Welcome
– to the workshop
This website is dedicated to representing and mediating my work (from around 2005 to 2024). Thus, as a visual artist, it presents to me a possibility to be able to engage in – democratic – discussions about what art can be, mean and how its value should be addressed.
Among other things in the furthering of the developments in restoring art to a proper position within our societies. By which I mean, the kinds of positions where its value – as art – isn’t dependent upon markets and other structures within the welfare state (in decline), fast moving fashionable trends within the art scene or to the problem of artists themselves staying in positions that seemingly would be without reasons to uphold a proper history about the different historical notions of art. While maintaining ideas of art as a purely creative endeavour and thus upholding ideas about the universal qualities of the arts; resting on ideas of a notion of the arts, as such.
Instead, I propose – through the gesture of upholding my praxis – a relational notion of art as, being just that, relational.
J.G.C.
Biography
I began my studies under The Free Youth Education (FUU, 1999-2002), which got me into the Design School Kolding, before I went on to go in the direction of photographic studies at Fotografisk Skole (Aarhus, 2006). I was thereafter accepted at the Funen Art Academy in 2006 – then two years later switched to the Jutland Art Academy in 2008 – finishing this first part of my arts education in 2011. (As part of the Exitters / Årgang 2011).
Later I enrolled for studies in the theories of art, aesthetics and communication at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts Department of Theory and Communication (Afdelingen for Teori og Formidling, 2013-16), which again developed into other kinds of research: artistic research, art history and psychoanalysis – among other themes focusing on the question of the act of writing (in Danish, and in my terminology: skriftens skriven).
Besides various study trips – to most of the European capitals – I’ve made travels in Europe to Hauterives (to visit le Palais Idéal du Facteur Cheval), Lausanne, Basel, Zürich, Mantua – and in America to La Paz, San Francisco (and the Bay Area), New York and Los Angeles. Plus, a trip into the Nevada Desert, including California City, Las Vegas and the Mormon Mesa (to see Michael Heizer’s Double Negative). Residencies made in Budapest, Porto and Thessaloniki. Besides these trips, one sojourn in 2001 and a couple of visits to Barcelona. In the later years of my time – while practising – I’ve also traveled around Italy, finding immense joy in and a historically grounded fascination for the art of the Renaissance, viewed through its many innovations.
I’m living and working in Copenhagen, maintaining a suitable life here, which thus have been and maintains to be private.
J.G.C.
Below you can read three statements, about my ways of working – written by colleagues –, so as to relate a context to my artistic praxis.
1) Written in relation to my examination for the exit-exhibition Afgang 2016, here’s a declaration by former Director of the Theory Department at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts Carsten Juhl:
“... In his interventions, Gerard Byrne mentioned the influence of the pallet of Victor Vasarely for some of the pictures and stressed that the work of Christensen could not avoid interpellating the question of the role of ‘attitude’ in art. For her part, Maria Muhle also interrogated the question of intentionality asking Christensen why he gave such credit to the viewer. – In his answers Christensen revealed quite an ability to discuss the critique presented to him. So the author [Christensen] was able to introduce several important dimensions in the discussion: the questions of autonomy and immanence of the image, the ‘materiality’ as part of the signification of the image, the secondary role of the presentation of the piece and finally and most importantly the fundamental conceptual problem of how, when and if an image can be convincing. The last point implicates however, that the text in the image and perhaps even the sound of it is able to maintain a discursive impact on the visual perception of the piece.”
2) The following introduction was put forward – at the fifth and last of the Dialogues in Praxis (Samtaler om praksis) – by curator Lars Bang Larsen, Director of Artistic Research at Art Hub Copenhagen:
“Dette er femte og sidste omgang i rækken af Samtaler om praksis, som Jonas startede her i Vester Vov Vov sidste efterår.
For jer som er her første gang kan jeg sige at Samtaler om praksis består af båndede udvekslinger med kunstnere, teoretikere og forskere – hver gang med en ny gæst, som er udvalgt og interviewet af Jonas.
