V1 GALLERY PROUDLY PRESENTS
Thule
A solo exhibition by Jakob Boeskov
V1 Gallery proudly presents Thule a solo exhibition created by the Danish / Icelandic artist Jacob Boeskov. Boeskov has received international praise for his work with “reality hacking”, video and drawing. He recently won the prestigious Danish Doc Award at the CPH:DOX film festival for his first feature documentary Empire North (Interpretation Productions 2010). The movie is a mix between documentary and fiction and is loosely based on events relating to the life of the artist.
“This series of works have grown out of my experience with creating the film Empire North. What happens on a film set is more real than reality and at the same time it is very clearly a construction, a fiction. For many reasons, I treasure and appreciate the imaginative and the synthetic. This body of work is my attempt at creating a realistic depiction of an imaginary society.”
Jakob Boeskov
The works in Thule has numerous references to science fiction, philosophy, futuristic 70’ies architecture, European cultural heritage and religion. Are they a social critique, a Scandinavian Fata Morgana or self- exposing? Painted with oil on wood panels in a fragile figurative style, the effect of the works is disorientating. Are we in the past or the present, in a kingdom or a utopian democracy?
Since Boeskov’s seminal and blunt exhibition Coup De Théâtre at V1 Gallery in 2005 it feels like a new form of curiosity has crept into his work. In 2009, in the solo exhibition Siggimund at The National Gallery of Denmark, Boeskov’s work unfolded as a dance and duel between identity and expression. In Thule, Boeskov’s work appears more naked, free from sarcasm, but still humorous, less bombastic and with an insisting poetic reflection, which the digital society of today rarely leaves room for. We are offered a glimpse into the log of the expedition leader, thoughts coloured by time, memory, imagination, reflection and distance. With the mythological Thule on the horizon in his binoculars, Jakob Boeskov has created all the work during the last year in New York.
Jakob Boeskov born 1973, Elsinore, Denmark, lives and works in New York. Larger solo exhibitions include Siggimund at the National Gallery of Denmark (2009), Dad at the Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum (2007) and Coup De Théâtre at V1 Gallery in 2005. International group exhibitions include Populism at Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2005), Regarding Denmark, Ileana Tounta Gallery, Athens (2006). Boeskov has recently worked together with Creative Time in New York on the art film project Dr. Cruel that was screened at The New Museum, New York (2010). Boeskov’s latest film venture Empire North has just been selected for prestigious art film festival Artprojx Cinema where it will premier in March in conjunction with the Armory Week.
