SIGNA "THE MARKET" 📷

Saturday, May 29, 2021 4:00 PM 16:00
Saturday, July 3, 2021 5:00 PM 17:00

Simian, København Kay Fiskers Plads 17 København, 2300 Denmark (map)

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Signa, The Market, installation view, 2021. Photo: Brian Kure / GRAYSC / Kim Høltermand. © and courtesy of the artist and Simian.

Press release, May 2021

For centuries market life, in its diversity and explosive social nature, has folded artists, merchants, and peddlers into its structural fabric. Following the outbreak of the corona pandemic, the market space has gained a new place in our consciousness as the epicenter of contagion. The exhibition The Market positions its point of departure from this nullified space.

At Simian, in the proximity of the shopping mall Fields, one enters a delusional view of a mall – an abandoned, haunted market with stalls of many kinds, evolving in a state of advanced dissolution. The visitor witnesses a recent catastrophe, a near past frozen in shock. The Market is a shadow world, simultaneously recognizable and difficult to decode. The many objects assume the status of relics, and several of the stalls are reminiscent of altars from unknown rituals.

Signa, The Market, installation view, 2021. Photo: Brian Kure / GRAYSC / Kim Høltermand. All images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Simian. — Signa, The Market, installation view, 2021. Photo: Brian Kure / GRAYSC / Kim Høltermand. © and courtesy of the artist and Simian.

What has taken place here, what strange and dangerous behavior has brought misfortune to the market, and to us? What is our private affiliation with this place? Markets, unlike regulated trading, are chaotic and organic in their structure. They are wild environs with quick exchanges, altercations and pickpocketing – a precarious livelihood for many. When we move into the marketplace, we move into a gray zone where everyday life is driven out by force and yet, momentarily illuminated in its raw and condensed form.

The distilled life of the marketplace, its noise and dirt have become the potent symbol of the virus – a jagged wedge in the normalcy of daily life, and in our way of being among each other.

I wish I could scream
but I’ve got so hollow
down the market I go
to buy more and swallow

While I’m gone at the market
Please feed the cocks
While I’m gone at the market
roll up my cot

If it’s fur you’re in search of
my father’s gone hunting
Down at the market
he’s sniffing and grunting

An arrangement of skin
a race that’s worth pacing
a hobby of sorts
of people erasing

Who needs a face
when no one recalls
where you came from last night
they don’t care at all

They gave me a mask
and I gave them my word
from this melted off mouth
that nobody heard

The market’s not safe
it sure is still pretty
The market’s not safe
and so ain’t the city.

It’s safer inside
my ribs though they burn
Come to market
and wait for your turn

The lights are all on
but nobody’s home
They’re all at the market
to seethe and to moan.

Put them in cages
the brides who are stealing
their little white dresses
burst at the seaming

out to the dumpster
to take it or leave it
the treasure we’ve lost
you just won’t believe it.

An arrangement of skin
peel back the muscle
slow cook the heart
lungs rattle and rustle

Come to the market
who wants to stay home
Come to the market
where skin bags are sewn.

– Hannah Grady.

SIGNA, comprised of Signa & Arthur Köstler, are internationally known for their immersive projects, where audiences engage in close proximity with a multitude of performers for lengthy durations of time in large, extremely detailed scenographies. In The Market, the scenography and solitary spectator play the lead roles. The many living characters that usually populate SIGNA´s universe are replaced by numerous human-sized dolls. The exhibition is supported by The Bikuben Foundation and Danish Art Workshops.

Opening: May 29th, 16-20. *Remember to bring a ”corona pass”
Exhibition period: May 29 - July 3, 2021.
Opening hours: Thursday-Saturday, 12-17.

Posted in 2021, Covid-19, København, Sjælland, Kunstnerdrevne steder, Udstillinger, Billedserier