The exhibition premieres the newly commissioned film trilogy A Voyage in Dwelling in addition to a selection of earlier works, including Just's acclaimed film A Vicious Undertow. The new trilogy stars renowned Danish actress Benedikte Hansen whose character, a woman in middle age, embarks on a psychological journey of displacement to unravel her sexuality.
Victoria Miro Gallery is delighted to announce the first solo
exhibition in the UK by Danish artist Jesper Just. The exhibition will
premiere the newly commissioned film trilogy A Voyage in Dwelling in
addition to a selection of earlier works, including Just's acclaimed
film A Vicious Undertow.
The new trilogy - consisting of the eponymous work A Voyage in
Dwelling, A Room of One's Own and A Question of Silence - stars
renowned Danish actress Benedikte Hansen whose character, a woman in
middle age, embarks on a psychological journey of displacement to
unravel her sexuality. The films register as an uneasy mapping of
female desire, as they chart the slippage between one woman's actual
and imagined sexual self. Just sensitively explores the idea that "the
received paradigm of a man's journey is that he always returns to the
point of departure expecting to find his home and wife unchanged,
unaffected. Benedikte's experience, by contrast, is one of pleasurable
displacement - she becomes a nomad in her own mind, never returning to
her former status quo." Shot on a remote island and on a dilapidated
Polish ferry, the trilogy also features an original soundtrack by
Theremin composer Dorit Chrysler and American transgender
singer/songwriter, Baby Dee.
Over recent years, Just has crafted his own signature breed of
filmmaking characterised by glossy production values and
emotionally-pitched soundtracks. He has created a unique cinematic
language, but one which is deeply informed by film history, eliciting
comparisons to Tarkovsky, Resnais, Bergman and Antonioni. His works
are unified through their careful elision of narrative climax, leaving
the viewer emotionally seduced but without a sense of resolution.
Just's videos attempt to dissect the nature of human interaction and
the awkwardness of relationships. As in A Vicious Undertow (2007) - a
seductive pas de trois between a middle-aged woman, and a younger
woman and man - Just often seeks to emphasise the absurdity of gender
roles and the way which cultures generate them. He presents charged
relationships that could be perceived as perverse and endows them with
beauty and dignity. With little, if any, dialogue, Just's repertory
casts unpredictably sing in chorus, embrace, and weep, creating
suggestive yet ambiguous situations.
A Voyage in Dwelling has been generously supported by Outset
Contemporary Art Fund and the Danish Arts Council.
The artist would like to credit sound engineer Jakob Garfield,
cinematographer Kasper Tuxen and actors Benedikte Hansen, Johannes
Lilleore and Peter Hesse Overgaard.
Born in 1974 in Copenhagen, Jesper Just is a graduate of the Royal
Academy Of Fine Arts, Copenhagen and currently resides in New York.
Just has exhibited widely, with recent major solo presentations at
Witte de With, Rotterdam, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, S.M.A.K, Ghent, The
Moore Space, Miami, Hirshhorn Museum, Washington and the UCLA Hammer
Museum, Los Angeles. He will present a significant solo exhibition at
The Brooklyn Museum, New York in the autumn of 2008 and will be
included in both the upcoming Liverpool Biennial and Copenhagen
Quadriennale.
Private view Tuesday 20 May, 6 - 8pm
Victoria Miro Gallery
16 Wharf Road - London
Open Tues - Sat, 10am - 6pm
Free admission