Samtalerne er blevet præsenteret her i biografen i et blandingsformat bestående af lyd- og tekstmontager tilsat ganske få billeder – og efterfulgt af en levende samtale mellem gæsten og Jonas, og de andre der havde fundet vej herind. Det er også den opskrift vi vil følge i aften.
På den måde er tæppet gået for produktion af sprog omkring kunst og kunstnerisk forskning, i diskussion mellem kolleger og ikke-kolleger. Det vil sige at samtalerne både har været fagfælleinvolverende par excellence, og har udvidet idéen om hvem der kan være fæller og fagfæller i kunsten.
Der har været åbnet for uenighed og sprækker mellem praksisser og kunstforståelser – godt med plads og evne til dét.
Så stor tak til Jonas. Det har været stimulerende, både at deltage og at arbejde sammen om det her. I løbet af de forskellige samtaler er der bidraget med meget nyt, som selvfølgelig er kommet fra de enkelte gæster – men i høj grad er opstået dialogisk, inden for den åbne ramme som Jonas er lykkedes med at sætte.
Vi har jo bare siddet her i Vester Vov Vov, men vi er kommet omkring i samtalerne. Man kan betegne Samtaler om praksis, som peripatetiske, for at bruge dét ord, der betyder ‘omvandrende’ eller ‘omkringgående’ men som også har med undervisning at gøre. Fordi deltagerne i Aristoteles’s skole Peripatos diskuterede, mens de spadserede: Bevægelse både i benene, i tanken og i munden, altså. ...”
3) Besides this, the following statement – also in Danish – very accurately and in detail describe themes present in my praxis. It was written on occasion of the handing out of a grant from Sven Dalsgaards Fond, and delivered by my former teacher – at that time lecturer at the Jutland Art Academy –, the visual and conceptual artist Jørgen Michaelsen:
“... Det er karakteristisk for Jonas Georg Christensens værkproduktion, at de mange forskellige arbejder præges af en skrift-sensibilitet. Det skal forstås sådan, at hans tværmediale praksis, som bl.a. omfatter installation, fotografi, tegning og publikation, altid synes at indgå eksperimentelt i en overordnet frembringelse af udsagn, hvor der reflekteres kritisk over kunsten og dens sociokulturelle betingelser. Grundlæggende har kunstneren et sikkert blik for æstetisk økonomi, hvilket altid sikrer værkerne en autonom robusthed, der rækker ud over projektpræmissen.
På den anden side er Jonas Georg Christensen en så udpræget diskursiv kunstner, at praksisrammen udvides til at omfatte offentlige diskussionsarrangementer, hvor kunsten bl.a. problematiseres gennem, hvad man kunne kalde aktiv-medierende inddragelse. Et eksempel herpå er VÆRKSTED FOR ÆSTETIKs samtaler om praksis – kunstnerisk forskning i teori, skrift og udsigelse, der fandt sted gennem et halvt år som fem ‘seancer’ i biografen Vester Vov Vov. Tilgangen var følgende: En præindspillet samtale mellem Jonas Georg Christensen og en indbudt kunstner/teoretiker/forsker blev afspillet i biografen som lyd- og tekstmontage. Herefter blev lyset tændt og publikum opfordret til som tredjepart at diskutere den præsenterede samtale med den indbudte og Jonas Georg Christensen, der befandt sig forrest i biografen. De fem samtaler kunne herefter tilgås som lydfiler på nettet.
I dansk sammenhæng ser man ikke så ofte, at kunstnere insisterer på at etablere en diskuterende offentlighed på egne præmisser, dvs. på grundlag af egne teoretisk-tematiske præferencer og i en fysisk form, som gør udvekslingen nærværende med fokus på problemindhold og derved modvirker den tendens til ‘eventgørelse’, man finder i mainstreamkunsten. ...”
