The Office is a bureau designed specifically for the Museum of Nothing, which is an ongoing work by benandsebastian. The bureau is constructed as a place of work and also as an incomplete system of thinking. Like other parts of the Museum of Nothing, its potential lies in what is projected into it: the promise of ideas that might fill its empty frames and vacant spaces. A source of inspiration for the piece is the following paragraph by the Danish existential philosopher Søren Kierkegaard:
‘A thinker erects an immense building, a system, a system which embraces the whole of existence and world history etc. – and if we contemplate his personal life, we discover to our astonishment this terrible and ludicrous fact, that he himself personally does not live in this immense high-vaulted palace, but in a barn alongside it, or in a dog kennel, or at the most a porter’s lodge. If one were to take the liberty of calling his attention to this by a single word, he would be offended. For he has no fear of being under a delusion, if only he can get the system completed – by means of the delusion.‘
The Office
2016
Artwork ; Text
Teak, brass, leather, rubber, felt, ceramic
70 x 90 x 150 cm
The Office
2016
Artwork
Teak, brass, leather, rubber, felt, ceramic
70 x 90 x 150 cm
The Office
The Office
2016
Artwork
Teak, brass, leather, rubber, felt, ceramic
70 x 90 x 150 cm
The Office
2016
Detail of a texte by Soeren Kirkegaard
The Office
2016
Artwork
Teak, brass, leather, rubber, felt, ceramic
70 x 90 x 150 cm
The Office
2016
Artwork
Teak, brass, leather, rubber, felt, ceramic
70 x 90 x 150 cm
‘The work of the collaborative artist practice, benandsebastian, teeters on a cusp between designed physicality and intangible theories of the mind. Trained in architecture and theoretically versed, their sculptures take on elaborate mechanics and boast intricate detailing, yet speak to vast philosophical and sociological systems. It is impossible to concretely anchor their work, an elusiveness made evident in their recent exhibition at the Designmuseum Danmark, ‘Phantom Limbs’.
Embedded directly within the permanent collection and specifically paired with unexpected inventory from Copenhagen’s Medical Museum, National Museum and the attics of Designmuseum Danmark, their work becomes not only the sculptures on display, but the myriad relationships made between context and object, between body and limb. Evoking the medical sense of phantom limbs, where an amputee still feels the presence of the absent limb, benandsebastian navigate the museum context and call into question the assumed wholeness we expect, perceive and viscerally feel.’
Cassandra Edlefsen Lasch,
independent curator, DAMn magazine, issue 33
EXHIBITIONS
2018 Solo show: Department of Voids
Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art, Copenhagen, Denmark
2017 Everyday Life
21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan
2017 Walk & Talk Arts Festival
Parque Terra Nostra, Ponta Delgada, Azorerne, Portugal
2017 Collect
Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
2017 Mindcraft
Salone di Mobile, Milan, Italy
2015 Göteborg International Biennial of Contemporary Art
Gothenburg, Sweden
2015 Keep it Glassy II
Shanghai Museum of Glass, Shanghai, China
2015 Solo show: The Beijing Archive
Institute of Provocation, Beijing, China
2014 Beyond Reach: Museum of Nothing
Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art, Copenhagen, Denmark
2013 Zeigen
Nikolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen, Denmark
2013 Dysraphic City
Kunstlerraum Bethanien, Berlin, Germany
2013 Solo show: Following the Museum
Die Raum, Berlin, Germany
2012 Treffpunkt Berlin
Arken Museum of Modern Art, Ishøj, Denmark
2011-2013 Solo show: Phantom Limbs
Designmuseum Danmark and Trapholt Museum, Denmark
2011 Sculpture Triennial 11
Odense Kunstfond / Kunsthallen Brandts, Odense, Denmark
2010 Pastiche – When a Tree Falls in the Forest…
Sølyst Slot, Jyderup, Denmark
2009 KURS: The Square
Museum of Contemporary Art, Roskilde, Denmark
AWARDS
2015 Honorary Award from Denmark’s National Bank’s Jubilee Foundation
2013 ’To Jomfruer’ honorary award
2012 Niels Wessel Bagges Art Foundation honorary award
2012 Award from Danish Arts Fondation for the work ’Completely Dusty’
2011 ’Planken Ud’ Award
2010 Award from Danish Arts Foundation for the work ’Sådan set er Byen’
2009 Award from Danish Arts Foundation for the work ’Burial of the Last Queen of Denmark’
2009 Danish Arts Foundation three year work stipend
2008 Award from Danish Arts Foundation for the work ’City of the (Re)orientated’
2008 Winners of Politiken newspaper’s Talent Prize
RESIDENCIES
2015 Art Omi
Omi International Arts Center, Hudson Valley, New York
2014 Institute for Provocation
Beijing, China
2012 ISCP, International Studio and Curatorial Program
New York, USA