Between the body and the sculpture

BETWEEN THE BODY AND THE SCULPTURE

Katja Bjørn (b. 1967) is a Danish artist, and she lives and works in Aarhus in Denmark.

The starting point of the artists work has always been the investigation of the expression of the sculpture. Through the times she has been investigating a broad field from land art sculptures, large scale installations (e.g. a hangar), objet trouvés and video art to more classical and material sculptures. Especially interesting to Katja Bjørn is the sculptures relationship to the human body. The sculptures are therefore often formed to create an active role for the viewer, either by directly interaction with the sculpture or by the sensuous perception.

Recently, her works have been focussed on video art and objet trouvés, which she is altering into video sculptures, and in which she examines the crossover between the virtual space of the video and the physical and material space of the sculpture.

The sculptures are build up by everyday objects e.g. chest of drawers, doors, buckets or sanitary appliances gathered from the domestic world. At first they appear as trivial tableaus: a chest of drawers with perfume bottles and jars, a shower or a closed door. But a glance through the keyhole or in the drawer expose an intimate situation, we ought not to have witnessed.

The narratives of the videos are often about human beings performing simple actions.
A boy turning in a tight space, a naked woman grooming herself, and another is passing time by putting matches up her nose! Through the videos she takes the sculptures into another sphere and implant everyday situations or actions that through the sculptures transforms into an intimate confrontation and a play of the voyeurism of the viewer.

In this crossover between the sensuous physics of the sculpture and the narrative of the video Katja Bjørn creates an aesthetic space, in which she examines the boundaries of exceeding the intimate sphere of both the artist and the viewer. In this space, what seems to be innocent and an everyday occurrence, turns out to explore the unpleasant far side.

Katja Bjørn is educated master of fine arts in 1999. Besides her art, Katja Bjørn is a curator and member of the exhibition group at “The Art space Spain19C” in Aarhus. Among many, she has exhibited at Charlottenborg and “Den Frie” in Copenhagen, has had several solo exhibitions. She’s currated large exhibition projects as “Fabrik2003” at Knabstrup Tejlværk, ”Transit”, 2004 in a hangar Copenhagen Airport and ”Inside Outside”, 2005 at Keller – Centre of Experimental Art at Brejning and finally, ”Manifest07” in Aarhus Building of Art. Charlotte Fogh.