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[February 28th 2002]
Christina Wilson
Gallery Christina Wilson -
On Friday Christina Wilson opens up the
doors for her first show at her new gallery in the important Njalsgade
area on Islandsbrygge, called 'Bryggen,' in Copenhagen. The first
exhibition is Desolation of the Beast, and the Tears of
the Crocodile, showing the young Danish artist Kirstine
Roepstorff from 2.3.-14.4.2002. (kopenhagen
interview with Kirstine coming up soon!)
Galleri Christina Wilson
Sturlasgade 12 H
2300 Cobenhagen S - Denmark
Tel: 32545206
www.christinawilson.net
Tue - Fri 12-18, Sat 11-15
Kopenhagen.dk had a chat with the newly hatched gallery owner,
right in the middle of her last minute preparations.
By Julie Damgaard and Torben Zenth
Can you tell us a little about your background?
- I finished as an art historian from Copenhagen University in
1993 and very soon after became employed by a project at The Danish
National Gallery, where I had worked as a student help before.
After that I was employed as a museums inspector at Køge
Skitsesamling, but only stayed there for one and a half years
because, after all, it did seem a long way away from Copenhagen.
- After that I was Susanne Ottesen's assistant for two and a half
years, which was very exciting and it was great meeting artists
and customers and learning how a gallery is run, how the whole
scene of working with international contacts is handled and things
like that. But at some point I felt I needed to move on.
- Then I was employed as an exhibition inspector at Kunstforeningen
Gl. Strand in Copenhagen. I worked there for one and a half years
as well, but eventually felt that I couldn't wait any longer -
I just had to get on with doing my own thing, so I resigned. Since
then I've worked hard towards opening my own gallery, the Gallery
Christina Wilson.
 
Galleri Christina Wilson
How long has it taken for you to plan for this, find a location
etc?
- About nine months, with steady regular work. I'd been thinking
about it for about a year, and just after last summer, when I
came back to Denmark after working as a consultant for Gallery
Asbæk's Mallorca-project, I thought: "Right, it's time,"
and began looking around for appropriate locations and making
a list of all the artists I've ever wanted to work with and these
were big names, like: "Bruce Nauman?" No, cross him
out - "I won't be able to get him, will I?" But I wrote
down all the names of the people I'd ever dreamed of working with
anyway. This was how I eventually got the small list of the group
of people I work with today. Then I contacted the artists and
asked them weather they thought this was a good idea.
Could you mention the names on your list?
- Yes, the group I have now is first and foremost Kirstine Roepstorff,
who opens the gallery on Friday. The next exhibition will be with
the Danish artist John Kørner, and then there wil be a
German photographer called Marc Räder. He will bring the
Gallery right through the summer, and then at the end of August
I'll be opening an exhibition with Ulrik Møller, who is
a Danish painter, and after that an exhibition with Danish artist
FOS (Thomas Poulsen), and then its almost Christmas. There aren't
any finished plans for exhibitions after that, but I'm thinking
about exhibiting the British ceramicist/sculptor Grayson Perry,
and I've got others in mind, like the Brazilian artist called
Beatriz Milhazes who is fantastic and who I've had at the top
off my list.
- I'll be exhibiting artist who belong to the Gallery, but also
artist from outside the Gallery. About three to four months ago
I completely closed the intake of more artists because I felt
it' was very important that I'm able to spend time getting to
know each of the artists I already know, and that they could get
to know me better, and that we could get to know the exhibition
space we have together. It's also because of that viewpoint that
I'm going to put on a solo show for all of them to begin with,
because we need to get through everything step by step. It's no
use me making group exhibitions within the first year or so because
right now it's about myself, the artists, the exhibition area
and the customers who are interested in the artist, that this
is all about. So we need to work our way through it all thoroughly,
and I hope it will work. I certainly feel that things are working
ever so well with Kirstine.
 
Galleri Christina Wilson
Gallery Christina Wilson. What was it that made you decide
on the artists you picked out?
- I really like art where there's something to look at. It's not
because I don't like minimalist art, but where I stand now there
is something very special about precisely their work. There is
something distinct about the artists that I'm working with, which
makes them stand out from others. I've always had these ideas
when I've visited art-fairs, that it would be so great to have
a Kirstine there and a John there - I would imagine how my stand
would be much more handsome than all the others.
- There has to be substance, there has to be life, and I like
an actual work of art. There's got to be something there that
you can get a good grip of. I'm completely indifferent to which
media an artist works in, weather it is photography or installation
or sculpture. It has something to do with the fact that I've been
looking at art for 10 years now and all off I sudden I feel that
I'm able to define what is outstanding. You learn to sort out
good from bad, which has brought me to select this group of artists,
who I think are absolutely great.
Is it your intention to have an international profile?
- Yes, absolutely - that's the most fun. The Gallery will be super
commercial. We're going to earn some money for the artists.
How is the Gallery financed?
- With my own money. It has cost quite a bit, but then again no
more than that. Off course there are expenses in having a gallery
like this one, but on the other hand this isn't Gothersgade in
the City. This looks really fabulous, but it's not that expensive
after all.
Did you intentionally pick Bryggen as a suitable area for
your Gallery?
- Yes. Firstly, I live here myself and have done for the last
11-12 years. Secondly, my children's school is right near by,
so it all fits nicely with my family. And then it's really very
lucky that Bryggen has such a high profile in the art world, as
it has. But if Wallner and Tommy Lund and the others weren't here
I would definitely have looked for a place out here anyway, because
it's a really perfect place. We're five minutes away from Rådhuspladsen
(Town Square, City Centre, ed.) and fifteen minutes from the airport.
