ARoS Kunstmuseum

Jesper Just

29 May - 26 Oct 2014

JESPER JUST
Appearing / Intercourses
29 May – 26 October 2014

The internationally recognised Danish artist Jesper Just (b. 1974) creates films that resemble feature films, but are not... Confused? That is to some extent Just’s aim as he asks more questions in his sensuous films than he answers.

At the end of May 2014, Just will be opening his so far biggest museum exhibition in ARoS, presenting in it both early and more recent video works in a different setting covering a 1300 square metre exhibition area.

Over the past ten years, Just has achieved international recognition for his short films, which are technically precise but fanciful stories about human relationships and feelings.

In using film as his medium, Just plays with the Hollywood idiom, but he twists and turns the clichés. In contrast to the easily understood plots of the commercial variety, we often experience an absence of moral and explanation in his films. The dialogue – if there at all – is concise, and we are amazed at his figures’ bizarre relationships in bizarre surroundings.

The place where the action develops is of crucial importance to Just. Whether a harbour quayside, a multi-storey car park or a motorway interchange, the physical environment has an intensifying effect on his characters’ feelings. This is not least the case in Just’s latest video work, the five-screened total installation Intercourses, created in 2013 for the Danish pavilion in the prestigious 55th Venice Biennale.

Intercourses will have its Danish premiere in ARoS and constitute the main work in Just’s solo exhibition. At the same time, the title of the work is indicative of the exhibition concept in its entirety. “Intercourses” means communication or physical encounters, which here are symptomatic of the run of Just’s films from 2001 to the present day, here brought together in a major retrospective exhibition.

The exhibition will present some ten of Just’s video works. The oldest is No Man is an Island, from 2002. Of other titles, mention can be made of Something to Love, 2005, A Vicious Undertow, 2007 and Llano, 2012.

Responsible for the exhibition: Pernille Taagaard Dinesen
 

Tags: Jesper Just