We line up in front of the lights, take the picture and hashtag #installationart, but what was it really that we experienced? Copenhagen Contemporary has become the place where contemporary art and SoMe culture clash so hard that you don't know whether to take a stand — or just take the picture.
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Disclaimer: Apropos Magazine received access or a review copy. As always, we share our own impressions — unfiltered.
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There's something fascinating about walking around a giant hall on Refshaleøen, surrounded by flashing lights, distorted mirrors and video projections that look like something you saw at Roskilde in 2015 -- on the way home from a pint too much.
And don't get me wrong: it's beautiful. It's overwhelming. It's also easy to share. For Copenhagen Contemporaryfeels like an Instagram paradise disguised as cultural offerings.
You can get a selfie in the reflection of a gigantic ball, a drone shot of your girlfriend in slow motion in front of an artificial rain installation and maybe even a close-up of your feet in front of a neon work with the caption “You Are Here. Are You?”.
But are you?
Between art experience and selfie option
The question is not whether Copenhagen Contemporary makes great art -- they do. The question is whether the audience still shows up to view the. Or just to take home the proof.
It's hard not to get a little bit cynical when you see a group of friends lining up to take pictures in front of the same work -- at the right angle, in the right light -- and then go straight ahead. Without reading the artist's name. Without asking a single question.
It's not just the audience's fault. Contemporary art has for many years flirted with the spectacular. The bigger, the better. The more “immersive,” the more hype. But in trying to make art accessible, might we have also done so superficially?
Experience versus reflection
There are exceptions, of course. Works that make you stop. There are dots to something in you. But they are often tucked away between all the visual fill. The one that makes the most noise wins. Not necessarily what says the most.
It's like we're starting to confuse to be present with to be documented. And this is where CC's great force also becomes their biggest weakness. They are skilled at creating experiences -- but we have become bad at taking them in.
And so what?
Copenhagen Contemporary is not the problem -- it's the mirror. They show us something beautiful, something alluring, something potent. And we use it as a background. Maybe it's just a symptom of time. Or maybe it's time to ask ourselves if we dare to face the art without filter.
You're not sure you'll be touched. But you're definitely getting tagged.
