Heroic Bodies
Rudolph Tegners Museum, Denmark

AKS MISYUTA, ALINA PEREZ, CECILY BROWN, DANIELLE MCKINNEY, DIDIER WILLIAM, ELMGREEN & DRAGSET, HARDY HILL, JENNA GRIBBON, JONATHAN LYNDON CHASE, JONNY NEGRON, KOAK, LOUIS FRATINO, NORBERT BISKY, PAOLO SALVADOR, SANDFORD BIGGERS, SASHA GORDON
​
​HEROIC BODIES 20 AUGUST - 23 OCTOBER 2022
These bodies. Who are they, who are we and what am I - when it comes down to it?​
​
Heroic Bodies brings together some of the most interesting international artists of our time, who focus on the body with their works. Quite ordinary, sexualized and desired bodies. Artists who defy possible prejudices and stand by the people they are, who start from their own reality. It's about desire and interest, but also about standing out from the "norm" without thinking about what the "norm" is. Let art reflect who you are. What the artists see...
​
We have used the term Queer quite actively in our curation, so let's attach a small disclaimer to this choice. Queer, in this context, does not refer exclusively to sexuality, gender, or sexual orientation, but rather is an active human positioning that is outside the mainstream. And that is why this angle of life makes so much sense in the context of the Tegners Museum. Because in his time, Tegner was definitely not mainstream. While his contemporaries perfected a subdued neoclassicism, Tegner championed a dynamic embrace of the body in all its heroic excesses. And it doesn't take two glances around the museum to see that Tegner was particularly preoccupied with the naked body.​
Were Tegner's contemporaries shocked by the nudity of his works? Large parts were, - but we probably tend to assume that in early times people were less tolerant of the loose and the naked than we are today. So the outrage has probably been more local than general. Today, it is not difficult to find people who are offended by nudity and eroticism. The truth is that it depends on which circles you move in and what you seek out.​
​
Heroic Bodies is an exhibition where contemporary bodies in art appear between the bodies of Tegner and involve the entire permanent exhibition. In this way, we investigate whether the look has changed? Are we seeing the same thing? Do we see them in different light? Light from the time that is our age? Maybe maybe not! Perhaps time stands still when it comes to the body. Maybe it's about what you use your body for?
​
The point is that the body is a vessel for stories, and it can be difficult to balance an expression/impression between cultural expectations and the needs of one's inner being. As such, the body is a battlefield. And Rudolph Tegner was an artist at odds with his time. The same (perhaps) also applies to many of the artists who are on Heroic Bodies
But we try. Then we'll have to see. Where we are going..​
​
As a symbol of the floating body concept, the works are hung on walls with wheels that we will move around between Tegner's works and create new synergies while the exhibition runs.

Photography credit: Kim Matthäi Leland