TWO ROOMS
Dialogue about the nature of war is the central focal point for this spring's special exhibition in the Black Diamond with Ismar Cirkinagic and Per Bak Jensen.
The critics write
"
TWO ROOMS deserves to be seen. It is an eerily relevant exhibition.” - Kristeligt Dagblad
Examines war as a phenomenon
In the exhibition TWO ROOMS, Ismar Čirkinagić and Per Bak Jensen explore the nature of war and the traces it leaves on civilizations and cultures. The traces are not direct descriptions of war – rather, the two artists examine war as a phenomenon that can both be felt from within and viewed from without. Both positions can challenge our ethics and empathy. With the war in Ukraine and the movements in the global political arenas, the exhibition is uncomfortably relevant.
Both of the exhibition's two artists create new works for the exhibition. Ismar Čirkinagić, who fled the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina in the 1990s, has an in-depth knowledge of war and takes his works as a starting point from actual events and stories. Per Bak Jensen looks from the outside into the dark horrors of war and tries to find visual allegories of a civilization's abyss that for him and for most people is completely incomprehensible.
The war as a space of knowledge
Čirkinagić and Bak Jensen do not subscribe to a fixed reading of their works. The two visual artists see photography as a meaningful and symbolic art form with a central position in the world of modern man.
Both artists know well that our individual point of view has a great impact on how we take in what we see. Through their different approaches to photography, they investigate concepts such as time, transience, spirituality and religion. They try to open a space of cognition with room to think about the consequences that every war entails.
The exhibition consists of photographs, film and installation.
About the artists
Ismar Čirkinagić
Ismar Čirkinagić(b. 1973) was educated at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 2000-2006. Čirkinagić was born in Prijedor, Bosnia-Herzegovina, but fled in 1992 from the war in Bosnia to Denmark. Remembrance and socio-political conditions are pervasive themes in his practice. He has exhibited at such places as Metropolitan Arts Centre, Belfast (2016), The Meštrović Pavilion, Zagreb (2021) and Liverpool Biennial (2012) as well as at several museums and art galleries in Denmark, including Aros, SMK, Arken, Nikolaj Kunsthal, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Kunstmuseum Brandts, Kunsthal Aarhus, Sorø Kunstmuseum, HEART and Esbjerg Art Museum.
Per Bak Jensen
Per Bak Jensen (b. 1949) was in the period 1986-2009 lecturer in photography at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. He tries to capture a kind of timelessness in his images without the use of manipulation and has inspired several generations of photo artists in Scandinavia. His works are presented internationally in collections at MoMA, New York, Moderna Museet, Stockholm and Bibliothèque nationale, Paris, as well as in Denmark at ARKEN Museum for Modern Art, Louisiana Museum for Modern Art, Sorø Kunstmuseum and Royal Danish Library, National Collection of Photography.
