Mathematics is everywhere: The exhibition Exact and Different considers the connections between the ways art and mathematics conceive reality. 120 positions demonstrate how questions of mathematics have influenced art in the 20th century. Magic squares - such as the one found in Dürer's Melencolia I (1514) - along with the bold perspective constructions in the Renaissance have continued to fascinate artists. Beginning in the 20th century, it is in turning away from central perspective that the artists such as Juan Gris, Henri Laurens or Giacomo Balla looked for inspiration in mathematics; where for the Cubists the simultaneous representation of many different viewpoints, the segmentation of reality into geometrical building blocks, would be the central theme, the Futurists would concentrate on the acceleration of the world through the dynamicism of forms.

The corresponding abstraction and detachment from phenomenal reality would then culminate in concrete art, where Theo van Doesburg, Georges Vantongerloo and Max Bill would champion the use of pure forms of art based on geometrical forms - here again, mathematics provides the basis for these ideals and claims. Beginning with Kasimir Malevitch, the square itself would again and again return as the object of painting. Countless artists, from Paul Klee to Bruce Nauman, from Josef Albers to Peter Weibel have created their own interpretations based on this simple form.

Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray and Surrealists such as Max Ernst were interested in natural sciences and mathematics, especially Henri Poincare''s work. Constructivists such as Naum Gabo and Antoine Pevsner were likewise inspired by geometrical and mathematical models.

The convergence of art and mathematics is again important in the 1960s where Carl Andre, Donald Judd and Sol LeWitt often produced formally reduced, systematic and serial works with simple geometric primary forms. At the same time, the first computer art works based on algorithms began to appear.

The exhibition will show more than 300 works from 120 artists including: Josef Albers, Jost Amman, Carl Andre, Max Bill, Hanne Darboven, Theo van Doesburg, Marcel Duchamp, Albrecht Dürer, Max Ernst, Herbert W. Franke, Naum Gabo, Heinz Gappmayr, Raoul Hausmann, Johannes Itten, Donald Judd, On Kawara, Paul Klee, Brigitte Kowanz, Fernand Le'ger, Sol LeWitt, Mario Merz, László Moholy-Nagy, Piet Mondrian, Bruce Nauman, Roman Opalka, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Arnulf Rainer, Ad Reinhardt, Kurt Schwitters, Georges Vantongerloo, Ruth Vollmer, Peter Weibel.

Organized by the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, and co-produced by the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, the exhibition brings together some 250 objects to explore, for the first time, the Surrealist movement’s influence on design, painting, theater, interior design, furniture, fashion, films, advertising and architecture.

Divided into five thematic sections, the exhibition looks into the way the Surrealists embraced the world of design and the way designers used Surrealism as a source of inspiration.

A unique view of some of the most unusual objects created by the movement’s leading figures, including Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, Joan Miró, Giorgio de Chirico, Elsa Schiaparelli, Jean-Michel Frank, Frederick Kiesler, and Max Ernst, many of which are on show for the first time.

This winter the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao presents one o f the most important temporary exhibitions of 2008: Surreal Things. Sponsored by BBVA, the exhibition is the first show to explore the influence of one of the 20th century’s leading movements on the world of design, including theater, interior design, fashion, film, architecture, furniture, and advertising.

Organized by London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, Surreal Things includes some 250 objects from public and private collections the world over. Some objects are on display to the general public for the first time. The exhibition comes to the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, co-producer of the show, after major successes with public and critics alike at the two previous venues, the Victoria & Albert Museum itself and the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam.

A setting specially designed for Bilbao by London-based architects Metaphor, and inspired by the Surrealists’ own stunningly exciting mise-en-scènes, will transform the entire third floor of Frank Gehry’s building. Against this spectacular backdrop, visitors will be able to see how the last century’s most influential avant-garde art movement actually developed from its beginnings in the political ideology of Karl Marx and the psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud. The highly unusual, and often very familiar objects on display are by some of the movement’s leading figures, including Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, Jean Arp, Joan Miró, Giorgio de Chirico, Isamu Noguchi, Eileen Agar, Jean Michel Frank, Frederick Kiesler, and Max Ernst.

Divided into five theme-based sections, called “The Ballet”, “Surrealism and the Object”, “Nature made Strange”, “Displaying the Body” and “The Illusory Interior”, Surreal Things highlights the evolution of Surrealism from its beginnings as a politically radical avant-garde art movement to its transformation into a worldwide cultural phenomenon which, in just a single decade, revolutionized the world of art, design, fashion, advertising, jewelry, photography, the movies, and the decorative arts and which, even today, continues to exert a good deal of influence on many fields of artistic and cultural endeavor.

Liquid Room is an exciting show of video-art, a form of art which is also itself a kind of liquid architecture, very closed to the fluidity, transparency and vagueness of the inner life. Our post-literary age, already fascinated by the 'liquid architecture in cyberspace' (Marcos Novak), liquid identities and everyday liquid contacts between people, is focused on lightweight infrastructures in motion, the 'musical' structures of light, sound and colours, the ability to transform visual arts into urbanism shows or the real need to sense the reality as a fluid network of individuals, art and technology. I imagine The Liquid Room as a kind of metaphysical box where the liquid walls become the tools for the unificatioon of codes (visual, verbal, sonor or kynetical) in our strange spiritual transition from the stability of things to the mobility of the images. The narrativity of such new forms is far of equilibrium, non-aristotelian and focused on jump, intuition and synthesis, on interactivity, integration and immersion. (Constantin Severin)

Art Copenhagen will be held in the Forum Copenhagen September 21-23.

The largest art fair in the Nordic countries presents 73 leading galleries from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden as well as works by more than 550 international artists — covering the full spectrum of contemporary and modern art.

For the past four years, Art Copenhagen has updated its profile in order to match the ambitious and positive wave currently sweeping Nordic art into international waters. This year the balcony area has been expanded to include a number of exciting, young galleries, extraordinary installations as well as performance. The galleries here and on the main floor present a wealth of new works by the great masters and the newest talents on the art scene. Among these works are Morten Hebsgaard’s peculiar installation, Hesselholdt & Mejlvang’s guard tower and Ingen Frygt’s great tent, in itself an entire exhibition stand.

Art has become part of the agenda, and the latest currents in the art world spread to fashion magazines, interior decorating and architecture. Moreover, people buy art like never before. Apart from being a marketplace, Art Copenhagen is also a forum for debate, focusing on the artists, their ideas and current trends in art. We invite our guests to a programme of conversations and lectures with, among others, the artists Jeppe Hein, Jesper Just, Colonel and Ingen Frygt, the on-line art magazine kopenhagen.dk and U-TURN, the quadrennial for contemporary art.

This year’s conducted tours focus on Nordic art and provide opportunities to zoom in on installations and art photography, not to mention an all-round introduction to the galleries represented at Art Copenhagen. These daily theme tours will bring visitors closer to the art they take a particular interest in - be it for their private homes, for a business or for an art society.

When it’s time to rest your legs and collect your thoughts, the balcony bar offers a great cup of coffee, delightful wines and something good to eat.

Art Copenhagen is a marketplace, an exhibition and the place to seek advice, inspiration and guidance regarding your next purchase of art - no matter whether you are a collector or pursuing your first work of art.

We look forward to welcoming you!

Opening speech by Brian Mikkelsen, Minister of Culture, Friday, September 21, 2.15 PM.

For further information, press photos and interviews contact:
Carla C.B. Strube, presse, tlf. 26850320, presse@artcopenhagen.dk
Lisbeth Kystgaard Olsen, projektleder, tlf: 20161468, lol@forumcopenhagen.dk

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