Some time ago, a ridiculous lawsuit finally came to an end after two years of seesaw.
The court ordered Danish artist Jens Haaning to pay DKK 493000 for the Kunsten Museum of Modern Art in Aalborg, Denmark. After the verdict, Haaning Jens told the Danish media that he did not intend to appeal, but at the same time he also said that the museum had made “far more” money from the publicity effect of the incident.
Danish artist Jens Haaning
Such a dramatic event also begins with a work called “Take the Money and Run.
In 2021, the Kunsten Museum of Modern Art in Denmark plans to hold an exhibition on the theme of the future of work and life-“Work it Out”, inviting Jens Haaning to re-carve two of his most popular works created with real money, and paying DKK 534000 in cash in advance for the artwork.
01 A ridiculous lawsuit
✦ Aalborg Museum of Modern Art
The day before the opening of the exhibition, the museum received the work completed by Jens Haaning. After opening it, the staff were surprised to find that there were only two blank canvases, and the name of the work became “Take the Money and Run” (take the money and run).
At the same time, the artist sent an email to the curator stating that this work called “broken contract” is the “real art” he prepared for this exhibition “. “Of course I won’t pay back the money,” Jens Haaning said in an interview with Danish Radio and Television. “This work is that I took their money. It’s not theft, it’s just breaking the contract, and breaking the contract is part of this work.”
Museum curator Lasse Andersson “couldn’t help laughing” when he saw the two works, saying politely that they were indeed “more interesting” works. We still hung the two blank frames in the original exhibition position for the audience to enjoy.”
Unexpectedly, after the start of the exhibition, there was an endless stream of visitors, and the originally deserted exhibition hall was crowded with people. However, the museum did not “let go” Haaning Jens, and still took him to the court with a complaint, asking him to return all the money.
Although anything can happen in the modern art circle, this incredible lawsuit has caused a lot of waves in the art circle.
French publishing house Presses du Réel has rated Jens Haaning as an internationally renowned Danish artist. As a highly respected figure in the art industry, Jens Haaning has both aura and talent, and his conduct has never been criticized. Why did he make such an amazing move this time?
In fact, the expression of rebellious spirit has always been the thinking and practice of this perverse artist.
As a Danish avant-garde artist, Jens Haaning works mostly to communicate and express the social reality of power relations and inequality in human society. Focus on the structural analysis of the current modern society, and use different art forms to clarify and express themselves.
In his artistic practice, immigration, class, racism, dialogue between different cultures and the exchange of global capitalism and local economy are decisive themes.
02 Jens Haaning expresses the social reality of inequality
The Turkish joke.
In 1994, he created a sound work, The Turkish Joke, which shows recordings of Turkish people telling jokes in their mother tongue, originally played in public squares in Oslo, Norway. Since then, Jens Haaning has become known for provocative artwork.
“Denmark, Denmark”
In 2005,Jens Haaning to write “Danmark” in big black letters on the gallery wall, and the work became a sensation when it was first exhibited in Denmark that year. Because Denmark at the time was strongly opposed to granting residence permits to immigrants and refugees, the artist’s work shifted the focus from blacks to whites, to concepts such as nationalism and fear of foreigners.
The most famous ones are the original works that the art museum needs him to reprint in this lawsuit. In 2007 and 2011, he created works of art to express the wage problems of people in Austria and Denmark respectively-“The Per Capita Annual Income in Austria” and “The Per Capita Annual Income in Denmark”. The two works are created by 25000 euro banknotes and 328000 Danish krone respectively, which visually present the national productivity of the two countries to the public.
Annual per capita income in Austria
But these two works are more than ten years ago, and the annual income of Denmark and Austria has already changed. So the museum approached Haaning Jens to recreate the two works for the exhibition, and this incredible lawsuit was born.
In a previous radio interview, Jens Haaning explained the creative concept of “Take the Money and Run” and why he didn’t return the cash. He said that when he calculated that he would have to spend 25000 kronor out of his own pocket to complete the two works according to the original plan, he found that it was a loss-making business, so he decided to change his creative thinking. “Why don’t I use a piece to express the work situation I’m facing?” So he conceived the concept of a blank frame to encourage people to protest bravely in the face of income and pay imbalance.
Although the lawsuit is now settled, who can deny that Jens Haaning gave new value to the blank frame through such a bold performance art?
(Source: Cc doctrine)
