Wind-turbine blades cut into slices, magnetic prayer wheels and sexualised icon paintings are some of the elements featured in Lea Porsager’s solo show STRIPPED, on throughout the summer at Kunsthal Charlottenborg. In this major exhibition, visitors will find works that explore the boundaries between body, knowledge and metaphysics. We are in the realm of sculpture – and at the same time somewhere else entirely, entering states of excitement and exhaustion.

In the exhibition, Porsager mixes science and esoteric knowledge, including tantric meditation and quantum physics. In her works, energy, matter and body meet and clash up against each other in unseen ways as she lets new forms emerge in encounters with phenomena that we cannot perceive with our senses alone.

The exhibition opens with three cut-up wind turbine blades lying like fallen giants on the floor of Kunsthal Charlottenborg’s grand space. The emptiness of the hall and the spaces between the individual pieces are permeated by an immense, invisible force. Where the blades have been cut, openings appear: wormholes to another dimension, or female openings in the otherwise phallic shape of the blades? Porsager plays with the wind mill as a historic image of the power of the imagination – and as a present-day symbol of sustainable energy, offering assurances that our lives can continue as before as long as our energy is clean.

The works in the exhibition point beyond themselves as art: they could be machines and strange measuring instruments, or cultic objects used for obscure rituals. When Porsager’s works open themselves up to other, alternative or even alien meanings, our imagination is pushed to enter new dimensions. In that sense, the title of the exhibition – STRIPPED – can be understood as a way of kicking old habits, or of unlearning what one previously knew, thereby becoming open to what lies hidden on the other side of humanity’s understanding of ourselves as the centre of the world.

Lea Porsager (b. 1981) is a graduate from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen and from the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main in 2010. She has had solo shows at venues such as the Henie Onstad Art Center in Oslo, Kunstverein Göttingen, The Emily Harvey Foundation in New York and The Museum of Contemporary Art in Roskilde. Porsager took part in documenta 13 and the 14^th Istanbul Biennale. She is currently working on public art commissions in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Her land art piece Gravitational Ripples was inaugurated in June 2018 at Djurgården in Stockholm, commemorating the Swedish victims of the tsunami disaster in Southeast Asia in 2004. Porsager holds a PhD from the Malmö Art Academy. She lives and works in Copenhagen.

STRIPPED is curated by Lars Bang Larsen and organised in collaboration with the Moderna Museet in Stockholm. The exhibition is supported by the Augustinus Foundation, the Beckett Foundation, the Knud Højgaard Foundation, the Obel Family Foundation, the Danish Arts Foundation and the William Demant Foundation.

The exhibition is accompanied by a new publication edited by Milena Høgsberg as well as by a series of events, including a talk by American feminist and physicist Karen Barad, who is a great source of inspiration for Porsager’s practice.

Events in the exhibition period
June 16, 17:00
[?!]
Launch of the publication [?!] and Lea Porsager in conversation with independent curator and editor Milena Høgsberg. Further info here.

August 7, 15:00-16:00
Guided tour in the exhibition by curator Lars Bang Larsen. Further info here.

7. august, 20:00
On Touching the Stranger Within — Material Wanderings / Wonderings
Online talk with the feminist theorist and quantum physicist Karen Barad. The event is organised in collaboration with Art Hub Copenhagen. Further info here.

8. august, 15:00 – 17:00
TAROT
Stig Sjölund, artist and instructor at Academy of the Unknown in Stockholm, reads tarot cards for visitors in a secret room in the exhibition. Further info here.

Vindmøllevinger i skiver, magnetiske bønnehjul og seksualiserede ikonmalerier er nogle af elementerne i Lea Porsagers soloudstilling STRIPPED, som man kan opleve henover sommeren på Kunsthal Charlottenborg. Vi befinder os på skulpturens område – og samtidig helt andre steder, i tilstande af ophidselse og udmattelse.

