In Ebeltoft Havn, right next to the Frigate Jylland, a group of young visual artists has created an unconventional new, floating space for contemporary art: Both above and below deck on the ship Svartlöga, the artist-run exhibition platform OXER is now in its third year displaying changing exhibitions with significant artists from at home and abroad.
Svartlöga is docked here in Syddjurs, after it was wrecked off the coast of the Netherlands in 2018 on a voyage around the North Atlantic. No one was hurt, but the ship was destroyed. And since Svartlöga was already a beloved floating cultural institution at that time, the local committed forces managed to get together to salvage the ship and get it back home to Denmark.
Jonas Kjeldgaard Sørensen: Beached at my breast. OXER 2020. Photo: Mikkel Kaldal.
The group around the ship wanted to investigate how the ship could become an active player in the professional contemporary art scene.
And through various art projects, they have since then strived for the whole ship - both physically and on a more spiritual level, says visual artist Sara Kirstine Grønborg, who together with colleague and teammate from the Funen Art Academy, Dina Lundvall Nielsen, founded the exhibition platform OXER on board Svartlöga in 2019.
It is a very special task to create space for contemporary art in the middle of a tourist environment with a strong maritime tradition, she says.
"Fortunately, our experience is that our projects first and foremost challenge and surprise the local environment in a good way. We create dialogue about art every day among people who might not otherwise deal with the subject. And we find that when we invite people on board, even the most critical automatically softens a little," says Sara Kirstine Grønborg, who today runs OXER with assistance from art coordinator Anna Liv Bolther.
OXER's exhibition program 2021 consists of five projects by the artists Jonas Kjeldgaard Sørensen, Scott William Raby, Nour Fog, Maj Horn and Kristoffer Ørum. And one of the projects that OXER gets a lot of attention for is the annual figurehead sculpture project, Anna Liv Bolther tells us.
"A figurehead animates a ship. And in our first two projects, a delicate figurehead in a field of willows and then a large, almost grotesque figure in aerated concrete that sprayed water into the bow, there has been a focus on the creative and life-giving – something that is important to OXER's and Svartlöga's identity, " she says.
Ambitious wildness
This year's figurehead is created by visual artist Nour Fog and will be unveiled on 3 July. In the project, a number of mythological beings linked to the sea merge: the sculpture takes on an intersex character and is a hybrid of sirens, mermaids/mermen, the foam-born Venus, and a sea monster.
"We are really looking forward to seeing it!" says Sara Kirstine Grønborg and Anna Liv Bolther, who these weeks are busy getting all the pieces to fall into place leading up to the exhibition opening and the unveiling of the new figurehead.
Despite their busy schedule, they thrive on creating and organizing the spaces for contemporary art that they themselves want to experience:
"We feel a special freedom in the self-organized projects. The freedom is also reflected in how many different places there are - from the completely sharp and well-thought-out exhibition spaces with a strict visual profile, to the frayed places that have arisen a bit by themselves, before someone gave them a name," says Sara Kirstine Grønborg .
"Although our type of organization often struggles a little harder to stay afloat, there just aren't that many rules that you are subject to either. We like to think that we bring some ambitious wildness into the established art scene here in Syddjurs. And that can probably be transferred to all of the country's artist-run places, compared to the Danish art scene in general," she says.
Jonas Kjeldgaard Sørensen: Beached at my breast. OXER 2020. Photo: Mikkel Kaldal.
Proximity creates good art encounters
Anna Liv Bolther adds:
"On an artist-run platform like OXER, we meet the audience more one-on-one than there is often time for in the larger art organisations. Everything just takes place in a slightly smaller format here. It also means closeness in the daily meetings and some room to discuss the art with the visitors.”
When asked to point to one thing that could improve the conditions for artist-run exhibition venues, Anna Liv Bolther and Sara Kirstine Grønborg have no doubts.
"It may be a slightly predictable answer, but the dual role of being a project manager on an artist-run platform is a tricky lifestyle to keep afloat financially. The possibilities available in terms of funds that can be used for project management on our type of platform, where salaries are also sought for artists, are limited. Although we have so far managed to get really good funds for art and communication, there is a limit to how long the volunteer coordinator forces can last. Many self-organized project people feel this way. If you also have to look after your day job, your family and renovate an old minesweeper on the sidelines, it will be really difficult," says Sara Kirstine Grønborg with a laugh.
"So the answer must be, several pools that are directly aimed at operating the artist-run places, and with amounts that can extend over more than a month's time. Periods of calm are needed to work for all the good people who run these places.”
Top: From the setup of Scott William Raby's exhibition Proxy Harbor Environs. OXER 2021. Photo: Rikke Ehlers Nilsson.
Maj Kjærsig and Nour Fog: After the storm, OXER 2020. Installation view. Left: Nour, ceramic stone series. Right: Maj, hanging ceramic flakes, 2020. Photo: Maj Kjærsig & Nour Fog.
About OXER: The former minesweeper Svartlöga sank in 2018 during a storm, off the Dutch coast. The ship was subsequently recovered from the bottom of the sea, and has now been transformed into the exhibition venue OXER, founded by visual artists Sara Grønborg and Dina Lundvall Nielsen. It is run today by Sara with assistance from art coordinator Anna Liv Bolther.
OXER is, among other things, supported by the Statens Kunstfond. This year the exhibition program consists of five projects by Jonas Kjeldgaard Sørensen, Scott William Raby, Nour Fog, Maj Horn and Kristoffer Ørum.
More info: www.svartloga.dk
