Born:
1971
Residence:
Nationality:
Danish
Trust:
Global
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BIOGRAPHY
For the past decade Nikolaj Bendix Skyum Larsen has primarily
been working with video and installation to create visual responses
to a variety of thematics. In the past few years migration and
disempowerment has been some of his main areas of research.
Although Larsen’s work deal with complex political subject matter,
he always explores it from the point of view of his protagonists.
Most of Larsen's work is commission-based or developed during
residencies. This enables him to have sufficient time to get beyond
the surface of the context within which he works. By getting to
know a given area and its people before his productions start, the
artist is able to tailor each project specifically to the context
within which he works.
Larsen has created projects in a long list of places. He has
created work on the West Bank, and portrayed Indian migrant workers
in Dubai (and their families in Kerala, India); he has made films
with second generation immigrants in council estates in suburbs of
Paris, and Århus, Denmark; he has worked with clandestine migrants
in Calais, France, as they attempt the highly dangerous and near
impossible task of getting into the UK. He has portrayed a farming
community in North Western Turkey on the Turkish/Greek border. The
community is highly affected by the flow of migrants who cross
their village on their way to the EU. In recent years Larsen has
spent time in New Delhi and on the river Thames working on two
projects commissioned by Tate Modern and Museum of London in
collaboration with Film and Video Umbrella. Recently the artist has
been working with the Italian arts organisation, qwatz on a new
major installation, End of Dreams. The work is made in Calabria in
Italy, and is a monument made in memory of the many migrants who
die in the Mediterranean whilst trying to reach Europe. In early
2014 End of Dreams was exhibited in SALT Galata in Istanbul and
Larsen is currently preparing an expanded version of the
installation for his upcoming solo exhibition at Fotografisk Center
in Copenhagen in 2016.
Nikolaj Bendix Skyum Larsen (born in Denmark 1971) studied a
BA honours in Sculpture at Chelsea College of Art and an MA in Fine
Art & Media Art at Slade school of Fine Art, London. Larsen has
exhibited extensively around the world. RECENT SOLO EXHIBITIONS
INCLUDE: End of Dreams, SALT Galata, Istanbul, Turkey (2015);
Promised Land, Dilston Grove, London (2013); 343 Perspectives,
Peckham Platform, London (2012); From The Edge, DCA (Dundee
Contemporary Art), Scotland (2012); Promised Land, Galerie Vanessa
Quang, Paris (2012) & PiST///, Istanbul (2012); Contes de la
périphérie, Maison du Danemark, Paris (2010); Do Not Use, Revolver
Galeria, Lima, Peru (2010); Rising Floating Falling, Kunsten -
Museum of Modern Art, Aalborg, Denmark (2004). RECENT GROUP
EXHIBITIONS INCLUDE: The Water Knows All my Secrets, Pratt
Manhattan Gallery, New York, USA; Displacements, ExElettrofonica
Gallery, Rome, Italy; Sharjah Biennale 12 - Official Film
Programme, Sharjah, U.A.E (2015); Chassés-croisés, tours et détours
autour du détroit, FRAC Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France (2014); Word.
Sound. Power., Tate Modern, London, UK (2013) and KOHJ, New Delhi,
India (2014); Estuary, Museum of London - Docklands, UK (2013);
Freedom, Kunstpalais, Erlangen, Germany (2013); In Spite of it All,
Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE (2012); Together, Trondheim Art Museum,
Norway (2012); Thessaloniki Biennial 3, Greece (2011), Folkestone
Triennial, UK (2011); Looped, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art,
Utah, USA (2011); Changing Stakes: Contemporary Art Dialogues with
Dubai, Mercer Union Gallery, Toronto, Canada (2011) and Sharjah
Biennial editions 6 & 9, UAE (2003 & 2009).
For additional information about this artist, visit Mutual Art
