Art Statements - Art 37 Basel - Simon Dybbroe Møller

Simon Dybbroe Møller: All Yesterdays’ Parties, 2006.

Tell us about your installation All Yesterdays’ Parties

Well, it’s a project that I’ve made specifically for Art Statements. I’ve exhibited at fairs before and this time I wanted to address it, in the same way that I would, had I had 200 square metres at my disposal. Here of course, my space is limited, and therefore I’ve chosen to make numerous smaller works. Actually they could fill out a far bigger room also…but my point of departure was the stall right here. Regarding the installation it’s connected to the framework that I’m working within. That is: normally you have a three-stage rocket where you first, create a work, then the work is exhibited and ultimately the work is reproduced in magazines, books or in lecture slideshows. In my works the reproduction becomes the work. The works sort of skip over the earlier stages. It’s a sort of art historical setting gone wild. The works deal with presentation and reproduction as media.

The works seem to connote very much to melancholy, memory, temporality, and the passing of things?

They definitely do that. That’s also indicated quite clearly in the title: All Yesterdays’ Parties. Take for instance the work “Progressive Architecture” which is a slide show with photos of American universities, all built in the period 1962-67. The photos are all from the journal Progressive Architecture that was issued in those years. On top of the photos you see a psychedelic filter. The explanation is logic: the photos are from 1968. You always look at historic things through a filter. When I see a building from 1967 today, I automatically associate to things concerning the year 1968 – even though those thing hadn’t happened in 1967. I this way your gaze changes when you look at things that have passed into history.

Simon Dybbroe Møller: All Yesterdays’ Parties, 2006.		Simon Dybbroe Møller: All Yesterdays’ Parties, 2006.

Is that also what you a demonstrating with the work performance?

Yes. The slides show stills from a performance. They look exactly like slides from a performance from the 1960’es. You automatically think: that must be Allan Kaprow or another artist from that time. In fact it’s me three weeks ago! The point is that because you instantly believe that it’s an older work you look at it differently. It’s a way to comment on the fact that the reproduction is not objective. That it’s always connected with the context of the time when it was produced. An obvious example is when you leaf through a catalogue on colour field painting from those days and all the prints are in black and white!

How do the objects connect to the immaterial slides projected on the walls?

Well, take for instance the work Years of Progress (Stacked). It consists of nesting chairs that are similar but still all from different series. Therefore they have been stacked more or less forcefully. The chromatic scale correspond to the scale used for the famous Arne Jacobsen chair 3107 - which is probably one of the most iconized nesting chairs at all. This chromatic scale has been revised two times. First by designer Verner Panton and then later by artist Poul Gernes. Thus this chromatic scale has undergone a development, but the chair remains the same. And all the other chairs in the stack are bad copies. I try to go though the historical developments by forcing them upon each other. You always try to create or force through coherence when you read history and in a way that’s what I’ve tried with the chairs and obviously the result is hopelessly clumsy.

Simon Dybbroe Møller: All Yesterdays’ Parties, 2006.		Simon Dybbroe Møller: All Yesterdays’ Parties, 2006.

Is that the same strategy with the broken light balls?

That work has titled the whole installation: All Yesterdays’ Parties. Untitled. 1992. Denis. The light balls have been hand painted in colours that stem from one particular painting made a painter called Denis. He should have participated in the Freeze exhibition, but never did. He had two major solo shows and then disappeared completely from art history. He’s a person, who has been there briefly and then disappeared; vanished. He’s not even art history. Things are actually forgotten and that means that there’s a ‘now’ only it’s extremely brief; evanescence is a constant.

What do you expect from participating here at Art Basel?

I don’t know. I don’t think like that. But you get a lot of feedback that you without comparison don’t get anywhere else and that’s very positive. Of course then you also get the opportunity of seeing a lot of excellent art. I saw Claire Hooper who’s here with the London gallery Hollybush Gardens, Damien Roach from Sies + Höke in Dusseldorf, (both at LISTE06 ed) and also really enjoyed Steven Claydon’s stall here at Art Statements.

So far your work has been exhibited mainly outside Denmark. When are we going to see Simon Dybbroe Møller in a Danish gallery or museum?

Actually I’m participating in a group show in Copenhagen right now: “Fantom” at Charlottenborg Exhibition Hall (ending august 8th ed) and in January I have a solo show at Århus Kunstbygning, so you don’t have to wait too long. •

Simon Dybbroe Møller: All Yesterdays’ Parties, 2006.

All Yesterdays’ Parties|2006|		All Yesterdays’ Parties|2006|

Simon Dybbroe Møller was born in 1976 in Aarhus, Denmark but currently lives and works in Frankfurt am Main, Germany