geometric figures, the expressive brushwork and exaggerated perspective become devices that also point beyond the frame of the painting – they become statements about space creations and statements about the relationship between the personal and the social in this movement. Havsteen-Mikkelsen’s paintings are subtle explorations of the relationship between architectural and mental structures which in the overall theme of the ex-hibition become a relationship to the future. A future that begins in the home when we start to consider why we live like we do. That it isn’t architecture examining it-self, but rather another space creating medium – painting – makes the examina-tions strong and relevant. However, they reach even further, for in painting’s explo-rations of architectural structures it also explores itself in the borderland between realism and abstraction.

Dina Vester Feilberg, MA in Art History

——— (Endnotes) 1. Alain de Botton (2006): The Architecture of Happiness, page 13 • 2. Ibid, page 62-63 • 3. Iñaki Ábalos (2001): The Good Life - A Guided Visit to the Houses of Modernity, page 72.

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tilbage. Boligen er på sæt og vis ført tilbage til sin rene form, til modellen før bebo-elsen sætter ind, hverdagen træder i kraft, og beboerne sætter deres personlige præg på boligen. Men udtrykt gennem maleriets form bliver modellen alligevel personliggjort og fravristes sin almenhed. Kompositionsmæssigt kommer modsætningerne til udtryk i den stramme opbygning over geometriske figurer, en abstraktion, der leder tankerne hen mod 1950’ernes konkretisme, der modstilles af en fri og ekspressiv penselføring. Maleriet står og vibrerer mellem en syntetisk renhed og en mættet stoflighed. Modsætningernes indbyrdes dynamik får kraft, fordi Havsteen-Mikkelsen lader kontrasterne udfolde sig inden for konkretismens rammer, idet et overgjort illusi-onistisk rum spilles ind i værket, hvorved beskuerens blik fanges, men i en sådan grad, at det virker utroværdigt, og illusionen derved brydes. Det realistiske maleris rum, som konkretismen undsagde, er dermed til stede i værket, men uden at det bliver opretholdt. Det bliver overdrevet igennem den formelle dynamik, og der-med tvinges illusionen tilbage til sit konkrete udgangspunkt: Den blotte og bare maling. Denne raffinerede dobbelthed er et generelt greb, Havsteen-Mikkelsen benytter sig af i sine værker, og den udspiller sig på alle planer, kompositionsmæs-sigt, stilistisk og motivisk. I en række malerier benytter Havsteen-Mikkelsen endvidere denne dob-belthed til at skabe en stemning af ”uhjemlighed” i sine værker – et tema som han har arbejdet med i tidligere solo-udstillinger som Meditations on the Uncanny og Estrangement City. Begrebet stammer fra Sigmund Freuds tekst ”Das unheimliche” fra 1919. Oversat til dansk betyder ”Das unheimliche” ”det uhyggelige”, direkte oversat ”det uhjemlige”. Igennem dette flertydige begreb ønskede Freud at gøre opmærksom på, at de velkendte og fortrolige hverdagsrum, som omgiver os, har en indbygget evne til at slå om i deres modsætning. Med det mente han, at de strukturer og rationalitetsformer, der ligger til grund for vore handlingsmønstre, har en evne til at selvstændiggøre sig og dermed fremmedgøre os – brugerne – fra dem. I sådanne situationer bliver det hjemlige pludseligt uhjemligt, det nære fjernt, og det trygge faretruende. Denne ”fremmedgørelseslogik” udspiller sig i en række af Havsteen-Mikkelsen malerier igennem den billedlige reduktion, den markante beskæring og den atmosfæriske stemning opnået igennem farvernes de-realiserede valører. På et kritisk niveau bliver denne æstetiske strategi i sig selv til et udsagn om arkitektoniske strukturers evne til at producere fremmedgørelse, hvor de ideelt set burde skabe frihed.

——— aKtiv brug af traDitiOnenHavsteen-Mikkelsen arbejder aktivt med maleriets tradition og trækker tydelige veksler på de undersøgelser, som bl.a. det konkretistiske maleri har foretaget igen-nem de seneste 60 år. undersøgelser, hvis resultater både videreføres og samtidig udvikles i værkpraksissen, idet de understøtter og giver substans til de temaer, som han motivisk kredser om. Han benytter konkretismen som form, den ligger og dir-rer bag hans motiver og giver komposition og rum i malerierne, men han bruger også de betydninger, konkretismen bærer med sig som kunsthistorisk position. Konkretisterne opponerede mod et maleri og en kunst, der var båret af ekspressivitet, spontanitet og følgelig subjektivisme. Værker af kunstnere som

