Funen Art Academy celebrates its 70th anniversary
This year, Funen Art Academy is celebrating its 70th anniversary, of which the last 30 years have played out on the top floor of Brandt’s Clothing Factory. To mark this occasion, we invite the public to join us for a festive anniversary event highlighting the Academy’s history and development and celebrating our important work educating artists.
Time and place:
Thursday, December 4, 5-8 PM
Funen Art Academy, Brandts Torv 1, 4th floor, 5000 Odense C
Formulations of a past, present, and future
The Academy is formed and influenced by those who spend their daily lives at the school. At the same time, the place is continuously shaped through the mediation of its own recollection of the past, perception of the present, and expectations for the future. All organizations contain a history and in its formulation, selections and rejections are inevitably made, determining which stories stand out and which remain in the background. One such story about Funen Art Academy took place 30 years ago in 1984, when the Academy officially moved into the imposing premises in the former Brandt’s Clothing Factory. Another story goes back to 1944, when the Academy’s founder, Kaj Kylborg, established Odense Drawing and Painting School during World War II in his apartment on Vestergade. A third begins in 1954, when the school consolidated its ambitions and changed its name to Funen Art Academy in a step toward state recognition. Not to mention the year 1988, when the Academy finally received state funding. The stories are numerous and today, the Academy consists not only of current staff and students, but also of former art students, professors, rectors, ghosts, myths, and dreams of the future in a single collective memory.
Today, 70 years after the seeds were first sown, we wish to celebrate the Academy’s eventful development from a private artist-run initiative to an internationally oriented art school. The anniversary provides an opportunity to highlight some of the stories that are characteristic of the Academy’s unique self-made spirit. This will take place in the form of speeches, an exhibition opening, performances, and music with and by current and previous students and staff.
Exhibition History History
In honor of the anniversary, the Academy has embarked on a study of its own history. In collaboration with artist Åsa Elzèn and art historian Karen Mette Fog Pedersen, a group of students have worked with miscellaneous archival material surrounding the Academy. The group has dug through archive boxes, contacted former students, visited the Academy’s previous addresses, and hunted ghosts. Their work and interpretations of archival material will be exhibited in FAA Project Room on the day of the anniversary, where a selection of the Academy’s archive and historical artifacts will also be presented. The exhibition deals with the Academy’s concrete history but also offers overall reflections on the writing of history. In addition, the exhibited artists use fictive elements and strategies that can help open up new and different stories. The exhibition will be open until Sunday, December 7th.
Anniversary program for Thursday, December 4, 5-8 PM:
Welcoming by rector Stine Hebert
Speeches by Jane Jegind,deputy Mayor for City Development and Culture; Mads Damsbo, Director of Brandt’s; Karin Meisl, artist and former student and Kristoffer Ørum, professor at Funen Art Academy.
Music and performances by current and former FAA students: artist group Koh-i-noor, Jonas Kjeldgaard Sørensen, Kim Kim and Michael Mørkholt & Benedikte Sander play Solhorn.
Exhibition opening by Poul Falck, Chairman of the Board.
We will welcome guests with bubbly and chocolate. Soup will be served later on and cold refreshments can be purchased cheaply at the bar. The event is free and all are welcome!
About Funen Art Academy:
Funen Art Academy is a 5-year higher visual arts education. The Academy is intimately sized with about 60 students. The school additionally receives a number of exchange students each semester from international partner academies. The Academy is internationally oriented with a strong emphasis on experimental approaches to art education, but also focuses on its local anchoring. The Academy’s teaching is carried out by our professorial staff who are all practicing artists themselves. The set teaching is further complemented by a number of guest professors from home and abroad.
Artist and workshop leader Åsa Elzén:
Artist Åsa Elzén works primarily with text, video, performance, and objects. In her most recent projects, she has worked with feminist theory, historiography, and the use of fiction. She studied at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, Royal University of Fine Art in Stockholm, and at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Since 2008, she has worked as an active member of the feminist art collective YES! Association. Her work has been shown at number of solo and group exhibitions, e.g. at 21ST. PROJECTS, New York, 2014; Västerås Konstmuseum, Västerås, 2014; SKMU Sørlandets Kunstmuseum, Kristiansand, 2013, Leipziger Baumwollspinnerei, Leipzig, 2013; NGBK, Berlin, 2013; uqbar, Berlin and CCS Bard Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY.
Press photos
:
Kim Kim, image courtesy: Linea Kornum Rask
Kim Kim, image courtesy: Mikkel Congo Christensen
Michael Mørkholt & Benedikte Sander play Solhorn, image courtesy: Michael Mørkholt & Benedikte Sander