The Art Newspaper

Asger Jorn’s former home opens for residencies

Artists, writers and curators can apply to stay at house on remote Danish island of Læsø

By Clemens Bomsdorf. Web only
Published online: 09 September 2009

Copenhagen. Asger Jorn’s former home on the Danish island of Læsø briefly opened to the public at the end of August, and will now be home to a series of artist residencies. Jorn, born in 1914, spent much of his time in the house from 1964 until his death in 1973. The 19th-century farmhouse was bought in summer 2007 by Tom Christoffersen, director of Galleri Tom Christoffersen and Jorn’s dealer, and Peter Linder, Christoffersen’s brother-in-law, a business consultant and board member of auctioneer Bruun Rasmussen. They funded the renovation of the house, which was opened to the public for two days this summer. In the future it will be accessible to the public for two weeks a year, every August. “We do not want to have a Jorn museum,” Christofferson told The Art Newspaper. “But because so many people want to see his former place, they should get a chance to do so.”

The aim is to create a place dedicated to Jorn and to artists who may want to use the premises for creating their own work. “We have set up a residency programme for artists, writers and curators,” Christoffersen said. The first artist, Christian Vind from Denmark, is already using the premises. Vind has also curated an exhibition for Galleri Tom Christoffersen in Copenhagen on the late Danish artist Ib Geertsen, which closes on 10 October. “But in the future, when the programme is fully running, we want to invite people with no links to us,” said Christoffersen. He is now looking through further residency applications, and within a few months applications can be made through a dedicated website. “We want to allow people to work on a project on this remote island. What they want to do does not necessarily have to be linked to Jorn,” said Christoffersen. He is in the process of talking to sponsors so that participants can receive free accommodation and a grant to create work. Next year Bruun Rasmussen is to publish a book about Jorn and his work on Læsø. Danish painter Per Kirkeby, who was the subject of a solo show at Tate Modern this summer, also has a studio on the island.