Arkitekturen øver indtryk på os og er med til at forme vores verden - vi både skaber den og bliver skabt af den. At arkitekturen er mere end en ramme, at den også er rammesættende for vores måde at leve og tænke vores liv på, er udgangspunktet for kunstneren Asmund Havsteen-Mikkelsen (f. 1977). udstillingen Fremtiden begynder hjemme er en storstilet undersøgelse af de grundlæggende arkitektoniske idéer, der ligger bag vores moder-ne boliger i dag, og den udfoldes fortrinsvis via malerier, men også gennem stedspe-cifikke værker, dialogbaserede projekter og skulpturer. Asmund Havsteen-Mikkelsen slog igennem i midten af sidste årti med sine stemningsfulde Hopper-inspirerede motiver fra storbyens randområder, der beto-nede identitets- og relationsløse steder som tunneller og tankstationer. I dag er det stadig de arkitektoniske strukturer, der er det motiviske udgangspunkt i hans vær-ker, men hans rumlige undersøgelser har bevæget sig fra skildringen af randområ-der og transitrum til modernismens kanoniserede bygninger og boligen i dag. Hans maleriske undersøgelser omhandler de arkitektoniske rammer, vi sætter op omkring vores liv, og som er med til at bestemme vores livsudfoldelse. Det er derfor et gennemgående træk, at Havsteen-Mikkelsen vælger motiver, der ofte er kanoniserede og normskabende arkitektoniske bygninger som Le Corbusiers Villa Savoye i Paris fra 1931 eller Richard Neutras Chuey House i Californien fra 1958. I de tilfælde hvor udgangspunktet ikke er kendte bygninger, fokuserer Havsteen-Mikkelsen på den arkitektoniske struktur og lader de modernistiske træk være bæ-rende, så bygningen træder frem som en almen model. I sit motivvalg spiller han på en kollektiv erindring om modernismens rum, da Havsteen-Mikkelsen er interesse-ret i det mentale rum, bygninger er eksponenter for, og ikke det konkrete rum.

——— DynamisKe mODsætninger Et formelt kendetegn ved Havsteen-Mikkelsens malerier er, at de er opbygget over dynamiske modsætninger, der ikke blot findes eksternt, mellem to maleteknikker eksempelvis, men også internt i de enkelte stilarter. Værket Spacey fra 2008 fremstår umiddelbart som komponeret med klare modsætninger som grundsten: På et motivisk plan sætter det sig igennem som den personlige bolig over for den normgivende arkitektoniske struktur, og i kompositio-nen ses lys over for skygge, inde over for ude. Stilistisk forefindes konkretisme (de klart afgrænsede felter af pastos maling) over for realisme (at værket afbilder et gen-kendeligt rum), og modsætninger sætter sig også igennem i selve malestilen, der bå-de er klar og distinkt uden antydning af penslens arbejde, for andre steder at være let, løs og ekspressiv. Men ved nærmere eftersyn er modsætningerne dynamisk indvævet i hinan-den. Forlægget for Spacey er Le Corbusiers Villa Savoye. Motivet er et arkitektonisk ikon, der oprindeligt er skabt som privatbolig, men som aldrig kom til at fungere op-timalt som sådan, da huset på flere måder var uegnet som bolig. Dette er i sig selv en dynamisk modsætning, da en modernistisk kongstanke var, at den rationelt tænkte bolig skulle være bekvem og lette hverdagen, den såkaldte ”bo-maskine”. Denne modsætning understreges af Havsteen-Mikkelsens omgang med motivet, der både åbner for det almene og det personlige: De fleste spor af liv er destilleret bort, så mo-tivet fremstår umiddelbart rent, og kun de minimale rumskabende strukturer er

18 19THE FuTuRE AS A SPHERE, 2010

vindue, Barnett Newman i det andet. På den anden side leder facadens industrielle strenghed, gentagelsen af ensrettede boligceller, og den serialitet bygningen frem-træder med, tanken hen på Gunnar Aagaard Andersens konkretisme og den efterføl-gende minimalisme i 1960’erne, hvor kunstnere som Donald Judd og Robert Morris i deres skulpturer undveg et personligt kunstnerisk udtryk ved at basere deres vær-ker på industrielt fremstillede moduler. Havsteen-Mikkelsen gør brug af stilistiske træk fra to modsatrettede tendenser, konkretismens og minimalismens på den ene side, og abstrakt ekspressionisme på den anden. Omdrejningspunktet for den ab-strakte ekspressionisme er selve maleakten, hvorved værket bæres af malerens per-sonlige aftryk. Ganske anderledes forholder det sig i de minimalistiske værker, hvor de maskinelt fremstillede moduler ikke bærer tegn på menneskelig interaktion i til-blivelsesprocessen. I Living Cells kombineres disse to radikalt forskellige kunstneri-ske skabelsesstrategier, det industrielt fremstillede over for det personligt bårne. Vinduesruderne åbner for en individualitet i fremtrædelsen, men er alle fastlåst i det overordnede grid, i selve den arkitektoniske struktur. Hermed benytter Havsteen-Mikkelsen de stilistiske og kompositionsmæssige planer til at kommentere det moti-viske plan (et nyopført boligbyggeri i Ørestaden), og dermed udarbejde en raffineret kommentar til vores måde at bo og bygge på i dag, hvor det, der skulle være åbne rum og planer, bliver strukturer der låser individualiteten. Samme strategi træder tydeligt frem i værket The Institution, 2009, hvor det ekspressive udtryk er trængt i baggrunden og kun forefindes i få røde strøg. Maleriet

