Press Release, October

‘Your very gay hair unleashed
Blows in the wind

and the very gay wind in turn
knocks over onlookers

Their elevator stares
catch the sun
on their way down

From scrutiny to stargazing
...’
Poetry excerpts are from
The Valley Came To Me, Mads Borre

Mads Borres solo show Fruiting Body is an installation of works with several entry points and exits. Firstly, these points are apparent in their variety of materials in use, like natural resins, silver, steel, sound and poetry. Secondly, the show presents a kind of playful ambiguity in its sculptural, sonic and textual choices that cohabit the space.

Is the human species really capable of tangible change and of giving non-human life an equal part in the world they inhabit mutually?

Fruiting Body argues for the validity of a fragmented and mosaic view of living, full of contradictions. As time passes, a myriad of relations with other humans, non-humans and phenomena of all kinds overlap, conflict and resolve themselves organically. Life goes on. And then what? It is in the fleeting fluidity of relations that we find the status of the object, the flow and composition of the work of Fruiting Body.

‘While handling the necklace
I wore last night

an unruly centipede

I told it to get back
In its case and continue
to dream of freedom’

In the case of arguing for a much needed mutualism, how do we get past the basic human fear, of the buzzzzzing of a wasp or the long legs of a spider? The fear and hostility towards insectual presences, sometimes result in something like a dark estrangement.

To be an insect is literally as the word says – to be cut into sections. It is by the clear distinction of its bodily parts and their seamless coherent movement that we deem the insect as something Other. Something that has little to do with humanity, or even less. Something to reject.

In the same way, it is the normative rejection of queers that both hurts and nourishes its modes of dissidence. For some queers, the act of building identity is patching together the dreams and utterances of queer passerbys, queers present and past and what they leave behind – in spite of normative society.

Fruiting Body applies to the continuous fruitful mutterings of fruity artists, but also to the ability of queers to connect strongly across time and geography, and against the odds, being born outside of a sometimes disassembled community. So what does it mean to be an insect in a human-fixated world, besides inspiring the drone-like work conditions of industries? When will the radical and non-conforming rhythm of the world be seen as a form of mutuality rather than as parasitism?

‘All around

growth is encouraged
fertilised by mint flavoured
bubble gum

I see

plants overturn the roads
bindweed breaks
the street signs
and lights

Instead of
walk and stop

bloom and wither

bloom and wither

bloom and wither

bloom and wither

Bloom and wither’

Mads Borre graduated from The Jutland Art Academy of Fine Arts in 2019, and has studied at Newcastle School of Fine Art at Newcastle University, returning as visiting researcher (2018). He has shown works in nationally at O–Overgaden (2022), The Free Exhibition (2022), Kunsthal Aarhus (2019/23), KØN Gender Studies Museum (2022), Dark Sky Festival – Fyns Kunstrum (2023), Diana Nørrebro and Cantina, as well as in England at Newcastle University (MFA degree show 2018), The Northern Mining Institute (2018) and Copeland Park, London (2018). In recent years Borre has worked with permanent public art commissions in Denmark for Skåde School (2023) and Huset på Torvet, Rosenhøj Aarhus (2023). He has held a residency at Sound Art Lab in Struer as part of ‘Future Sounds’ (2022) with the support of the Danish Composers Society and as artistic research fellow at The Danish Academy in Rome (2021). Borre has work in collections belonging to The National Arts Council and Aarhus Municipality. In 2023 Mads Borre received the talent prize and grant ’Aarhus Art Prize Solo’ for the distinction of his work since graduating and his contribution to the Aarhus Art scene. Upcoming shows and works include a solo show at Jyllandspostens Domicil (2024), ARoS Contemporary Art Museum (2024) and Alter Festival (2024).

Opening: Friday the 6th of October, 4-8.30pm.
Exhibition period: October 6th - October 31st, 2023.
Opening hours: Wed-fri: 3-6pm, sat-sun: 12-3pm and by appointment.
More info: www.cancancantina.xyz

The exhibition is supported by: Aarhus Kommune & Dansk Komponistforening.