Past

Asbjørn Skou: A Staggering Territory

23 Jan – 14 Mar 2015

In the solo exhibition A Staggering Territory, Asbjørn Skou has transformed the upper floor O—Overgaden into an installational terrain of spatial and visual displacements that provide a framework for a speculative architectural analysis based on the present to point to an imagined future. A central element of the exhibition is a series of large, black-and-white collages reminiscent of the photocopied aesthetics of zine culture. Some are based on the artist’s own documentation of overlooked or repressed urban spaces, like underground car parks, abandoned open-plan offices and development zones, whilst others depict architectural mock-ups of unrealised building projects and screen dumps of satellite maps. In the collages, these images of real and virtual environments are superimposed with different degrees of exposure and obscuration, creating the illusion of an X-ray gaze capable of revealing the hidden layers and structures of our surroundings. Mounted on sculptural floor elements, walls and columns, the collages give the exhibition space the character of a ruin, creating an alienating, surreal landscape that launches a bleak vision of contemporary urban planning and its consequences.

Asbjørn Skou (b. 1984) studied at Hochschule für Künste in Bremen from 2004 to 2009. His recent solo projects include Terminal Infrastructure at Third Space in Copenhagen, A Hole Through the Future at Munch Gallery in New York, as well as Impossible Society at Vejle Art Museum. He has also participated in numerous group shows in Denmark and abroad, including at Westwerk in Hamburg; Gallery Steinsland Berliner in Stockholm; Athens Video Art Festival and KØS Museum of Art in Public Spaces in Køge. In 2014 he published the artist book UNSITE with Konnotation publishers.