Copenhagen Spring Exhibition to focus on body, performance and sexuality

Copenhagen: The Spring Exhibition 2012 at Charlottenborg (Denmark) will focus on a notable group of works that explores the body, performance and sexuality. One of the highlights will be a live performance with naked men making love to a building.

Titled ‘The Humping Pact, The artists Dmitry Paranyushkin & Diego Agullo are represented in the exhibition by a video entitled The Humping Pact (2011). On the opening night they will stage a special performance related to this work, involving a group of naked men who will take over Charlottenborg’s courtyard and make love to the building. According to the artists, “The Humping Pact is the suspended act of love towards the environment. It’s a contemplative meditation on the nature of the futile and the human need to transcend the impossible.”

The Spring Exhibition is an open submission exhibition that has long been one of the highlights of the annual programme at Charlottenborg (Denmark). In 2012 the show features 70 participants from around the world, including many from Denmark and Northern Europe, as well as others from countries such as South Africa and the USA.

The Spring Exhibition is selected by a jury consisting of artists and other arts professionals from Scandinavia and beyond. The jury for 2012 consists of the artists Aleksandra Mir (PO, SE, chair) and Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen (DK), the designer Henrik Vibskov (DK), the artist-architect duo Ben & Sebastian (UK-DK) and the curator Dorothée Kirch (DE).

The award comes with a cash prize of 10.000 kr. and the ten nominated artists are: Christina Schou Christensen (DK), Biba Fibiger (DK), Jan Ijäs (FI), Katrine Kofoed Kristensen (DK), Gilles T. Lacombe (FR), Nonkululeko Mabaso (ZA), Dorte Marcussen (DK), Gemma Marmalade (GB), Nicholas Sparre-Ulrich (DK) and Kari Steihaug (NO).