Søren Engstedt
57th Biennale di Venezia, Italy
13 May – 26 November 2017
Søren Engsted was invited by Christine Macel, curator of the 57th La Biennale di Venezia, to present his work as part of the central exhibition. Together with the Austrian Federal Chancellery, Phileas co-produced several of the artist’s works for the biennial.
The main exhibition, VIVA ARTE VIVA, was an exclamation, an expression of the passion for art and for the state of the artist. In Christine Macel’s biennial, art represented an alternative to individualism and indifference. The exhibition aimed to be an experience, representing an extroversion movement towards the other, towards a common place and towards the most indefinable dimensions, opening the pathways to a neo-humanism. It organically evolved in a sequence of pavilions, rooms and stanze, offering the spectator a journey from interiority to infinity. These pavilions followed one another, like the chapters of a book.
Søren Engsted’s work investigates the importance of sculpture, both in relation to art history, and to everyday life. He uses humour, among other elements, to question what art is and what it can be. Engsted’s work includes cheap materials and ready-made objects that he gathers in his studio and combines in an intuitive, playful manner. He is interested in the mistakes that occur in the creative process, and the possibilities arising from these mistakes.
Engsted (born 1974 in Ringsted, Denmark) lives and works in Vienna and Copenhagen. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, and has had solo exhibitions, at among other venues YEARS, Copenhagen (2013); Verein für Raum und Form in der bildenden Kunst, Vienna (2011); Kunsthaus Graz (2010) and Galerie Mezzanin, Vienna (2008). His work was among several group exhibitions, among other works Borderline, at Universal Museum Joanneum, Maribor 2012: European Capital of Culture; VILLE EN ABÎME – Hotel Charleroi, at Palais des Expositions, Charleroi (2012); Kunsthalle Wien (2012); and Open House at IASPIS, Stockholm (2011).
