Brian Eno might be one of the best-known singer-songwriters in rock music, but he has never used his voice in a work of art—until now. The Ship (2014-16), a 50-minute sound and visual installation on show at Chart art fair (until 28 August), inspired the former Roxy Music band member’s 25th solo album, also called The Ship, which he released in April.
During the making of the work of art, Eno found he could now sing a low C—the “root note” of the lead track on his album. “Getting older does have a few fringe benefits after all,” Eno writes on his website. Much like the album, the work of art is sung in Eno’s newfound lower register, and combines poem-like vocals, discordant bells and shifting synths. For added gloom factor, several funerary masks from the collection of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts have been installed in the dark room, among the spot lit plinths and speakers.
The ambient piece has been co-commissioned by Heartland Festival and the Kunsthal Charlottenborg, where the art fair takes place.
Collaboration is the name of the game among Nordic galleries
Two of the biggest galleries in the Nordic region have teamed up to present a joint show at the art fair. Copenhagen’s Galleri Bo Bjerggaard has supplied paintings, while Stockholm’s Galleri Magnus Karlsson has brought sculptures.
The happy pairing was a last-minute decision, according to Morten Korsgaard, a co-founder of Galleri Bo Bjerggaard, where prices range from 350,000 DKK ($53,000) for a large tile and wood collage by Peter Linde Busk to 2.9m DKK ($440,000) for a painting by Georg Baselitz. Both works sold after one day. “We decided this morning we would share our spaces and hang it this way,” Korsgaard said at the press opening. The galleries are also showing parallel exhibitions in their permanent spaces of paintings and drawings by Mamma Andersson and Tal R, who have been exchanging ideas and imagery since meeting at last year's fair.
One of the reasons the fair flows so well is its lack of walls between booths; another is the collegiate atmosphere among dealers. Chart's director Simon Friese says collaboration is key; the 30 participating galleries all come from the Nordic region. “We take our cue from what happened with Nordic cuisine around 15 years ago,” he says. “Danish and Swedish chefs stood side by side rather than in competition with each other. It’s the Nordic way.”
Design galleries make debut
For the first time in its four-year history, six design galleries have been invited to take part at Chart. One standout is The Apartment, a design gallery based in a former apartment in central Copenhagen.
Tina Seidenfaden Busck, the founder of the gallery, has taken the same approach at the fair, creating a homely interior that mixes contemporary and vintage items, including a handmade rug by the Swedish weaver Märta Maas-Fjetterström, Venini chandeliers and a daybed by the Austrian-Swedish architect and designer Josef Frank. Prices range from £500 to £22,000.
“It makes perfect sense to include design in an art fair in Copenhagen,” Busck says. “Design is part of Denmark’s DNA.”
