Born in 1965 in Ansager, Denmark, Gitte Villesen lives and works in Copenhagen and Berlin. Villesen shoots most of her videos close to home, in Ansager or Copenhagen. Using unpretentious imagery, her works evoke the everyday lives of various acquaintances, which have become her primary subjects. Villesen’s documentary-style practice questions the limits of this genre. Her works set the stage for various social interactions to occur both on camera and behind the scenes. Villesen perverts documentary filmmaking’s basic principles by portraying it as a form of social cooperation and confrontation. She strategically positions herself as a ‘participant observer’ who shapes and produces the reality that she records by relying on an interactive process, in other words, a game of social representation, activated by the camera. Through Villesen’s work, this activity is framed as a specific form of participation embedded in the reality that it appears to document.
Gitte Villesen has been exhibiting internationally since the mid-90s. Recent solo exhibitions and projects include''Noise for a Silent Movie'', Kisterem, Budapest, Hungary (2014), ''It runs about like ants'', Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art (LCCA), Riga, Latvia (2014), The lost part is now completed, Centre d'Art Passerelle, Brest, France (2013), “I will Arrange Everything. It Will Be the Best Film Ever” at Casco - Office for Art, Design and Theory, Utrecht (2009), “Juju White Magic” at Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen (2008) and “Presentation of Gitte Villesen” at Little Warsaw, Budapest (2006). Her work has also been shown as part of “squatting. erinnern, vergessen, besetzen” at Temporäre Kunsthalle, Berlin (2010), “Reality Check” at Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen (2008), “How to Build a Universe” at CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco (2006), The Danish Pavilion as part of the 51st Venice Biennale, Venice (2005), “Berlin North” at Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2004) and “Pause”, the Gwangju Biennial, Gwangju (2002).
Gitte Villesen is represented by Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen, Denmark and Kisterem Gallery, Budapest.
For additional information about this artist, visit Mutual Art