I udstillingen blander Lea Porsager videnskab og esoterisk viden, herunder tantrisk meditation og kvantefysik. I værkerne konfronteres energi, stof og krop med hinanden på usete måder, når hun lader nye former opstå i mødet med fænomener, som mennesket ikke kan sanse.

Udstillingen åbner med tre opskårne vindmøllevinger, der ligger som faldne kæmper på gulvet i Kunsthal Charlottenborgs store sal. Tomheden i salen, og rummene mellem vingestykkerne, gennemtrænges af en voldsom, usynlig kraft. Hvor vingerne er skåret, kommer åbninger til syne: Ormehuller til en anden dimension, eller kvindelige åbninger i vingens ellers falliske form? Porsager leger med vindmøllen som et kulturhistorisk billede på fantasiens kraft og som et nutidigt symbol for bæredygtig energi, der garanterer os at vores liv kan fortsætte som før, så længe bare vores energi er ren.

Værkerne i udstillingen viser ud over sig selv som kunst: De kunne være maskiner og mærkelige måleinstrumenter, eller kultgenstande i obskure ritualer. Når Porsagers værker åbner for fremmede betydninger, presses vores forestillingsevne ud i nye dimensioner. Udstillingens titel STRIPPED kan på den måde forstås som en aflæggelse af vaner, eller en aflæring af det man ved, for derved at kunne åbne op for det, der gemmer sig på den anden side af menneskets forståelse af sig selv som centrum for verden.

Udstillingen ledsages af en folder med en værkoversigt og en introducerende tekst af kurator Lars Bang Larsen. På Kunsthal Charlottenborgs app forefindes mindre værkbeskrivelser og dertil akkompagneres STRIPPED af en ny publikation redigeret af Milena Høgsberg samt en eventrække, heriblandt tarotlæsning af Stig Sjölund i udstillingens hemmelige rum, og en talk af den amerikanske feminist og fysiker Karen Barad, der er en stor inspirationskilde til Porsagers praksis.

Events i udstillingsperioden

16. juni, 17:00
[?!]
Boglancering af [?!] og samtale mellem Lea Porsager og freelance-kurator og redaktør Milena Høgsberg. Læs mere her.

4. august, 12:00 – 20:00
Støtteloppemarked
Loppemarked i udstillingen blandt opskårne vindmøllevinger arrangeret af Ulrikke Bak og Melanie Kitti. Læs mere her.

7. august, 15:00-16:00
Omvisning i udstillingen af kurator Lars Bang Larsen. Læs mere her.

7. august, 20:00
On Touching the Stranger Within — Material Wanderings / Wonderings
Online talk med den feministiske teoretiker og fysiker Karen Barad. Eventet er organiseret i samarbejde med Art Hub Copenhagen. Læs mere her.

8. august, 15:00 – 17:00
TAROT
Stig Sjölund, kunstner og instruktør ved Det Okändas Akademi i Stockholm, læser tarotkort for udstillingens gæster. Læs mere her.

Lea Porsager (f. 1981) er uddannet fra Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi i København og fra Städelschule i Frankfurt am Main 2010. Hun har haft soloudstillinger på blandt andet Henie Onstad Kunstsenter i Oslo, Kunstverein Göttingen, The Emily Harvey Foundation i New York og Museet for Samtidskunst i Roskilde. Porsager deltog i documenta 13 og i den 14. Istanbul Biennale. Hun arbejder i øjeblikket på offentlige kunstopgaver i Danmark, Norge og Sverige. Hendes jordkunstværk Gravitational Ripples blev indviet i juni 2018 på Djurgården i Stockholm til minde om de svenske ofre for tsunamikatastrofen i Sydøstasien i 2004. Porsager er Ph.D. ved Malmö Konstakademi. Hun bor og arbejder i København.

STRIPPED er tilrettelagt i et samarbejde med Moderna Museet i Stockholm, og er kurateret af Lars Bang Larsen. Udstillingen er støttet af Augustinus Fonden, Beckett-Fonden, Knud Højgaards Fond, Det Obelske Familiefond, Statens Kunstfond og William Demant Fonden.