Jesper Just

17 December 2017 — 11 March 2018

Just's films, installations, architectural interventions and live performances have been shown at the Venice Biennale (Danish Pavilion) and the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, and at Performa 15 and on Times Square, both in New York. The exhibition at Eye Filmmuseum focused on Just's big spatial film installations.

From 16 December 2017 to 11 March 2018, Eye presented an exhibition devoted to the Danish artist Jesper Just (Copenhagen, 1974). Just created an international stir with cinematographic works in which he explores gender, desires, relations and identity in a refined visual idiom.

The artist Jesper Just explores in his work the possibilities of presenting film as a spatial installation in the space of the museum. He often uses extreme dimensions, such as 25-metre-wide projections, to create presentations on multiple screens between which visitors move. Complementing these are complex sound and light installations, and sometimes extensive interventions in the existing architecture.

Watch a video about the exhibition in Eye:

Just, who lives by turns in New York, Copenhagen and Graz, assembles a large ‘production team’ for each film, with trained actors and a professional crew for camera, lighting and sound. He employs a cinematographic language commonly associated with lavish motion picture productions for the cinema: sophisticated use of lighting; remarkable changes in perspective and mise en scène in majestic tableaux vivants; precisely framed images and flowing camera movements.

Just exploits all this not to make feature films but to create remarkable film installations. These works show disconcerting, somewhat ominous or unsettling situations through which viewers have to find their way, exposed to their own feeling of vicarious shame or surprise.

Eye has been following the career of Just for years, in part because of his research into the spatial presentation of his works. That interest in large-scale spatial installations dovetails perfectly with the Eye exhibition programme, which highlights what film can be besides a feature screened in a movie theatre. In addition, Eye devotes attention to the interface between cinema and visual art, focusing on spatial presentations of film works.

Films, talks & more

The exhibition is accompanied by a programme of films, discussions and other activities.

Take a virtual tour through the exhibition:

credits

The exhibition is curated by Jaap Guldemond in collaboration with Marente Bloemheuvel.

Director of exhibitions / Curator

Jaap Guldemond

Associate curator

Marente Bloemheuvel

Project managers

Claartje Opdam, Sanne Baar

Graphic design

Joseph Plateau, Amsterdam

Technical production

Rembrandt Boswijk, Indyvideo, Utrecht, Bo Jansen

Installation

Syb Sybesma, Landstra & De Vries, Amsterdam

Light

Maarten Warmerdam, Theatermachine, Amsterdam

Looking for previous exhibitions?

Browse the archive via the link.

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