This Time, It's Political. In her work, reading is no longer something one does on one's own. The intimate relation between reader and book becomes a communal and public concern. In her work 'A Room of One's Own / A Thousand Libraries' she has collected underlines and marginal notes from all the Swedish library copies of the book, and produced an edition of 1000 copies.
The Museum of Contemporary Art is proud to present Kajsa Dahlberg in her first Danish solo show.
When Dahlberg wanted to give a Swedish translation of Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own to a
friend, it turned out that the book was sold out. So Dahlberg photocopied a library book, and got it
bound. While making the copies she noticed that previous readers of the book had made marginal
notes and underlines of important passages.
This was the beginning of the work A Room of One’s Own / A Thousand Libraries, which constitutes a
part of the exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art. In the work Dahlberg has collected
underlines and marginal notes from all the Swedish library copies of the book, and produced an edition
of 1000 copies.
In Dahlberg’s work, reading is no longer something one does on one’s own. The intimate relation
between reader and book becomes a communal and public concern. The work connects half a century
of the book’s readers into a fellowship. The personal becomes political.
In the exhibition THIS TIME, IT’S POLITICAL the political is something that happens between people, in
our communities and modes of coexisting, in gender roles and labour, in the way we organize ourselves
and make decisions. In our representation of history, the political is playing a role as well, and not
least in the ways we choose to interpret it.
THIS TIME, IT’S POLITICAL is the last in a series of exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art
centered around artistic investigations into archival matter. The exhibition is realized in collaboration
with LARM Audio Research Archive and is curated by Trine Friis Sørensen, curator and Ph.D. fellow at
the Department for Art and Culture at the University of Copenhagen. As a DIVA-resident Kajsa Dahlberg
had the opportunity to work with the old archives of the Danish Broadcasting Corporation prior to this
exhibition. Her research into the archives forms the basis of an entirely new production presented in
Roskilde.
None of the exhibited works have previously been displayed in Denmark.
Kajsa Dahlberg (born 1973) lives and works in Malmö and Berlin. She has an MFA from Malmö Art
Academy and attended Whitney Independent Study Program in New York in 2007-2008. Selected group
exhibitions include Based in Berlin (2011), 8th Mercosul Biennial (2011), Terms of Belonging, Overgaden
(2011), Patterns of the Mind, Turku Biennial (2011) and Manifesta 8. Dahlberg recently completed a
commissioned work for the Government building, Regjeringsbygg 6, Oslo.
The exhibition is kindly supported by the Danish Arts Council and iaspis.
Image: Kajsa Dahlberg "No unease can be noticed, all are happy and friendly (Postcards from Jerusalem, 26 March 1910 – 24 January 1999)" (2010). Foto: Lunds Konsthall/Terje Östling
For more information please contact:
Curator Trine Friis Sørensen på tfsorensen@hum.ku.dk / tlf. 2666 0878
Or Coordinator Laura Ifversen på lauraif@samtidskunst.dk / tlf. 4631 6580
Press photos are available at the museum home page: www.samtidskunst.dk/presse
Special guided tour (in Danish and Swedish): Introduction to the exhibition by the artist, Kajsa
Dahlberg, and curator, Trine Friis Sørensen. Sunday, February 24, 2013, at 2 pm, the event is free
with the cost of admission.
Special Event (in Danish): A working life in the radio archive. A talk by archivist Klavs Lund, who
has worked with the Danish Broadcasting Corporation’s radio archive since 1979. The event is
organised in collaboration with DR Arkiv & Research. Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 5 – 6.30 pm. Free
admission.
Press preview: 1. februar 2013, at 4.30 pm.
Opening: Friday, February 1, 2013, 5 – 7 pm
Museum of Contemporary Art
Staendertorvet 3A, DK-4000 Roskilde
Opening hours: Tuesday-Friday 11am-5pm, Saturday and Sunday 12am-4pm
Entrance fee: Adults 40 DKK. Seniors 20 DKK. Children, Youth, Students & Members FREE