And it's really nice out here.
How many exhibitions do you expect to put on every year?
- The exhibitions will run for about one and a half to two months
each. When you aren't right bang in the middle of the City Centre,
you have to make it possible for people to have time enough to
see the exhibitions.
Do you already have a specific group of customers?
- I don't know! But because I've worked for so many years in the
art business, naturally I've worked with sponsors as well, and
in that way I have a huge advantage compared to having to start
from scratch; I know all the art museums and I know a lot of people
who buy art in Denmark, as well as abroad.
- When people ask if I have any customers I often think: "I
don't know, that'll have to be put to the test". The gallery
might look really great and enormously ambitious, but it isn't
a success before it's really on its way and I sell some art and
create some contacts - and things relate and get going. So to
be completely honest, I don't know.
Do you work alone?
No I have an assistant. I have to; there's really a lot of work…
How do you see yourself in relation to the other galleries
in Copenhagen?
- I think I'm right in the middle of it all because of the fact
that I'm an art historian and because I have this lengthy background
in the art world. I feel that I can offer my artists contacts
with important art dealers and collectors, as well as with the
museums, and also - because of the reasonably experimental art
that the Gallery will present - some young people who feel it's
a great thing to buy art. The gallery isn't very underground -
I'm a respectable lady after all, sort of oldish (Christina is
38 years old, ed.), so I've got the one type of customer and the
other.
- You can say that someone like Nicolai Wallner, he's got a lot
going on abroad and he's been doing that underground style - that
slightly playing down the importance of it - whereas I, well simply
because of the way the Gallery looks, have a more stylish approach.
I hope that this will appeal to other people. When you're at a
private viewing at Gallery Wallner, there are loads of artist
dressed in black clothes, and the people who buy art certainly
don't go to these openings. I hope that both groups will come
to my gallery, the hardcore group and those who can buy.
- I'm not doing this entirely because I want to work enormously
hard to support young art. There are people out there who have
to make a living and I have to make a living - and then there
are artist, who could become even better at putting on exhibitions.
You have to get them at the scruff of the neck, sit them down
and say. "Yes, but what are your intentions with all this?",
"How are you going to improve your work, so it becomes even
more sharp, so you become even better at expressing what you want
to, with your art?" I think it's ever so important to have
this sort of discussion with the artists I work with - asking
them, all along: "What's the point of this; what does it
mean?" or: "Why are you doing this?", "Why
not something else?" Then they have to explain themselves.
- I feel that in many cases artists just walk on in and put up
their work in a gallery, but to be confronted with a gallery owner
who says: "Hey, what's going on?" and "Lets really
work this through" - that's something completely different.
I have a very clear opinion about the way I see things; when they
are great and when they are absolutely not. It's not because I
can't be shifted, but the argument has to be persistent and intelligent
to dispute that things are as they are. Therefore, I actually
think thay can become better artists by working with me.
- I make demands on the artists, just as they make their demands
on me. Many artists complain a lot about their gallery: "Their
so bloody lazy, nothing ever happens". This goes the other
way as well. Why the hell are they doing what they do - and if
it's to slack, they damned well are going to hear about it! I
think that artists are ever so good at taking this kind of criticism.
They actually think it's really great. Then there are some who
get sore about it. But mostly, they are happy about anyone bothering
to talk with them.
- I often ask what things mean. Kirstine, for example; she's
got loads of stories she wants to tell, but it has to function
as an exhibition as well. So I ask her whether she can describe
what it is exactly that she wants, and through this dialogue things
crystallize for my benefit as well as for hers. If she can see
that it's not working for me then maybe it won't work for others
either, so it's about having a close collaboration about how things
are presented.
- You have to try and have some kind of structured method of
working, because by doing this you can get your intentions sorted
out, as well as the purpose of exhibiting at all. The artists
have a basic idea or feeling, which they want to convey or demonstrate,
and this idea or feeling should stand out as clearly as possible.
I know that artists who've been students at the Academy for seven
to eight years are ever so good at this, but still, there are
a lot of exhibitions that don't work out.
- I don't tell the artists to do this or do that. I won't touch
what they're doing at all, because that's their work. I discretely
and carefully go about asking them a few questions.
What are your success criteria for an exhibition - like this
one with Kirstine Roepstorff?
- That the things that Kirstine has told me about, that this exhibition
is about - that I can see this, and that I feel the messages,
which the exhibition is about for her, come across clearly, and
in the right way. Not sort off overly beautifully, because Kirstine
has been ever so afraid of that. Suddenly there was this enormous
amount of space and everything was so 'nice' and 'proper' and
she felt that the place wasn't very trashy.
- I'm much more proper than Kirstine - there are a lot of things,
which I feel, have to be right, before they are shown. You have
to think about what you take out off your studio and present to
people. You don't want to just put up an exhibition in a rush
- no, it damn well has to good enough!! EVERYTHING has to be good
enough. Even a little tiny shitty exhibition somewhere in the
middle of nowhere has to be top mark, smart, well done.... Because
you can't allow yourself to think, that just because people don't
live in Copenhagen they don't have expectations.
Interview with artist Kirstine Roepstorff (coming
up soon!)
Translated by Sophie Pucill
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