Jan Christensen
23 Mar - 21 Apr 2007
Jan Christensen
Relative Value
Opening reception: 23 March 2007, 6 - 9 PM
Exhibition duration: 23 March – 21 April 2007
We are very pleased to announce the fourth solo exhibition of the Norwegian artist Jan Christensen at c/o – Atle Gerhardsen.
Jan Christensen has started off a successful year in 2007, drawing attention with two group exhibitions in New York and a solo exhibition at MGM Gallery in Oslo in the first few months of the year.
For the show in Oslo, a large canvas was covered in 100 Kroner bank notes with the total value of 100.000 Norwegian Kroner. The retail price of the work was equal to the amount of bills presented on the canvas. Hard cash was exchanged for hard cash, and hereby – apart from difference of form – the work was replaced by an equal value.
At c/o – Atle Gerhardsen, Jan Christensen will continue the work created for the MGM Gallery in Oslo and elaborate on this concept. In Berlin, Relative Value has the cash value of EUR 10.000, divided in 1000 x 10 euro bills. The value of the work is identical to the value of the bills on the canvas and nothing else. Still the piece might be considered an authentic work of art, but the value of this suggestion is left open to speculation only.
Relative Value is a work about the values of commodities, the value of art, and the prevailing market economy in general. Are there alternatives to the capitalist monetary system and its incorporated mechanisms of inflation and deflation? Could we get by in a barter economy such as which Relative Value proposes by trading money for money? How can the value of an artistic idea and inspiration be measured? Does money rule the world and what is the impact of such an image? Christensen seems to pose these questions with an almost cynical pragmatism and straightforward attitude to materialism.
Jan Christensen, born in Copenhagen in 1977, studied at the National College of Art and Design in Oslo and now lives in Berlin and Skien, Norway, where he has received a residency for a year. Besides the solo-exhibition in MGM Gallery in Oslo, and at c/o – Atle Gerhardsen, Jan Christensen will be exhibiting in September 2007 at “Program: Initiative for Art + Architectural Collaborations” in Berlin, and in March the group exhibition “I will never make it!” will be opening in Art Space D21 in Leipzig. Another group exhibition will follow in May in the K3 – Project Space in Zürich entitled “W-ortografie – About the Paradox of Language”.
For further information or visuals please contact Maike Fries, c/o – Atle Gerhardsen: Tel. +49-30-69 51 83 41, Fax: +49-30-69 51 83 42, E-mail: office@atlegerhardsen.com or visit our website at www.atlegerhardsen.com
© Jan Christensen
Relative Value, 2007
Collage on canvas
200 x 400 cm.
Installation view: Galleri MGM, Oslo, 2007
Relative Value
Opening reception: 23 March 2007, 6 - 9 PM
Exhibition duration: 23 March – 21 April 2007
We are very pleased to announce the fourth solo exhibition of the Norwegian artist Jan Christensen at c/o – Atle Gerhardsen.
Jan Christensen has started off a successful year in 2007, drawing attention with two group exhibitions in New York and a solo exhibition at MGM Gallery in Oslo in the first few months of the year.
For the show in Oslo, a large canvas was covered in 100 Kroner bank notes with the total value of 100.000 Norwegian Kroner. The retail price of the work was equal to the amount of bills presented on the canvas. Hard cash was exchanged for hard cash, and hereby – apart from difference of form – the work was replaced by an equal value.
At c/o – Atle Gerhardsen, Jan Christensen will continue the work created for the MGM Gallery in Oslo and elaborate on this concept. In Berlin, Relative Value has the cash value of EUR 10.000, divided in 1000 x 10 euro bills. The value of the work is identical to the value of the bills on the canvas and nothing else. Still the piece might be considered an authentic work of art, but the value of this suggestion is left open to speculation only.
Relative Value is a work about the values of commodities, the value of art, and the prevailing market economy in general. Are there alternatives to the capitalist monetary system and its incorporated mechanisms of inflation and deflation? Could we get by in a barter economy such as which Relative Value proposes by trading money for money? How can the value of an artistic idea and inspiration be measured? Does money rule the world and what is the impact of such an image? Christensen seems to pose these questions with an almost cynical pragmatism and straightforward attitude to materialism.
Jan Christensen, born in Copenhagen in 1977, studied at the National College of Art and Design in Oslo and now lives in Berlin and Skien, Norway, where he has received a residency for a year. Besides the solo-exhibition in MGM Gallery in Oslo, and at c/o – Atle Gerhardsen, Jan Christensen will be exhibiting in September 2007 at “Program: Initiative for Art + Architectural Collaborations” in Berlin, and in March the group exhibition “I will never make it!” will be opening in Art Space D21 in Leipzig. Another group exhibition will follow in May in the K3 – Project Space in Zürich entitled “W-ortografie – About the Paradox of Language”.
For further information or visuals please contact Maike Fries, c/o – Atle Gerhardsen: Tel. +49-30-69 51 83 41, Fax: +49-30-69 51 83 42, E-mail: office@atlegerhardsen.com or visit our website at www.atlegerhardsen.com
© Jan Christensen
Relative Value, 2007
Collage on canvas
200 x 400 cm.
Installation view: Galleri MGM, Oslo, 2007