Portfolio of Jonas Georg Christensen
Welcome
– to the workshop
This website is dedicated to representing and mediating my work (from around 2005 to 2024). Thus, as a visual artist, it presents to me a possibility to be able to engage in – democratic – discussions about what art can be, mean and how its value should be addressed.
Among other things in the furthering of the developments in restoring art to a proper position within our societies. By which I mean, the kinds of positions where its value – as art – isn’t dependent upon markets and other structures within the welfare state (in decline), fast moving fashionable trends within the art scene or to the problem of artists themselves staying in positions that seemingly would be without reasons to uphold a proper history about the different historical notions of art. While maintaining ideas of art as a purely creative endeavour and thus upholding ideas about the universal qualities of the arts; resting on ideas of a notion of the arts, as such.
Instead, I propose – through the gesture of upholding my praxis – a relational notion of art as, being just that, relational.
J.G.C.
Biography
I began my studies under The Free Youth Education (FUU, 1999-2002), which got me into the Design School Kolding, before I went on to go in the direction of photographic studies at Fotografisk Skole (Aarhus, 2006). I was thereafter accepted at the Funen Art Academy in 2006 – then two years later switched to the Jutland Art Academy in 2008 – finishing this first part of my arts education in 2011. (As part of the Exitters / Årgang 2011).
Later I enrolled for studies in the theories of art, aesthetics and communication at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts Department of Theory and Communication (Afdelingen for Teori og Formidling, 2013-16), which again developed into other kinds of research: artistic research, art history and psychoanalysis – among other themes focusing on the question of the act of writing (in Danish, and in my terminology: skriftens skriven).
Besides various study trips – to most of the European capitals – I’ve made travels in Europe to Hauterives (to visit le Palais Idéal du Facteur Cheval), Lausanne, Basel, Zürich, Mantua – and in America to La Paz, San Francisco (and the Bay Area), New York and Los Angeles. Plus, a trip into the Nevada Desert, including California City, Las Vegas and the Mormon Mesa (to see Michael Heizer’s Double Negative). Residencies made in Budapest, Porto and Thessaloniki. Besides these trips, one sojourn in 2001 and a couple of visits to Barcelona. In the later years of my time – while practising – I’ve also traveled around Italy, finding immense joy in and a historically grounded fascination for the art of the Renaissance, viewed through its many innovations.
I’m living and working in Copenhagen, maintaining a suitable life here, which thus have been and maintains to be private.
J.G.C.
Below you can read three statements, about my ways of working – written by colleagues –, so as to relate a context to my artistic praxis.
1) Written in relation to my examination for the exit-exhibition Afgang 2016, here’s a declaration by former Director of the Theory Department at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts Carsten Juhl:
“... In his interventions, Gerard Byrne mentioned the influence of the pallet of Victor Vasarely for some of the pictures and stressed that the work of Christensen could not avoid interpellating the question of the role of ‘attitude’ in art. For her part, Maria Muhle also interrogated the question of intentionality asking Christensen why he gave such credit to the viewer. – In his answers Christensen revealed quite an ability to discuss the critique presented to him. So the author [Christensen] was able to introduce several important dimensions in the discussion: the questions of autonomy and immanence of the image, the ‘materiality’ as part of the signification of the image, the secondary role of the presentation of the piece and finally and most importantly the fundamental conceptual problem of how, when and if an image can be convincing. The last point implicates however, that the text in the image and perhaps even the sound of it is able to maintain a discursive impact on the visual perception of the piece.”
2) The following introduction was put forward – at the fifth and last of the Dialogues in Praxis (Samtaler om praksis) – by curator Lars Bang Larsen, Director of Artistic Research at Art Hub Copenhagen:
“Dette er femte og sidste omgang i rækken af Samtaler om praksis, som Jonas startede her i Vester Vov Vov sidste efterår.