Gunnar Aagaard Andersen, Albert Mertz og Richard Mortensen er karakteriseret af geometrisk og strukturel strenghed, og alle åbninger, der kan lede til figurative hen-visninger og videre derfra til symbolske og begrebslige verdener, er lukket. I maleri-erne er den ekspressive penselføring — der er så væsentlig i CoBrA og den efterføl-gende abstrakte ekspressionisme – bandlyst. Det er det almene, og ikke det personli-ge, der er i centrum, og dette giver sig udtryk i form såvel som i malestil. Værkerne fremstår som en sluttet form, løsrevet fra iboende referencer til verden uden for dem, og hermed også løsrevet fra referencer til kunstneren og hans hånd i tilblivel-sesprocessen. Deres værker er eksperimenterende undersøgelser af rumdannelser. Richard Mortensen benævnte rummet i sine værker fra den periode som ”det ægfor-mede rum” – et rum der både gik indad og udad, opbygget via flade og streg, og som arbejdede imod et klassisk perspektivisk rum. Gunnar Aagaard Andersen tog rum-eksperimenterne videre og organiserede sine værker ud fra principper om gentagel-se og faste strukturer, hvorved undsigelsen af subjektivismen blev yderligere kon-kret, og foregreb nogle af de undersøgelser, 1960’ernes minimalisme foretog. Men hans værker åbner sig også over for et arkitektonisk felt, et socialt rum, og i forhold til Havsteen-Mikkelsen bliver denne bevægelse interessant, fordi der her ligger en forbindelse mellem maleriets rumlige eksperimenter og arkitekturens rum. Havsteen-Mikkelsen udbygger konkretismens undersøgelser ved at gøre dem figu-rative – ved at lade dem udfolde sig i et figurativt rum, der dog aldrig er ren figurati-on, for rummene enten åbner sig for meget eller afviser beskueren i kraft af deres materialitet, således at illusionen aldrig kan opretholdes – et greb der træder tyde-ligt frem i værkerne Spacey og Garage.

——— abstraKtiOn Og realisme – et paraDOKs Og en muligheD Dog, konkretismen er ikke den eneste spiller på banen, for Havsteen-Mikkelsen be-nytter sig ligeledes af et ekspressivt formsprog og de betydninger, der knytter sig hertil. Ekspressiviteten bliver et betydningsskabende element i værkerne, som et sti-listisk greb, der åbner for det personlige og nære; det hurtige og løse penselstrøg overfor det skarpt afgrænsede felt, som det eksempelvis kommer til udtryk i værket Spacey. Overordnet betragtet er abstraktionen en grundsten i Havsteen-Mikkelsens malerier, hvadenten det drejer sig om konkretismens geometriske og alment bårede abstraktion (eksempelvis The Institution), eller en ekspressiv og subjektivt båret ab-straktion (så som værket The Escape Button). Det træder tydeligt frem i værker som Silo, 2010, Living Cells, 2011 og Shadows in the House, 2008, men er også til stede som kompositionsprincip i værker som Garage, 2010 og Rotaprint, 2010. Denne insiste-ring på det abstraktes betydning kan umiddelbart synes som en selvmodsigelse, i og med at værkerne opererer inden for et realistisk felt med klare motiver og illusioni-stiske rum. Men det bliver klart, hvis man begriber det forhold, at hvert strøg og fi-gur har en abstrakt betydning, der rækker udover selve formen og understøtter de udsigelser, der lægges frem via motivet. Havsteen-Mikkelsens helstøbte og præg-nante værker opstår i samspillet mellem det formelt-abstrakte lag og så indarbejdel-sen af de kunst – og arkitekturhistoriske referencer i værkets helhed. I værket Living Cells bliver vinduesåbningerne i den arkitektoniske facade behandlet som malerier fra den abstrakte ekspressionisme, Mark Rothko i det ene

21

er domineret af geometriske figurer holdt i kølige grønne og blå nuancer og med klar adskillelse planerne imellem. På det stilistiske niveau bliver dette til en udsigel-se om det almenes forrang frem for det personlige. Den afbillede institution fremstår som skabt med almene forhold for øje, uagtet en hverdag hvor mennesker bruger og færdes i rummene, og med uvirkelige rum, der får én til at stille kritisk spørgsmåls-tegn ved måden, hvorpå institutioner i dag legitimerer sig selv. Er de til for brugerne eller for deres egen skyld? I den æstetiske strategi, Havsteen-Mikkelsen benytter, føjes stilistiske ele-menters udsigelseskraft til de temaer, motiverne og titlerne anslår, samtidig med at han strækker og ændrer grænserne for det realistiske maleri.

