The Institut Valencià d'Art Modern (IVAM) will present the publication around the exhibition 'Open creation and its enemies: Asger Jorn in situation' this Wednesday, May 24, in a meeting that will have the presence of two "figures key" of the situationist movement, the writer Michèle Bernstein (Paris, France, 1932) and the painter, sculptor and graphic artist Jacqueline de Jong (Hengelo, Holland, 1939). Both artists, contemporary of Asger Jorn, will talk with the curator of the exhibition Ellef Prestsæter (translated from Spanish to English).
The Institut Valencià d'Art Modern (IVAM) will present the publication around the exhibition 'Open creation and its enemies: Asger Jorn in situation' this Wednesday, May 24, in a meeting that will have the presence of two "figures key" of the situationist movement, the writer Michèle Bernstein (Paris, France, 1932) and the painter, sculptor and graphic artist Jacqueline de Jong (Hengelo, Holland, 1939). Both artists, contemporary of Asger Jorn, will talk with the curator of the exhibition Ellef Prestsæter.
The Situationist International, to which Asger Jorn belonged, developed from 1957 a radical critique of capitalism and contemporary ways of life through a multitude of activities, including theory, publication, activism and artistic creation.
Michèle Bernstein was one of the founders of this movement, which wanted to rescue the critical potential of art for a subversion of what Guy Debord, whom Bernstein married in 1952, had dubbed 'society of the spectacle'.
Jacqueline de Jong, who was Asger Jorn's companion for years, joined the Situationist International in 1960. Between 1962 and 1968 she edited and published the magazine 'The Situationist Times'.
Michèle Bernstein and Jacqueline de Jong will participatein a meeting with the curator of the exhibition, Ellef Prestsæter, with the aim of highlighting the contribution of this group to the history of art and investigating the relationship of both artists with the creation of Jorn , says the Valencian museum in a statement.
According to Ellef Prestsæter, "while Guy Debord's theorizing on what he called the 'society of the spectacle' would become a seminal reference within critical theory and art history, the playful and uncompromising practice of the group played a role important during the revolutions associated with 1968.
During the last two decades, the Situationist International has been an inescapable point of reference for artists and theorists related to the social turn of art".
The meeting will take place on the occasion of the launch of an "exhaustive" book published by the IVAM on the occasion of the exhibition 'Open creation and its enemies: Asger Jorn in situation', which is on display at the center until June 18. The profusely illustrated catalog brings together previously unpublished materials on the Danish artist.
Within the framework of the activities scheduled for the presentation of the catalogue, on Thursday May 25, the IVAM has invited the German artist and professor Axel Heil to visit the exhibition, in which he will share ideas about his long and passionate relation to the work of Asger Jorn.
Axel Heil is one of the world's leading experts on the work of Asger Jorn, whose work has kept him busy for decades. He has written extensively on topics such as Jorn's relationship to contemporary art, Jorn and Picasso, Jorn and Pollock, and Jorn as a situationist. LONGER EXHIBITION
Asger Jorn, in a situation Produced by the IVAM, in collaboration with the Museum Jorn in Silkeborg and with the support of the Fundació Banc Sabadell, the exhibition is the most extensive of all that have been held on the work of the Danish painter in Spain.
Composed of more than 200 pieces, some of them unpublished, including paintings, drawings, engravings, publications and collaborations, the exhibition delves into the creation of images and the connections between painting and publishing and the graphic experimentation of the acclaimed Danish painter.
