Press Release

At the Art Frankfurt '98,

Stalke Gallery Copenhagen presents a collaborative project designed especially for Art Frankfurt '98 by the two Danish artists Lars Bent Petersen and Frans Jacobi.

The project, Peoples Playground / A Slice of Toast, consists of a raised platform, from which an overview of the whole fair hall can be perceived, and an interactive sound installation, combining real-time audio footage and a filmic soundtrack. It is the intention to create a situation that raises questions but also emphasizes the market aspects of the art fair. The platform and the sound system create a situation in which the viewers’ perceptual row-lines are fictionalized in a humorous way.

Peoples Playground / A Slice of Toast is an attempt to use the fair stand in a completely different way, thus creating a distance from the conventions of the average art fair stand.

The title Peoples Playground / A Slice of Toast is referring partly to one of the songs used in the project, taken from the film soundtrack of Vampyros Lesbos, and partly to the Jamaican expression of speaking over a prerecorded track.

The viewer will experience this latter phenomenon when entering the work. This idea of interactivity is based on the idea of the "open work of art," in which it is possible for the viewer to enter a productive field in relation to the artwork, thus playing a significant part in the realization of this never-final piece that will continually differ in contact with the viewers through personal experience. It is about being yourself when you put on the headphones; through this act, you establish a private space within a public environment.

These productive aesthetic principles, on which Peoples Playground / A Slice of Toast is based, inscribe this piece in a tradition that emphasizes the productive role of the viewer and, as such, focuses on the subjectivity in the artwork experience.

Peoples Playground / A Slice of Toast is the first collaboration of the two artists, who both have long well-established solo careers within the conceptual branch of the Danish art scene.