LASSE SCHMIDT HANSEN

(b. 1978, Denmar k).
Hansen’s works have been shown at Grazer Kunstverein, Graz (2006), Museum of Kosovo, Prishtina (2005) and Portikus, Frankfurt am Main (2005).
The exhibition at Cph Kunsthal is Schmidt Hansen’s first solo exhibition in Denmark. He lives and works in Frankfurt am Main.
Lasse Schmidt Hansen presents two works, which explore the various intersections between the systems and accoutrements of natural science, exhibition spaces and their surroundings, collecting and display. The first work, “Extra ordinary”, consists of a stuffed pigeon standing on the floor of the showcase. The pigeon has been slightly altered or “styled” to match the appearance of the city pigeon, which is one of the animal species, which has most successfully managed to adapt to the urban environment. With this displacement of objects, in this case a prop which itself bears the imprint of the city, Schmidt Hansen transforms the original function of the CPH Kunsthal showcase, that of a display of commodities, into a classical museum vitrine.
This reference to museum display, the methodology of natural science, and taxonomy has been employed earlier by artists like Marcel Broodthaers and Mark Dion as ways of restructuring the categorization and exhibition practices of institutions and museums alike.
In this case, however, Schmidt Hansen is trying to create a space between the spectacular and the unspectacular, while pointing at the same time to the idea of the museum as custodian. The result is a work, which makes strong connections and purposively blurs the line between artwork, exhibit, and the living urban environment.
Some of these features are emphasized in the other work in the show as well. In ”Wall painting”, two sides of the vitrine are partly painted over with white indoor paint. Here, the paint is displayed as a substance which can be watched from all sides, and by taking the white color out of its normal context and replace it in an urban milieu it looses the purity and neutrality which is normally connected to the museum’s white cube exhibition space.

Front > KBH Kunsthal