SOUVENIRS OF GUANTANAMO BAY
By Bill Burns (CAN)

In honors of the presumed closing of the Guantanamo prison in Cuba the Canadian artist Bill Burns has decided for his exhibition at KBH Kunsthal to deal with how he imagines an everyday life will turn out as an inmate at the Gunatanamo base. With the starting point in his earlier work Boiler Suits for Primates, a work that exist of a miniature model of a kit of everything a primate get when he or she arrives at the camp, Bill Burns has in cooperation with students at Krabbesholm continued to imagine how the life might be for an inmate. In the vitrines there will for instance be on display souvenirs and postcards presumably designed by the prisoners made in smaller scale. In the exhibition an absurd humor stands out in the relation between the heavy subject and the direct and naïve way the objects appear. In that way Burns reminds us on the child’s undisturbed and innocent view on the world.

In general Bill Burns has an analyzing and reflecting view on society, which often becomes clear with the use of unaffected helpers or recipients of the works such as animals and children. This can also be seen in his work Safety Gear for Small Animals that exists of various safety gears originally designed for people but in Burns miniature model turned in to gear for small animals. By presenting an innocent view on the society, we have constructed, it becomes clear and gets us to think about the absurdity of our way of living.

Bill Burns works intensive with his art projects and often let them grow year after year. Which means that the same project can exist with new artistic approaches or be presented in various forms such as video, sound or Artist’s books. He has exhibited his projects at exhibition places such as Institute for Contemporary Art, London, KW – Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin and Museum of Modern Art, New York. The exhibition is supported by the art council artists in residence program DIVA, which has made it possible for Bill Burns to stay in Denmark for 3 months and to come to Krabbesholm and produce this exhibition together with the students from the school.