——— revitalisering af realismen i malerietHavsteen-Mikkelsen er med til at revitalisere realismen i maleriet både igennem hans brug af abstraktionen i kompositionen og hans brug af realismens fortællekraft uden at undsige dets stoflige karakter. Det er en tendens, der ses hos et bredt spek-trum af samtidige malere, så som Tal R, Kaspar Bonnén og John Kørner, og uden for en dansk sammenhæng hos malere som Luc Tuymans, Matthias Weischer, Gerhard Richter, Peter Doig, Dirk Skreber og Clara Klein, for blot at nævne nogle få. Forskelle til trods, er en fællesnævner for disse kunstnere, at de arbejder med figurationen i maleriet, samtidig med at de trækker på erfaringer fra andre me-dier og genrer som eksempelvis konceptkunsten, samt på de erfaringer der ligger indlejret i det abstrakte maleri. For en stor del af disse kunstnere er det personlige og nære rum et omdrej-ningspunkt. Det gør sig gældende for Tal R og Kaspar Bonnén, hvor motivernes ud-gangspunkt er hverdagen, dens objekter og situationer. Selvom det personlige er et væsentligt træk i Havsteen-Mikkelsens værker, så sætter dette sig ikke igennem i motivvalget. Det ligger derfor mere ligefor at opsætte referencer til kunstnere på den internationale scene som de ovenfor nævnte, hvis motiver er af mere almen ka-rakter. Kleins mennesketomme rum er gengivet så minimalistisk, at den egentlige brug af dem ikke skinner igennem. uden mennesker og andre rettesnore, der ind-sætter en skala i værkerne, løses de fra en bunden mening og funktion og antager en abstrakt karakter. Samme bevægelse spores i Havsteen-Mikkelsens The Institution, hvor abstraktionen er bundet op på konkretismens rumdannelser. Skreber foretager samme balancegang mellem realisme og abstraktion, som ses udfoldet hos Havsteen-Mikkelsen, men hvor det er konkretismen, der ligger som den abstrakte understrøm hos Havsteen-Mikkelsen, så er det det monokrome maleri, der danner grund i Skrebers værker. ydermere står begge kunstnere i arv til en maler som Luc Tuymans, hvis relativt enkle motiver altid åbner for en historie af andre dimensio-ner og lader en kollektiv erindring spille med. For hos både Havsteen-Mikkelsen og Skreber er de afbillede steder og rums historier en væsentlig faktor i de fortællinger, der genereres i malerierne, og selvom det er vidt forskellige historier, der betones, så spiller de i begge tilfælde på en kollektiv erindring, som når Havsteen-Mikkelsen ta-ger afsæt i Villa Savoye eller Skreber i Columbine High School i Colorado. Men som der er gjort rede for tidligere, så spiller det personlige på raffineret vis alligevel med i Havsteen-Mikkelsens værker, ikke i motivkredsen, der forudsætter en kollektiv erindring, men på et stilistisk plan, hvor det personlige snit bliver lagt via de betyd-THE INSTITuTION (detail/detalje), 2009

22 23

er ægteparret, for de er underordnet møblementet, sti-anlægget, de tekniske instal-lationer og huset i sig selv. De udlever en modernistisk drøm om fremtidens bolig og liv, men i realiseringen af drømmen tager mekanikken og systemerne over og skub-ber de drømmende ud på et sidespor. De bliver gjort til malplacerede statister i deres egen hverdag. I bogen The good life – A guided visit to the houses of modernity lader arkitekten Iñaki Ábalos ægteparret Arpels hus være repræsentant for et positivistisk tankesæt.3 Fru Arpels bror, Monseiur Hulot, fungerer i denne sammenhæng som det udefra-kommende element, der viser skævheden og hullerne i systemet. Hvor filmens Monsieur Hulot optræder som en parasit, hvis blotte tilstedeværelse får den positi-vistiske drøm om det perfekte liv til at slå revner, så fungerer på tilsvarende vis de ekspressive strøg og de rent maleriske og abstrakte felter i værket Garage som de elementer, der ophæver den realistiske repræsentation. Det orange rækværk i ne-derste venstre hjørne er langt mere end et funktionelt rækværk – det består af eks-pressive og maleriske strøg, der taler om maleakten og henviser til sig selv, løsrevet fra en funktion. De orange strøg fungerer umiddelbart som optegningsstreger i ma-leriet, men det er ikke kompositionen eller figurerne, de optegner. Derimod er de lø-se og ekspressive strøg på den mørkegrønne baggrund, der ligger som en dunkel malstrøm under maleriets motiv, og løsriver det fra en realistisk grund. For motivets realisme virker strøgene funktionsløse og bidrager dermed til realismens opløsning. Og denne opløsning understøttes i realismen selv. Garagens store, mørke uudgrun-delige dyb suger beskuerens blik til sig, men er på samme tid afvisende og lukket – der trænger ingen former ud af mørket. Illusionen er der, men brydes ved at blive opløst i billedfladens forskelligartede elementer. Garage bliver til et værk, der på én gang handler om nødvendigheden af at fastholde drømmen om fremtiden, og samti-dig er en påmindelse om, at den fuldstændige rationalisering af vores liv rummer fa-ren for, at vi ikke selv kan være til stede i det perfekte liv. I et værk som The Future as a Sphere fra 2011 er der klare referencer til både oplysningstidens og modernismens idealisme, men Havsteen-Mikkelsen problema-tiserer på sin egen måde deres fælles tro på forløsningen igennem videnskab. Selvom motivet er inspireret af en bygning af Bernard Tschumi og Rem Koolhaas fra Parc de la Villette i Paris, så refererer den sfæriske kugle i billedets midte også til Étienne-Louis Boullées aldrig opførte monument over Newton fra 1700-tallet og til Richard Buckminster Fullers geodesiske kupler fra 1960’erne. Det sfæriske motiv har ikke udelukkende referencer til arkitekturhistorien, men åbner også for allusio-ner til spådomskraft og usikre udsigelser om fremtiden, og ydermere er det ikke fremtiden, kuglen giver et indblik i, men en forvrængning af nutiden — af kuglens umiddelbare omgivelser. Der er maleteknisk en modsætning mellem kuglen og dens omgivelser: Hvor området uden for kuglen består af klart definerede og adskilte fel-ter, hvor de enkelte penselstrøg ikke træder frem, så er kuglen udført mere let og ekspressivt, og strøg og farver glider over i hinanden for helt at forsvinde i toner af hvidhed i kuglens øverste del. Den fremtid, værket viser, er hverken idealiseret eller struktureret, men er en forvrænget spejling af nutiden, der er ekspressiv, personlig og uvis. Det er således ikke en forblændet fascination af arkitektur, der bærer Havsteen-Mikkelsens værker, det er derimod en erkendelse af, hvor vigtigt det er at reflektere over de rammer, vi lever vores liv igennem. Det er rummenes sociale

