Permanence and versatility, identity and nature. Four major themes that structure Roni Horn's work meet, intertwine, and merge in her oeuvre, which today serves as a benchmark in the world of contemporary art. A career to discover or rediscover at the Louisiana Museum, as part of the first major solo exhibition dedicated to the artist in the Nordic countries, on view until September 1, 2024.
Acclaimed at numerous events and institutions, from the Rencontres de la Photographie d'Arles to the Pinault Collection, artist Roni Horn is featured in an exhibition at the venerable Louisiana Museum in Denmark. It should be noted that the museum is the proud owner of several of the artist's works, such as From some Thames (2000), composed of photographs of the surface of the Thames, and Untitled (The sensation of longing for an eclipse of the moon), a massive cylindrical piece of glass – a motif that recurs frequently in the American artist's work –
But above all, there is this series, comprised of some thirty photographs of the artist taken by different people over time. In these images, she is simultaneously herself and 29 other individuals. It represents the difficulty of expressing a person's identity, given how constantly it can change. This versatility is also found in Roni Horn's famous sculptures, which evoke water and its changing states. These changes can be seen in the glass blocks deliberately displayed in the museum's south wing, exposed to daylight and thus subject to variations in light, linked to the passage of time.
Another distinctive feature of this unique exhibition is the inclusion of a series of excerpts from great classic films. "The inspiration that Roni Horn
His background in cinema, his fascination with film imagery and the narrative power of images, provides a new ground on which to present his work. “Visitors to the Louisiana will move through the south wing, encountering Horn’s artworks alongside film clips, which form an active and significant part of the material that shaped the artist,” explains Poul Erik Tøjner, director of the Louisiana Museum. Among the selected films are Carl Theodor Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) as the earliest, and Lars von Trier’s Melancholia (2011) as the most recent.
The artist, a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and Yale University's School of Fine Arts, regularly borrows the grammar and techniques of the world of cinema and integrates them into her creative process. "She explores the tension between the external world, where the socially defined body predominates, and the internal world of conscious reality, where the body resides, with its impulses and desires. Throughout the exhibition, these excerpts from some of the most famous cinematic narratives in history form a parallel path to Horn's work," explains the team at the Danish museum.
“RONI HORN: THE DETOUR OF IDENTITY”
LOUISIANA MUSEUM OF MODERN ART
GL. STRANDVEJ 13, HUMLEBÆK (DENMARK)
UNTIL SEPTEMBER 1, 2024
LOUISIANA.DK
