Hanne Nielsen
& Birgit Johnsen
Global issues and political agendas will be present in Hanne Nielsen & Birgit Johnsen's art piece for the exhibition. The artist duo's work consists of an approx. 40 meter installation on the beach and a video work in Blåvandshuk Lighthouse. Here sand is the main character as an element that constantly shapes and reshapes the landscape, animated by the forces of nature or human activities.
Biography
Hanne Nielsen & Birgit Johnsen are pioneers in Danish video art, and combine media such as video, performance, sculpture and installations in their practice. The artist duo wants their works to become a framework for reflection on gender and the individual and on current global critical conditions and the ethical and existential choices we as humans face. For them, media images and the video as medium are a decisive force in our society. Political reality is a strong focus in their practice.
Hanne Nielsen (1959) and & Birgit Johnsen (1958) are both trained sculptors from the Jutland Art Academy (respectively 1990 and 1991), and have worked together as an artist duo since 1993. Hanne Nielsen and Birgit Johnsen live and work in Aarhus.
Hanne Nielsen & Birgit Johnsen are represented by Charlotte Fogh Gallery. The duo has exhibited in Denmark and internationally, in recent years with solo exhibitions at Ormston House, IRL (2023), Viborg Kunsthal (2019), Overgaden (2018) and Den Frie (2016), where they also received Carl Nielsen and Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen Scholarship. Their works are included in collections such as ARoS, Statens Museum for Art, Aarhus Municipality and the Statens Kunstfond. The duo has made a number of decorations, i.a. to Aarhus University Hospital and Hospice Djursland. In 2020, Hanne Nielsen & Birgit Johnsen received the Ny Carlsberg Foundation's Artist Grant and in 2021 the Statens Kunstfond's lifetime honorarium.
