Jes Brinch: Unlearning reality – dissolving self

The Danish visual artist Jes Brinch had been living and working in Vietnam since 2003. At the exhibition at Gallery Kirke Sonnerup, an ambitious installation by the artist was presented, marking the first major exhibition of Jes Brinch’s installation art in Denmark in three years.

Jes Brinch used the fantastical in the encounter between different cultures as an artistic source of inspiration and a positive driving force in his work.

One of the exhibition’s focal points was cultural relativity and the thought-provoking differences between Denmark and Vietnam, as well as contrasting lifestyles, values, and symbols.

The installation’s elements consisted of objects collected in Vietnam, typical of Vietnamese culture but perceived as strange and peculiar through Western eyes, combined with imaginative works created by the artist. Everything was assembled into an entertaining total installation designed specifically for the exhibition space.

On a deeper level, the exhibition was about abandoning one’s own cultural background, shedding ingrained Danish perceptions of reality and the limited personality shaped by cultural upbringing. The goal was not to critique any single perception of reality, but rather to challenge all perceptions, enabling them to function freely and uninhibited.

Over a period of 15 years, Jes Brinch had developed an open and dynamic working method within installation art, using improvisation and spontaneity in the construction of physical artworks, reflecting the thematic focus of the exhibition. The final result was unpredictable, as the critical part of the installation process took place during the five days leading up to the exhibition’s opening. Under all circumstances, a thought-provoking and entertaining exhibition was guaranteed, providing material for further reflection.

The exhibition was supported by the Danish Arts Council.

Public Tour with the Artist

On the opening day, a public tour with the artist took place at 1:30 PM. Visitors had the opportunity to meet the artist, hear about his thoughts and intentions for the exhibition, ask questions, and discuss the displayed works in an informal setting. Everyone was welcome.

Vu Thi Trang: Ordinary Life in Vietnam Today

Vu Thi Trang was a Vietnamese painter, born in 1974 in Thai Nguyen, a province north of Hanoi in North Vietnam. The exhibition presented a series of ten paintings by Vu Thi Trang, depicting the lives and conditions of Vietnamese women in contemporary Vietnam.

The foundation of the paintings was the artist’s own life experiences and personal encounters. The themes addressed Vietnamese everyday life in both rural and urban settings, including issues such as the oppression of women, alcoholism, violence, poverty, and the pursuit of success in the city.

Vu Thi Trang was a self-taught painter, and her artistic language was personal, simple, and direct. Her paintings provided a clear insight into the everyday lives of Vietnamese women at the time. Vu Thi Trang belonged to the generation of Vietnamese who grew up and matured after the war and who, like the majority, lived a daily life that was familiar to audiences in Denmark primarily through images. Vietnamese society was rapidly evolving and differed greatly from the Vietnam many associated with memories from 30 years earlier. Vu Thi Trang’s art offered a serious insight into the conditions of this generation in contemporary Vietnamese society.

Vu Thi Trang was a unique Vietnamese painter, contemporary and documentary in content, formally innovative and original in expression, and independent of the Vietnamese academic tradition. It was fair to say that this exhibition represented a new initiative within Vietnamese art, presented for the first time to a Danish audience.

In connection with the exhibition, a catalogue titled Vu Thi Trang: Ordinary Life in Vietnam Todaywas published, featuring reproductions of the exhibition’s ten paintings, accompanied by the artist’s commentary and the story of her life, told in a direct and personal manner. The catalogue consisted of 40 pages, with text in Danish and English.

The catalogue was published with support from the Danish Arts Council.

Vu Thi Trang

Center gallery

“dePlaced”

Stalke Galleri

Video / Performance / Installation by Bella Angora (A) and Christian Falsnaes 

Description:

“dePlaced” was a combination of a performance piece and a series of video works and was conceived as an interdisciplinary spatial project consisting of a set of interrelated elements.

Based on the fundamental theme of “displacement” (understood in relation to the positioning of the individual within social and metaphysical structures), a sequence of audio, video, and physical actions was presented, culminating in a half-hour performance.

The interplay between video and body was a central aspect of the work. Video clips provided the framework for the performed actions, and situations arose in which the artists actively interacted with both the image and the audience. Sound, video, performance, installation, and text merged into a multimedia project that addressed fundamental thematic questions and functioned as an artistic experiment.

In addition to performing a live performance on the opening day, Bella Angora and Christian Falsnaes exhibited sculptural installations and integrated video works which, together with documentation of the performance, constituted the exhibition. The videos added an additional dimension to the “dePlaced” universe and shared the same aesthetic and content-based point of departure.

The title “dePlaced” referred to location, space, and deconstruction.

Objective:

Bella Angora and Christian Falsnaes generally aimed to challenge common perceptions of reality and the systems of norms, patterns, and linguistic forms of interaction that constituted socialized perception. Furthermore, they sought to critique norms presented as objectively true and to propose an image of a utopian universe in which the creators of reality engaged in open interaction and active positioning.

More specifically, “dePlaced” attempted to visualize the repressed feeling of being displaced in reality — in the body, in gender, and within existing systems of social norms. At the same time, “dePlaced” sought to contribute to a reinterpretation of the role of performance art within a society characterized by media consumption and information overload. The project explored the space in which the boundaries between communication art and fine art were transcended, giving rise to new forms of expression at this intersection.

Bella Angora and Christian Falsnaes

Front gallery

DEPLACED

BELLA ANGORA AND CHRISTIAN FALSNAES

PRODUCED BY STALKER GALLERI 

TEXT BY KARLHEIN PICHLER

Produced in 2006 by Stalke

Pages: 24

ISBN 87-90538-28-5

dePlaced was an exhibition and performative project by Bella Angora and Christian Falsnaes, presented at Stalke Gallery / Gallery Kirke Sonnerup. The project combined performance, video, installation, drawing, sound, and text into a multimedia practice that investigated questions of displacement, identity, and social positioning.

The works explored how individuals navigate and negotiate social, cultural, and normative structures. Central to dePlaced was the relationship between the body and mediated images, where live performance interacted with video frameworks and sculptural installations. Through this interplay, the artists examined how perception, communication, and meaning are shaped within contemporary media-saturated societies.

Angora and Falsnaes worked across genres and formats, often adopting strategies drawn from popular culture, advertising, and everyday imagery. Their practice was characterized by irony, humor, and a deliberately ambiguous aesthetic that could appear seductive, grotesque, or kitsch, while maintaining a serious critical intent. Beneath this surface, the works carried an existential and often melancholic undertone, addressing vulnerability, survival, and resistance within social systems.

dePlaced can be understood as a culmination of the duo’s collaborative practice, in which performative actions, drawings, and installations merged into crossover systems. The exhibition emphasized audience engagement, positioning the viewer not as a passive observer but as an active participant confronted with their own role within shared structures of meaning.

The catalogue texts situate dePlaced within a broader context of contemporary performative art, where the focus has shifted from autonomous objects to events, processes, and situational experiences. The project highlighted how performance and visual art intersect, creating spaces where established norms, identities, and realities are questioned and reimagined.

Text summarized from the exhibition catalogue for dePlaced.
Catalogue essay by Karlheinz Pichler (curator and art critic).

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