For jer som er her første gang kan jeg sige at Samtaler om praksis består af båndede udvekslinger med kunstnere, teoretikere og forskere – hver gang med en ny gæst, som er udvalgt og interviewet af Jonas.
Samtalerne er blevet præsenteret her i biografen i et blandingsformat bestående af lyd- og tekstmontager tilsat ganske få billeder – og efterfulgt af en levende samtale mellem gæsten og Jonas, og de andre der havde fundet vej herind. Det er også den opskrift vi vil følge i aften.
På den måde er tæppet gået for produktion af sprog omkring kunst og kunstnerisk forskning, i diskussion mellem kolleger og ikke-kolleger. Det vil sige at samtalerne både har været fagfælleinvolverende par excellence, og har udvidet idéen om hvem der kan være fæller og fagfæller i kunsten.
Der har været åbnet for uenighed og sprækker mellem praksisser og kunstforståelser – godt med plads og evne til dét.
Så stor tak til Jonas. Det har været stimulerende, både at deltage og at arbejde sammen om det her. I løbet af de forskellige samtaler er der bidraget med meget nyt, som selvfølgelig er kommet fra de enkelte gæster – men i høj grad er opstået dialogisk, inden for den åbne ramme som Jonas er lykkedes med at sætte.
Vi har jo bare siddet her i Vester Vov Vov, men vi er kommet omkring i samtalerne. Man kan betegne Samtaler om praksis, som peripatetiske, for at bruge dét ord, der betyder ‘omvandrende’ eller ‘omkringgående’ men som også har med undervisning at gøre. Fordi deltagerne i Aristoteles’s skole Peripatos diskuterede, mens de spadserede: Bevægelse både i benene, i tanken og i munden, altså. ...”
3) Besides this, the following statement – also in Danish – very accurately and in detail describe themes present in my praxis. It was written on occasion of the handing out of a grant from Sven Dalsgaards Fond, and delivered by my former teacher – at that time lecturer at the Jutland Art Academy –, the visual and conceptual artist Jørgen Michaelsen:
“... Det er karakteristisk for Jonas Georg Christensens værkproduktion, at de mange forskellige arbejder præges af en skrift-sensibilitet. Det skal forstås sådan, at hans tværmediale praksis, som bl.a. omfatter installation, fotografi, tegning og publikation, altid synes at indgå eksperimentelt i en overordnet frembringelse af udsagn, hvor der reflekteres kritisk over kunsten og dens sociokulturelle betingelser. Grundlæggende har kunstneren et sikkert blik for æstetisk økonomi, hvilket altid sikrer værkerne en autonom robusthed, der rækker ud over projektpræmissen.
På den anden side er Jonas Georg Christensen en så udpræget diskursiv kunstner, at praksisrammen udvides til at omfatte offentlige diskussionsarrangementer, hvor kunsten bl.a. problematiseres gennem, hvad man kunne kalde aktiv-medierende inddragelse. Et eksempel herpå er VÆRKSTED FOR ÆSTETIKs samtaler om praksis – kunstnerisk forskning i teori, skrift og udsigelse, der fandt sted gennem et halvt år som fem ‘seancer’ i biografen Vester Vov Vov. Tilgangen var følgende: En præindspillet samtale mellem Jonas Georg Christensen og en indbudt kunstner/teoretiker/forsker blev afspillet i biografen som lyd- og tekstmontage. Herefter blev lyset tændt og publikum opfordret til som tredjepart at diskutere den præsenterede samtale med den indbudte og Jonas Georg Christensen, der befandt sig forrest i biografen. De fem samtaler kunne herefter tilgås som lydfiler på nettet.
I dansk sammenhæng ser man ikke så ofte, at kunstnere insisterer på at etablere en diskuterende offentlighed på egne præmisser, dvs. på grundlag af egne teoretisk-tematiske præferencer og i en fysisk form, som gør udvekslingen nærværende med fokus på problemindhold og derved modvirker den tendens til ‘eventgørelse’, man finder i mainstreamkunsten. ...”