Jakob Kudsk Steensen – Berl-Berl

The young contemporary artist Jakob Kudsk Steensen has already made his mark on the international art scene and now appears at ARoS with his enormous, virtual, and wholly immersive artwork Berl-Berl.

4 June – 23 October 2022 • Level 1

Jakob Kudsk Steensen is a visual artist working with storytelling via 3D animations and sound. He creates immersive installations with particular focus on the climate. His work Berl-Berl is a song for the udefinable – morphing, liminal and mystical. Berl-Berl mourns what is lost and embraces what is new.

- Jakob Kudsk Steensen is an immensely interesting and very ambitious young artist whom we now proudly present at ARoS. With his work Berl-Berl, Kudsk Steensen establishes a scientific, hypnotic, and meditative link between a prehistoric landscape, a climate-conscious present, and a possible future, says Rebecca Matthews, director at ARoS.

The exhibition is located at ARoS’ level 1 where Jakob Kudsk Steensen makes use of the entire gallery space, the open space in front of the gallery, and the staircase leading down to it to create a total experience. The architecture has been entirely given over to the virtual and sensory universe of the work where large-scale LED screens divide up the space.

- I look forward to the audience at ARoS being able to experience the singing marshlands of Berl-Berl and to experience the sounds and colourful universe of the work in relation to ARoS’ space. Berl-Berl is a living work of art which is forever changing and I’m really looking forward to seeing it re-emerge and the kind of life it will have at ARoS, says Jakob Kudsk Steensen.

BERLin

The title Berl-Berl originates from the ancient Slav word, Berl, meaning a swamp. The word is believed to form the etymological root of Berlin, the name of the German capital, located at what used to be extensive wetlands, now much reduced. Inspired by Slav traditions where songs and verses were generally employed to navigate swamps and wetlands, Jakob Kudsk Steensen began an important collaboration with the musician ARCA on writing new songs to be experienced as part of the work.

- Jakob Kudsk Steensen is a contemporary artist who is capable of creating digital art rooted in physical reality. Thus, he creates an artistic reality that is both poetic and challenging, yet based on a solid scientific basis, says Ellen Drude Skeel Langvold, curator-in-charge of the exhibition.

Berl-Berl is commissioned by Light Art Space (LAS) and was initially presented in the legendary Halle am Berghain in Berlin in the autumn of 2021. The exhibition was a great success with more than 31,000 visitors and much international media attention.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Jakob Kudsk Steensen was born in 1987. He graduated from Aarhus University specialising in Art and New Media with tertiary programmes from the University of Copenhagen and the Central Saint Martins – University of the Arts London.

Since 2012, the artist has lived and worked in various countries. However, since 2019, he has lived in Berlin whilst working with Berl-Berl.

Jakob Kudsk Steensen has shown worldwide, including at the Serpentine Gallery, London, and at the Venice Biennale as part of the Future Generation Art Prize Exhibition in 2019.

The exhibition has been made possible thanks to generous support from:

New Carlsberg Foundation

Knud Højgaards Fond

Aarhuus Stiftstidendes Fond

The Danish Arts Foundation

Press photos:

Press photos may be downloaded free of charge provided the photographer’s name is credited.

Exhibition curator:
Curator:
Ellen Drude Skeel Langvold
edl@aros.dk / 2888 4468

For further information, please contact:

ARoS Press and Communications
presse@aros.dk
+45 61904942

Image credit: Installation photos @ARoS Photo David Stjernholm

Jakob Kudsk Steensen: Berl-Berl, 2021

Live digital simulation

Sound composition and music by Matt McCorkle

With music by Arca

Spatial sound design by Lugh O’Neill

© 2022 Jakob Kudsk Steensen

Commissioned by Light Art Space (LAS)