ninger, der er indlejret i den abstrakt ekspressionistiske maletradition. Havsteen-Mikkelsen undersøger arkitekturen, som er et felt, der per defini-tion er kollektivt og socialt. Han ”modelliserer” de skildrede rum, så de fremtræder som kendte rum for os, også uden at vi konkret har været i dem. Vi kender dem, for-di de har skabt præcedens for en byggestil, der er fremherskende i dag. Samtidig gi-ver Havsteen-Mikkelsen rummene til os på ny, fordi de er filtreret igennem maleri-ets stoflighed og rum. Værkerne danner tilsammen et slags tanke-diagram, som gi-ver os mulighed for at reflektere over vores rumdannelser, der altid er indlejret i kol-lektive betydningsmønstre, og dermed er med til at skabe samfundets forestillinger om sig selv. For rummene og bygningerne er ikke tomme skaller – de vil os noget, de rummer fordringen om en bestemt livsform, et bestemt mønster for det gode liv og det perfekte samfund.

——— Det arKiteKtOnisKe rum Og Det mentale rum”I virkeligheden ønskede de modernistiske arkitekter, ligesom alle deres forgængere, at få de-res huse til at tale. … De ønskede, at deres huse skulle tale om fremtiden, med alle dens løfter om fart og teknologi, om demokrati og videnskab. …. Selv om de modernistiske arkitekter hævdede, at de havde en rent videnskabelig og fornuftsbetonet tilgang til deres arbejde, ved-blev deres forhold til deres profession med at være romantisk. De sørgede for, at arkitekturen understøttede en livsform, som de holdt af. Deres boligbyggerier var udtænkt som scenear-rangementer for aktører i et lærestykke om den moderne tilværelse.”2

I Lykkens arkitektur påpeger Alain de Botton, at der i visse dele af den arki-tektoniske modernisme findes en understrøm af fremskridtsoptimisme, der er et ud-tryk for, hvordan det perfekte liv skal leves og indrettes. Dette aspekt ved modernis-men er et omdrejningspunkt i Havsteen-Mikkelsens værker, men betragtet ud fra en nutidig kontekst og med en viden om den kritik den modernistiske arkitektur har været udsat for siden 60’erne. Når modernismen fascinerer Havsteen-Mikkelsen i dag, skyldes det netop, at den tog livtag med det aspekt af arkitekturen, at den impli-cit rummer en fordring om en bestemt form for livsudfoldelse — en opskrift på det gode liv. At arkitektur på denne vis antages at indvirke på mentaliteten er ikke noget nyt. Siden revolutionsarkitekternes overvejelser fra oplysningstiden har dette for-hold, om end ikke været i centrum, så spillet en betydning i skabelsen af bygnings-værker. I 1700-tallets arkitektur blev tankegangen implementeret i skabelsen af of-fentlige institutioner så som fængselsvæsenet, og i Danmark satte det sig eksempel-vis igennem i nyklassicisten C.F. Hansens arresthus i København. Arresthuset blev indrettet med enkeltceller, da isolation og bøn blev anset som den indsattes vej til et moralsk liv. Mennesket blev tænkt med i bygningen, ikke som det var, men som det skulle være. Modernismens arkitektur tog skridtet videre fra offentlige bygnings-værker til boligens rum, stadig med den forudsætning, at arkitekturen var mere end en ramme for livsudfoldelse, den var rammesættende for denne. Dette iscenesættes i et maleri som Garage, der som motivisk udgangspunkt har Jacques Tatis satiriske film Mon Oncle fra 1958. Filmen omhandler det nyrige ægtepar Arpels hverdag, i hvad der skulle være et hus med alverdens moderne be-kvemmeligheder, en modernistisk perle. Men noget er galt, i den absurde og mor-somme fremstilling af parrets hverdag fremgår det, at husets virkelige beboere ikke

24

aspekter og den tilhørende livsverden med deres mentale rum, som han udforsker. Med maleriske midler fører han motivet tilbage til udgangspunktet, til modellen for bygningen, og skaber hermed en kritisk stillingtagen til idéen bag. Kritisk og bevidst arbejder han med de traditioner, der er indlejret i maleriets historie, til kompositi-onsmæssigt og stilistisk at problematisere det indhold, hans motiver omhandler. De stramme geometriske figurer, den ekspressive penselføring og det overgjorte per-spektiv bliver greb, der også peger ud over maleriets ramme – de bliver til udsagn om rumdannelser og udsagn om forholdet mellem det personlige og det sociale i denne bevægelse. Hans malerier er subtile undersøgelser af forholdet mellem arki-tektoniske og mentale strukturer, der i udstillingens overordnede tema bliver til et forhold til fremtiden. En fremtid der begynder hjemme, når vi begynder at overveje, hvorfor vi bor, som vi gør. At det ikke er arkitekturen, der undersøger sig selv, men derimod et andet rumskabende medie, maleriet, gør undersøgelserne stærke og ved-kommende. Men de rækker videre end som så, for i maleriets undersøgelser af arki-tektoniske strukturer undersøger det også sig selv, i grænsen mellem realisme og ab-straktion.

