Joana Vasconcelos - Valkyrie Rán

Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos' gigantic textile installation Valkyrie Rán hangs from the ceiling above the open space at ARoS. From here, the colourful piece meanders in and out across all floors of the museum.

The Valkyrie as a figure has existed in art, music and literature for hundreds of years. In Norse mythology, the Valkyries were a group of female powers associated with war and death. The goddesses flew over the battlefields and chose the bravest and strongest warriors. In this way, the Valkyries determined the fate of the men because they decided which warriors would survive and which warriors would fall in battle.

With Valkyrie Rán, Joana Vasconcelos has created the "Valkyrie of the North", which is not only the idea of female beauty and strength. It is also the story of the collective process and creation of the work in the artist's studio, which is staffed by 50 full-time experts (including architects, blacksmiths and seamstresses). Craft traditions that are on the verge of being lost and forgotten are reclaimed and celebrated in Valkyrie Rán, which becomes an image of slowness that stands in stark contrast to today's mechanised manufacturing.

The work was first shown in 2016 in connection with the exhibition Textures of Life. The work was subsequently acquired for the ARoS collection thanks to donations from the Augustinus Foundation and the New Carlsberg Foundation.

The textiles for the work were donated by Kvadrat.

Augustinus Fonden

Carlsbergfondet

Kvadrat