Arken Museum of Modern Art-Ishoj

I couldn't sleep last night, perhaps still jet lag (?), so I stayed up until 3am watching episodes of 'Riget' or as it is known in english, 'The Kingdom'. I only have 2 episodes left and I wish there were more! I've seen the series, by Lars von Trier, in video stores in the States in English. It was a miniseries he did in '94 basically for money. But it's really good! and weird! I'm watching it in Danish with English subtitles, hoping that it will help me get used to hearing danish (and trying to speak it!). Hey, it worked for foreigners watching '90210' in the 90's to learn English! And don't forget the 'Young & the Restless'.


I didn't go the Institute today but instead took the train down to Ishoj to visit the Arken Museum of Modern Art. This weekend is the last for a Nordic photography show that I had read about before coming over here that I wanted to see. It did not disappoint! Many of the artists I didn't recognize, so it was nice to learn more about Nordic artists. The show was great. There was also a surrealist show going on that I wasn't really into, and the museum's main collection was quite good. One video piece by Jesper Just I had seen 2 years ago at the Berlin Biennial called 'Bliss and Heaven'. It is very melodramatic and funny. I didn't know Jesper Just was Danish? Another famous Dane who was in the show was Per Bak Jensen's 'Dreaming Greenland' with its foggy diptych.

These next 3 photographs are taken from the book I bought about the exhibition so the quality isn't very good. Olafur Eliasson had 3 photographs of Iceland. His photography isn't usually shown nowadays, since he got on the color/perception kick.



Two of my favorite artists in the show were Susanna Majuri whose photo was used for the publicity.


and a Finnish artist named Jari Silomaki's 'My Weather Diary', whose photograph + the text gave more to the landscape presented. Beautiful. Thoughtful photographs...



The Museum itself was a crazy building, almost like a ship.


A Lawrence Weiner on the front of the building



A Jeff Koons...from looking down a dark hallway....



same hallway that lead back into the cafe and gift shop...




And the beach was right behind it! Today was a very brooding weather day. It rained a little off and on and so the waves were a bit crazy. Really pretty though.