Dina Vester Feilberg, mag.art. i Kunsthistorie

——— (Noter) 1. Alain de Botton (2006): Lykkens arkitektur, side 13. • 2. Ibid, side 62-63. • 3. Iñaki Ábalos (2001): The Good Life - A guided visit to the houses of modernity, side 72.

(previous page/forrige side) DOMINO (detail/detalje), 2010

< MODERSIAN SPACE, 2011THE BRIDGE, 2009

< DISCOuRSE ON THE INSIDE (detail/detalje), 2010DELIRIOuS DISASTER, 2009

WHITE PRISON, 2009THE INSTITuTION, 2009 >

THE PARKING HOuSE, 2006REAL HOuSE, 2009

CHuEy HOuSE, 2008THE POOL, 2006 >

BILLBOARDS, 2007 (next page/næste side)

< OFFICE, 2008 HOTEL JuVENTuS, 2009

< HEALTH HOuSE, 2008CORRIDOR, 2006

(next page/næste side) MOuNTAIN OF SOLITuDE, 2010

< VILLA IN THE ExHIBITION, 2010THE VIEW FROM NOWHERE, 2010

(next page/næste side) GARAGE, 2010

GARAGE, 2010

ENJOy THE SHADOWS, ENJOy THE SuN, 2011AND THEN THE COuNTRySIDE?, 2011 >

< COSMIC ENERGy HOuSE, 2011HOMEMADE, 2011

THE FuTuRE AS A SPHERE, 2011

< PLAyHOuSE, 2011THE ESCAPE BuTTON, 2009

Hotel Utopia, 2007Oil crayon on paper

42 x 60 cm.Private Collection

House on a Hill, 2009Oil on Canvas

55 x 60 cm. Private Collection

Industrial City, 2010Oil on Canvas

80 x 55 cm.Courtesy of the Artist

Into the Horizon, 2008Oil on Canvas80 x 105 cm.

Private Collection

Garage, 2010Oil on Canvas103 x 155 cm.

Private Collection

Health House, 2008Oil on Canvas130 x 100 cm.

Courtesy of the Artist

Homemade, 2011Oil on Canvas190 x 155 cm.


Hotel Juventus, 2009Oil on Canvas90 x 125 cm.

Private Collection

Discourse on the Inside, 2010Oil on Canvas135 x 100 cm.

Private Collection

Driveway, 2007Oil on Canvas 134 x 184 cm.

Private Collection

Domino, 2010Oil on Canvas135 x 100 cm.


Enjoy the Shadows, Enjoy the Sun, 2011Oil on Canvas105 x 132 cm.


——— WOrKs in the exhibitiOn / værKer pÅ uDstillingen

Chuey House, 2008Oil on Canvas105 x 184 cm.

The Danish Art Foundation

Corridor, 2006Oil on Canvas100 x 130 cm.

Private Collection

Cosmic Energy House, 2011Oil on Canvas105 x 78 cm.


Delirious Disaster, 2009Oil on Canvas178 x 120 cm.

Private Collection

Accumulator, 2008Print


And then the Countryside?, 2011Oil on Canvas155 x 107 cm.


Billboards, 2007Oil on Canvas108 x 184 cm.

Private Collection

Chamber, 2009Oil on Canvas


Villa in the Exhibition, 2010Oil on Canvas178 x 120 cm.

Private Collection

Villa in the Woods, 2008Oil on Canvas150 x 100 cm.

The Danish Art Foundation

White Prison, 2009Acrylic on paper


White Squares, Black Life, 2007Pencil on Paper


The Sitting Machine, 2011Oil on Canvas140 x 80 cm.


The Staircase, 2006Oil on Canvas130 x 100 cm.

Private Collection

The View From Nowhere, 2010Oil on Canvas105 x 105 cm.


Treasure Hunt, 2010Oil on Canvas130 x 100 cm.


The Future as a Sphere, 2011Oil on Canvas153 x 182 cm.


The Institution, 2009Oil on Canvas130 x 100 cm.


The Parking House, 2006Oil on Canvas100 x 130 cm.

Private Collection

The Pool, 2006Oil on Canvas130 x 100 cm.

Collection of Claus Skovhøj Olsen

Spacey, 2008Oil on Canvas127 x 165 cm.

Private Collection

That Man will be Revolutionary who can Revolutionize Himself, 2011Oil on Canvas, 134 x 184 cm.


The Bridge, 2009Oil on Canvas105 x 184 cm.

Collection of Mr. & Mrs. Wegter

The Escape Button, 2009Oil on Canvas, 130 x 100 cm.

City of Copenhagen'sArt Collection

Real House, 2009Oil on Canvas102 x 140 cm.

Private Collection

Rotaprint, 2010Oil on Canvas105 x 134 cm.

Private Collection

Shadows in the House, 2008Oil on Canvas


Silo, 2010Oil on Canvas132 x 100 cm.

