Simone Aaberg Kærn - Open Sky

ARoS Aarhus Art Museum had the pleasure of presenting a spectacular installation that once pierced the skies above us and left hundreds of kilometres behind it. This is the suspension of the 6 metre long and 9 metre wide Piper Colt propeller plane, which is the main work in the late summer's adventurous exhibition OPEN SKY.

As a kind of ready-made, the more than 40-year-old canvas-clad veteran aeroplane is hung up in Museumsgaden as a testament to a perilous journey from Lille Skensved near Copenhagen to Kabul in war-torn Afghanistan. A route travelled by Danish pilot and artist Simone Aaberg Kærn, who against all odds and with her life at stake flew more than 6000 km in the small single-engine propeller plane from 1961. A dramatic flight that included both an illegal incursion into American air war territory and the defeat of the Hindukush mountain peak.

Simone Aaberg Kærn's ultimate goal with the travel project was the young girl in Kabul, Farial, whose greatest wish was to become a fighter pilot. As the film from the trip - 'Smiling in a Warzone' - documents, Farial single-handedly manages to pilot Simone Aaberg Kærn's small propeller plane over Kabul city. Simone Aaberg Kærn completed the 3-month journey as a metaphorical image of the sky being free for all. Even over a politically turbulent and smouldering war territory. She gave herself to her artistic statement with her life on the line and without any assurance that the mission to seek out Farial would succeed. The perilous artistic journey and the belief in good will are at the centre of the exhibition OPEN SKY, which has its Danish premiere at ARoS Aarhus Art Museum. The exhibition is shown in ARoS' 350 m3 Vestgalleriet and, in addition to the suspended aircraft in Museumsgaden, consists of the film 'Smiling in a Warzone' and art photographs from Simone Aaberg Kærns' journey.

The art film 'Smiling in a Warzone' (length: 78 min.) began when Simone, in the wake of the world's fear of air travel after 11 September 2001, read in the newspaper about a young Afghan girl named Farial, whose greatest wish was to become a fighter pilot. This was the starting point for the artist's personal and artistic mission: to teach the Afghan girl to fly. Simone Aaberg Kærn wanted to give Farial the opportunity to take to the skies and realise her dreams, just as the female fighter pilots of WW2 had done. World War II had done so. On 4 September 2002, Simone Aaberg Kærn took off in the small Piper Colt plane together with director and photographer Magnus Bejmar and set course for Afghanistan. 'Smiling in a Warzone' is an indomitable art project that bears witness to performance artist Simone Aaberg Kærn's passionate commitment to the endeavour and loving treatment of the people she meets on her way. The film is a true testimony that there is no real divide between Simone Aaberg Kærn and her projects. The artist herself is the essence of the concept's courage and power: She is her own work of art. It is the sincerity and unpredictability of the project that makes the film a true 'docu-speech': a documentary narrative structured like a classic adventure story.

The exhibition OPEN SKY takes the viewer through the historical, political and aesthetic landscape that Simone Aaberg Kærn and Magnus Bejmar travelled through to reach Kabul. The sky space proved to be both an arena of battle and home to questions of power and politics. On the other hand, Simone Aaberg Kærn maintains the sky as a sanctuary for the individual, where dreams are given free rein. This is the contradiction that the exhibition OPEN SKY unfolds with its rare aesthetic, humorous and subtle images. With air under her wings, Simone Aaberg Kærn shares her positive view of life with us: Where there is a will, there is a way. The sky is OPEN SKY..