The Duck Residence project, organized by Kunstforum Viborg in Viborg, Denmark, from May 29th to June 4th, welcomed 13 artists from Denmark, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Faroe Islands, Finland, and Lithuania, through an open call into the dialogical art community. The artists worked on their projects together during one week of the residency and workshop at Vingaards Officin – Bogtrykmuseet Viborg and the artworks were installed on the lakes Jordbro Engsø, Hjarbæk Fjord, and Søndersø in Viborg and will be on view until June 27th.
The project was themed around the northern lights (aurora borealis), which displayed a wide spectrum of visual narratives on this magnificent natural phenomenon and the related mythological tales, which evolved in the Nordic countries over time. The dialogical context of the event expanded into the conversational process of work, where the works developed at Vingaards Officin were the background for the artists’ discussions on the interconnectedness of art and natural phenomena. The excitement for the artists was in creating artwork for an unpredictable environment: the water.
When the art objects meet the water surface, they are immersed in nature as the rhythms of handmade creation, commenting on or elucidating the bodily connections of humans to nature and the impact of the natural phenomena on the human body. The vast perspectives of the international art community on the natural phenomenon of the northern lights were explored through a wide spectrum of materiality, from the tree constructs, which became painting surfaces, to textile works or interactive installations. This multiplicity of materials contributed to the feeling of liminality and unpredictable dialogues of art and nature. When art meets the water’s surface, they interconnect and intertwine, the water mirroring the light and colors in the artworks. The artworks inserted into the landscape create a multiplicity of stories about the bodies affected by the northern lights. The exhibition reveals a wide range of visual aesthetic experiences, depending on the time of the day and the weather, as part of the artworks are designed to be the source of light in the dark or to react to the weather conditions.
The different views on the theme of the northern lights can be exemplified by the following artworks. In the installation “Fiskertime” by Jonna Ljósá (FO/DK) the artist refers to her authentic experience of northern lights in the Faroe Islands and the embodied effect of these phenomena on humans and nonhumans. For her, northern light intertwines with the memories from childhood and unforgettable connectedness to nature. The embodied memory becomes the trigger to a new narrative on empathy and dialogue with the natural environment, represented by the fish-like objects framed on the water’s surface. Similarly, in the artwork “Capture the Light” developed by the author of this article, the gesture-based painting refers to the author’s experience of northern lights during her two recent years of work in Finnish Lapland. When installed on water, nature becomes the frame for the painting, which gets extended and dissolved in the water via mirroring. This underlines the unity and interconnectedness of the memory and the body that carries the impact of the lived experience of the phenomenon of aurora borealis, which, for the Lithuanian author, is both exotic and magnificent. The Danish artist Karina Jensen narrates the complexity of the relationship between nature and technology through the experimental sown sculptures “Regnbuen Bifrost”, which absorb the light from the surroundings tells the story of the rainbow bridge to Valhalla as the human neverending desire for perfection.
The value of the project was in transcending the traditional exhibition format and expanding the project theme into dialogue-based experimenting and co-creating. This was possible due to Vingårds Officin becoming the site of the art production, where the artists worked side-by-side, sharing the experiences and individual narratives around the artworks. This process was open to a wide audience, as the visitors of Vingårds Officin could interact with the artists while their work was in progress. The participants of the Duck Residence in Viborg were Natasa Heydra (NL/DK), Jonna Ljósá (FO/DK), Marianne T. Pedersen (DK), Felix Pedersen (DK), Jens Rømer (DK), Marija Griniuk (LT/FI), Anja Korsgaard (DK), Karina Jensen (DK), Birgit Kvorning (DK), Bjørn Kromann-Andersen (DK), Susanne Ahrenkiel (DK), Elena Redaelli (IT/NO), and Jens Chr. Jensen (DK). The project was kindly supported by Statens Kunstfond, Viborg Kommune, and Vision Viborg. “Capture the Light” by Marija Griniuk was supported by the Lithuanian Council for Culture and Kulturfonden for Finland and Danmark.
Photo: Brigit Kvorning
Photo: Annette Gerlif
Photo: Annette Gerlif
Photo: Brigit Kvorning
Photo: Marija Griniuk