Private Collection

Modersian Space, 2011Oil on Canvas184 x 105 cm.


Mountain of Solitude, 2010Oil on Canvas


Office, 2008Oil on Canvas130 x 100 cm.

Private Collection

Playhouse, 2011Oil on Canvas


60 61

——— cv

ASMuND HAVSTEEN-MIKKELSENb. 1977, Aeroe, Denmark.

www.asmundhavsteen.net

——— eDucatiOn / uDDannelse 2003-09 MFA, Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen.2007-08 Hochschule für Bildende Kunst, Hamburg.2004-05 CCA Research Program, Kitakyushu, Japan. 1996-03 MA in literature and philosophy, university of Copenhagen.

——— sOlO exhibitiOns / sOlO uDstillinger 2011 The Future Begins at Home, Rønnebæksholm, Denmark.2010 Estrangement City, Politikens Galleri, Copenhagen. Meditations on the Uncanny, Helene Nyborg Contemporary, Copenhagen. 2008 Life in the Box, Helene Nyborg Contemporary, Copenhagen. 2007 Supernumeral (with Emil W. Hertz), Marstal Museum, Aeroe.2006 Mentalscapes, Helene Nyborg Contemporary, Copenhagen. Frontal/Sideways, The Scandinavian House, Prague.2004 Melting Barricades (with Inuk Silis Høegh), North Atlantic House, Copenhagen, and Katuaq, Nuuk, Greenland. Collapsing Structures (with Rune Søchting and Jonas Olesen), The Projectroom, Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen.

——— selecteD grOup exhibitiOns / uDvalgte gruppe uDstillinger2011 Enter II, Kunsthallen Brandts, Odense, Denmark. Radical Adults II, Galerie Barbara Seiler, Zürich. Summer Salon, Helene Nyborg Contemporary, Copenhagen. Primitive Accumulation, Fold Gallery, London. Uferhallen Kunstaktien, uferhallen, Berlin. 3-1 Kunstauktion, Kunsten, Aalborg. Painterly Delight II, ystad Konstmuseum, Sweden. 2010 Geist III, Auguststr. 17, Berlin. No Food No Drink No Sticky Lollies, Stadtbad Wedding, Berlin. Painterly Delight, Art Centre Silkeborg Bad, Denmark. Greetings to Ib Geertsen, Danish Graphic Center, Copenhagen. Radical Adults, The Forgotten Bar Project, Berlin. CRW – Contemporary Reflections on Warfare, BKS Garage, Copenhagen. Copenhagen City Art Collection 2006-2009, Copenhagen. The Hello Show, Helene Nyborg Contemporary, Copenhagen. Art in the Blood, utzon Center, Aalborg. A Formal Figure, Galerie im Regierungsviertel, Berlin. 2009 Out of Wedding, uferHallen, Berlin.

——— list Of WOrKs illustrateD / liste Over gengivne værKer

Domino, 2010Oil on Canvas135 x 100 cm.

Modersian Space, 2011Oil on Canvas184 x 105 cm. The Bridge, 2009Oil on Canvas105 x 184 cm.

Discourse on the Inside, 2010 Oil on Canvas135 x 100 cm.

Delirious Disaster, 2009 Oil on Canvas178 x 120 cm.

White Prison, 2009 Acrylic on paper 73 x 53 cm.

The Institution, 2009 Oil on Canvas130 x 100 cm.

Real House, 2009 Oil on Canvas102 x 140 cm.

The Parking House, 2006Oil on Canvas100 x 130 cm.

Chuey House, 2008 Oil on Canvas184 x 105 cm.

The Pool, 2006 Oil on Canvas130 x 100 cm.

Billboards, 2007 Oil on Canvas108 x 184 cm.

Office, 2008Oil on Canvas130 x 100 cm.

Hotel Juventus, 2009 Oil on Canvas90 x 125 cm. Health House, 2008 Oil on Canvas130 x 100 cm.

Corridor, 2006 Oil on Canvas100 x 130 cm.

Mountain of Solitude, 2010 Oil on Canvas40 x 65 cm.

Villa in the Exhibition, 2010 Oil on Canvas178 x 120 cm.

The View From Nowhere, 2010 Oil on Canvas105 x 105 cm.

Garage, 2010Oil on Canvas103 x 155 cm.

Enjoy the Shadows, Enjoy the Sun, 2011 Oil on Canvas105 x 130 cm.

And then the Countryside?, 2011 Oil on Canvas155 x 107 cm.

Cosmic Energy House, 2011 Oil on Canvas105 x 78 cm.

Homemade, 2011 Oil on Canvas190 x 155 cm.

Future as a Sphere, 2011 Oil on Canvas153 x 182 cm.

Playhouse, 2011 Oil on Canvas85 x 55 cm.

The Escape Button, 2009 Oil on Canvas130 x 100 cm

62

Formation, Halle 41, Berlin. Exit, Gl. Strand, Copenhagen.2008 Jahresausstellung, HfBK, Hamburg. InnenRaum, Galerie MøllerWitt, Aarhus, Denmark. 2007 Autolabor, Brandenburgischer Kunstverein Potsdam e.V., Germany. PT07, Vestjyllands Kunstmuseum, Tistrup, Denmark. 2006 Proverbs, Portalen, Greve, Denmark. Re-thinking Nordic Colonialism, The Living Art Museum, Nifka, Reykjavik, Iceland. Contemporary Art, Spring Exhibition, Charlottenborg, Copenhagen.2005 Total Production, Islands Brygge 83, Copenhagen.2004 Typhoon, Maeda Studio, Kitakyushu, Japan. Minority Report, Aarhus, Denmark.2003 Young Contemporary Art, Frederiks Bastion, Copenhagen and Inkonst, Malmø, Sweden.

