Past

Christian Schmidt-Rasmussen: ICARUS VICTORIOUS

27 Apr – 27 May 2017

The exhibition as a whole embodies the artists’ personal interest in an art form that is distinct from classical theatre, but also from the performance art that has proliferated on the art scene during recent decades. All the performances in the exhibition are based on texts with elements of classical theatre like roles and dialogue, and the audience will also experience scenographic elements and different forms of artistic expression incorporating found objects, textiles, reliefs and collages.

The title Icarus Victorious refers to the figure of Greek legend who flew too close to the sun, melting his wings and plummeting to his death. The legend has become a symbol of the hubris constituted by striving for the divine, but in Schmidt-Rasmussen’s performance Icarus is a more complex figure closer to a symbol of ourselves. We are all Icarus, but unlike the original legend we manage to extinguish the sun, with serious consequences to follow. The play is inspired by the so-called ’refugee crisis’ in the spring of 2016, when a large group of people took to the E45 motorway in Denmark on foot. Frustrated with society and critical in its address, it also expresses a reactive, indiscriminate and apathetic rage.