Knut Asdam

Galleria Sonia Rosso, Pordenone
Through June 30

In his first Italian solo show, which has been organized to coincide with an exhibition at the Kunsthaus Glarus in Switzerland, Kunt Asdam has transformed the gallery into a dark, bare space where the visitors not only assist in the video projection, but also become completely involved with it, drawn in by sounds, noises, voices; almost overwhelmed by the grandiosity of nature which extends along one of the walls. Anonymous bodies dance, framed from the shoulders the monotonous rhythm of music and by a warped speech, voicing a complicated monologue.

These bodies brush against each other, touch, draw apart, lending a powerful erotic charge to the shabby space of an imaginary pub. The dance is one of liberation, in which the body moves instinctively, freed from the mechanical rhythm imposed upon it by contemporary society, whose presence is evoked in the video with images of buildings under construction. These types of rituals demand the blackness of night, to create moments in which the rational is defeated and unconscious fear is overcome.

The video installation, entitled Cluster Praxis, is accompanied by eight photographs mounted on aluminum which elaborate the theme of night and desire. Luminous points shine out from images of houses enveloped in darkness; identifiable as windows, they allow the invasion upon fragments of life. In so doing, Asdam distances himself from the studious analysis of mere space, preferring to examine how certain atmospheres assume social and emotional connotations.

Having started from an inquiry into the forms of psychosis that can arise from the rapport between subjects and their surrounding reality - the work presented at the Venice Biennale in 1999 was an example of it, from the series which is pertinently titled “Psychastenia” - the Danish artist seems to have arrived at a vision concerning the issue of space that is more complete and mature. Asdam now considers it in relation not only to the subject, but also, and more importantly, to contemporary society, with its own created myths and the with the escape fantasy that it inevitably induces.




Francesca Turchetto
Translation by Amanda Coulson