——— bibliOgraphy / bibliOgrafi2011 Dina Vester Feilberg: Subtile Undersøgelser af Rum, Kunstmagasinet Janus, June 2011 2010 Estrangement City, Politiken, October 28th, 2010. Asmund Havsteen-Mikkelsen, Information, July 24th,, 2010. Meditations on the Uncanny, catalogue, Lettre Publishing, Copenhagen, 2010. Kunsten at føle sig hjemme, radio-interview, P1 – Vita, May, 2010. 2009 Lettre International 20 Jahre Mauerfall (visual contribution), Berlin und Europa, 2009. Beyond Architecture – Imaginative buildings and fictional cities, p. 40-41. Edited by Lucas Freireiss, Gestalten Verlag, Berlin, 2009. 2008 Melting Barricades, Sleek Magazine, Berlin, December 2008. The Way We Live Now (visual contribution), Lettre Internationale, 2008. Bente Scavenius: Klinisk renset for liv (review), Børsen, August 2008. 2007 Torben Weirup: Udflugt til Blokland, Danish Art 07, Aschehoug, Copenhagen, 2007. Jesper Rasmussen: På Kant med Byens Dybder, Kunstmagasinet Janus, September 2007. The Celeste Art Prize 2007, catalogue, London, 2007. 2006 Proverbs, catalogue, Portalen, Greve, 2006. Frontal/Sideways, catalogue, The Scandinavian House, Prague, 2006.2005 May Misfeldt: Melting Barricades, Danish Art 05, Aschehoug, Copenhagen, 2006. Intimate Absence, Patrick Huse (ed.), Delta Press, and Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Norway, 2005. CCA Research Program 2004-2005, cataloque, Kitakyushu, Japan, 2005.2004 Melting Barricades, catalogue, North Atlantic House, Copenhagen, 2004.

——— Other activities / Øvrige aKtiviteter2009-10 Founder of Büro für Urban Praktik with Boris Boll-Johansen.

64

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS / TAK:Our many thanks to everyone that have lent works to the exhibition. Thanks to the Danish Art Counsil and Børge Jakobsen & Søn for generous support to the exhibition, and thanks to the Beckett Foundation and Grosserer L.F.Foghts Foundation for support to the catalogue. / Tak til alle der har udlånt værker til udstillingen. Tak til Statens Kunstråds Billedkunstudvalg og Børge Jakobsen & Søn A/S for støtte til udstillingen, og tak til Beckett Fonden og Grosserer L.F. Foghts Fond for støtte til kataloget.

WE ALSO WISH TO THANK / VI ØNSKER OGSå AT TAKKE: Ivan Andersen, Helene Nyborg Andersen, Hanna Bergman, Anders Bjerre, Boris Boll-Johansen, Claus Due, Anna Engberg-Pedersen, Søren Fahnøe, Ceci-lia Froger, Cecil Boysen Haarder, Poul Qvist Hansen, Andreas Harbsmeier, Caroline Engberg Havsteen, Johan Engberg Havsteen, Collette Havsteen-Mik-kelsen, Hvejsel Transport, Peter Fugl Jakobsen, Søren Lose, Kirstine Ersbøll Meyhoff, Karsten Wind Meyhoff, ulrik Møller, Lea Nielsen, Troels Helmer Nielsen, Joakim Quistorff-Refn, Steffen Rayburn-Maarup, Andreas Ruby, Ilka Ruby.

This catalogue is published on the occasion of the exhibition The Future Begins at Home at Rønnebæksholm, Næstved, August 14th – October 2nd 2011. / Dette katalog er publiceret i forbindelse med udstillingen Fremtiden Begynder Hjemme på Rønnebæksholm, Næstved, 14. august – 2. oktober 2011.

Editor / Redaktør: Dina Vester Feilberg & Asmund Havsteen-MikkelsenCopy-editor / Korrektur: Søren Fahnøe & Collette Havsteen-MikkelsenTranslation / Oversættelse: Steffen Rayburn-MaarupDesign: Claus Due, DesignbolagetPhotographer / Fotograf: Lea NielsenPrinter / Trykkeri: Clausen Offset

© 2011 Asmund Havsteen-Mikkelsen & RønnebæksholmNo part of this catalogue may be used or reproduced in any matter whatsoever without written permission excerpt in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. / Brug eller kopiering af dele af dette katalog er ikke tilladt uden skriftlig tilla-delse, undtaget herfra er korte uddrag til brug i anmeldelser og kritiske artikler.

This catalogue is kindly supported by / Dette katalog er udgivet med støtte fra Grosserer L.F.Foghts FondBeckett Fonden

ISBN: 978-87-992059-8-1

This project is supported by The Danish Arts Council / Projektet er støttet af Statens Kunstråds Billedkunstudvalg:

Main sponsor / Storsponsor:

Documents

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