The Law Forbids Rich And Poor Alike To Sleep Under Bridges
A collaborative project between Ditte Knus Tønnesen (b. 1982, DK) and
Amalie Bønnelycke Lunøe (b.1981, DK) for
GREEN IS GOLD at SUPERMAKET 2013 – Stockholm Independent Art Fair
We, Ditte Knus Tønnesen and Amalie Bønnelycke Lunøe, asked Therese Kellner (freelance curator. b. 1984, SE) to write a piece on our collaborative project The Law Forbids Rich And Poor Alike To Sleep Under Bridges. We asked of her to attempt to enter the written project description rather than the finished work, we sent her a handful of sketches and a brief material description. Kellner therefore only had the first stage of the collaborative project to work with, before the process of the making and installing alters the initial idea.
Amalie Bønnelycke Lunøe (b.1981, DK) for
GREEN IS GOLD at SUPERMAKET 2013 – Stockholm Independent Art Fair
We, Ditte Knus Tønnesen and Amalie Bønnelycke Lunøe, asked Therese Kellner (freelance curator. b. 1984, SE) to write a piece on our collaborative project The Law Forbids Rich And Poor Alike To Sleep Under Bridges. We asked of her to attempt to enter the written project description rather than the finished work, we sent her a handful of sketches and a brief material description. Kellner therefore only had the first stage of the collaborative project to work with, before the process of the making and installing alters the initial idea.
Lunøe and Knus Tønnesen introduced me to several sketches carefully describing the space and possible ways of installing the work. This text is about an exhibit that takes place in the mind of the three of us, since Lunøe and Knus Tønnesen has not yet seen the space and I have not seen the work. I won't describe what you see, since you now stand in the space and can see for yourself, and since at this moment of me writing, the presentation has not yet been realized. Here I give you one interpretation of the project that I've read out from the two artists point of entry to the subject, context and space.
I'm informed that the starting point for this project came from a quote by French author Anatole France, the full quote is as following: “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets or steal bread”. At first, I felt the seconds running by faster when I saw myself having to read up on France in order to write this. But reading the quote again it hit me with its brutality and I realized that this strong combination of words was enough for me to bite into this project. The quote is a statement soaked in irony as a law goes for anyone regardless of social status and background but as declared here it is only relevant for some. This statement did for Lunøe and Knus Tønnesen set off an exploration of how we understand our built environment and served as a defining question of by who and how our constructed social body is used. From the sketches, I read that the body of work will include 3 larger photographs by Knus Tønnesen printed on long banners. The banners appear to be framed by, and resting on wooden structures, that serve as an extension of the photographic depictions. Knus Tønnesen shows us abandoned building sites at a resort area in Egypt. What could become luxury holiday homes or hotels here appear as ruins or monuments of the failures of consumerism. The land is left robbed of the possibilities of its intentional use and torn apart by piles of bricks and temporary roads. It's given back to nature disrupted and past expiry date. A financial collapse with a global domino effect has left grand structures like this towering up and spreading out over great areas of land regardless geographical location. We've seen it in Russia, Iceland, the US and here within a biking distance. The sight is familiar but yet not. Lunøe translates what is encountered in the images into wooden structures that refer to an aspect of human construction and use of the land even more familiar in our geographical context. The use of trellis (commonly used for gardening) points at a use of land of smaller economic scale, but the material and structures carries a legacy of a bourgeois tradition that involves substantial funds (ie time) and high maintenance. As in Knus Tønnesen's images it plays with desire of control, power and questions who are to control the land and the earth. In Lunøe 's hands the materials used for decoration and leisure divides the space as bars telling us we're in a restricted area. As the world sees short-term real estate investments for commercial purposes increasing, not at least in within event culture with its massive arenas, buildings, uncompleted constructions and land is left “on hold” leaving empty gaps in our city's body. Resulting in situations in the bizarre housing situations in both Copenhagen and Stockholm. How can our man made environment open up spaces that include everyone regardless of background and invite people to use all “gaps” of it? How can architecture creates spaces of intimacy and security, and can we build spaces in which we are all equal? |
In an unsentimental formal aesthetic Knus Tønnesen uses similar straightforwardness as in Bernt and Hilla Bechers objective documentations of industrial structures. Symmetry, repetition and regularity detach and alienates. Lunøe's structures uses the power symbols of watchtowers, gates and fences but what I imagine that we encounter in the space, is resisting anything fixed or permanent as in a totalitarian structure.
Knus Tønnesen and Lunøe play with the aesthetics of power and capitalism to point at its failures and question what role of architecture has on human behavior and customs. What was the original aspiration with the buildings we live in and use everyday? And most importantly -who were they built for? With the structures disrupted, the trellis dyed black and temporarily piling up against the wall, this displays and invites us to the cracks in the social constructed body that is open for everyone to use. This is further developed in the gesture of the banner -the scale and material plays with strategies of consumerism by anticipating and expecting attention of our desires. Here it now hangs loosely attached or has been thrown on the fence with its message ready to be replaced or displaced by You or me. There is a multitude of spaces and “gaps” in our cities that are “on hold”. Sure, many of these are not very obviously useful or easily accessible, but there has been many examples of how courtyards, alleys, wastelands, industrial spaces or abandoned rail tracks (as the High Line in NYC) has been occupied by citizens for non profit initiatives and transformed into communal use. An essential aspect in the context of this project is that the two artist themselves manages a non profit project space. In The Law Forbids Rich And Poor Alike To Sleep Under Bridges the ”gaps” and voids in the body of work appear as playing an as active role as the solid structures, resulting into a provisional entirety that activates the space with its divisions; manipulating our movement and thus pointing at how our organization of spaces can restrict or allow - encouraging us to keep an ongoing dialogue and active relationship with architecture. Knus Tønnesen and Lunøe's disrupted structures appear to me as building materials in a transient phase speaking of its prospective possibilities. The brutal is juxtaposed with the poetic. The grand houses in Egypt could be seen as a stage waiting for someone to enter. The fortress-like bare structures become sites on which to project new aspirations and dreams. What I see in this imagined installation is desire to explore the social body as an organic organism where all components are treated as equally crucial for the ensemble. Therese Kellner Stockholm, February 2013 www.ditteknus.com www.amaliebl.dk www.supermarketartfair.com |

The project was kindly supported by Nordic Culture Point's Mobility Program.
Press:
February 2013: News article about Market and Supermarket in Sweden, on Kopenhagen.dk
February 2013: Reportage about Stockholm Art Week on Kopenhagen Magasin
February 2013: Reportage about Stockholm Art Week on Kopenhagen Magasin
The Law Forbids Rich And Poor Alike To Sleep Under Bridges
Wood, Print on textile [various dimensions: e.g. prints 106 x 400 cm, wood 200 x 250 cm] 2013 © Amalie B. Lunøe and Ditte Knus Tønnesen.
Wood, Print on textile [various dimensions: e.g. prints 106 x 400 cm, wood 200 x 250 cm] 2013 © Amalie B. Lunøe and Ditte Knus Tønnesen.
Photographs: GREEN IS GOLD.