Past
Mathias & Mathias: Kære
26 Jan – 17 Mar 2018
Can art be judged objectively according to legal criteria? And what happens to the law when it clashes with art?
These are just some of the questions raised by the artist duo Mathias & Mathias via the videos, text and sculptures in their exhibition Kære, where they turn the first floor O—Overgaden into a courtroom for the cross-examination of the meaning of evidence and witness accounts when two irreconcilable worldviews collide.
The exhibition is based on Mathias & Mathias’ investigation of cases where art crosses swords with the law and becomes the subject of legal proceedings. One of these is the story of the American artist J. S. G. Boggs, who was arrested and charged with counterfeiting during an exhibition in London where he painted banknotes and used them as cash to get the public to question the value of money. In court Boggs’ defence called a series of art professionals to the stand, turning the trial into an art history lesson. Boggs was acquitted by a unanimous jury.
The artist duo Mathias & Mathias consists of Mathias Toubro (b. 1986) and Mathias Dyhr (b. 1991). They both graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 2016 and have worked together since 2012. Mathias & Mathias have exhibited extensively at art institutions and galleries, including Tranen Contemporary Art Centre, Ringsted Galleriet, The Exhibition Space Q, Last Resort Gallery, Sculpture by the Sea, Skulptur Odense, Heart Museum of Contemporary Art, as well as Museo National de Art in Mexico.