Sisters in the Sky – first time in Asia now with Chinese pilots 28th October 2019 at the Danish Cultural Center – Beijing – China. SISTERS in the sky Beijng 2019. From the dawn of times, the dream of defeating gravity and imitating the birds over land and sea has prompted men and women to courageous actions. In western mythology, Icarius turned the back to his father’s advise and burned his wings when trying to reach for the sun. In Chinese mythology, Chang’e had to forsake her husband to be able to go to the moon. For 25 years, the notion of flying has held a central position in Simone Aaberg Kærn’s oeuvre. Whether in film and video works, installations or in performances, she has worked with it as a metaphor for individual freedom and airspace as a mind-set for unlimited access to take control of your own life. In her own words, flying is “a rhythmic experience that calls on all senses and brings all parts of the brain into action.” Kærn’s obsession with flying is particularly apparent in the series Sisters In The Sky, a work in progress that goes back to 1997. The initial version was originally exhibited at the 48th international Venice Biennale, dAPERTutto, in Venice in 1999 and consisted of 45 painted portraits based on photographs of WWII female pilots in Soviet, British and American service. In order to gain access to those still alive, Kærn had to earn her flight certificate, as these elderly women would have difficulty in relating to a young student of art let alone sharing their experiences. The result is an impressive aesthetic and intellectual statement of how women have realized their dream of flying in times of prejudice, hardship, and technical challenges. The...
Power kvinder
når kunst flytter grænser
PowerKvinder! – når kunst flytter grænser
Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen, duoen Randi & Katrine, Simone Aaberg Kærn og Kirsten Justesen
Særudstillingen byder på viltre, vilde og livsglade kvindelige kunstnere med Power gennem 150 år. Disse kunstnere har markeret sig både kunstnerisk og i samfundsdebatten og derfor kan deres kunst inspirere os. Udstillingen viser, hvordan kvindelige kunstnere har bidraget til udvikling af nye former for billedsprog, og samtidig søgt efter sammenhæng mellem deres kvindelige verden, identitet og samfund.
Forholdet mellem køn, identitet og kunst er til evig debat – kom og oplev hvordan fire kvindelige samtidskunstnere: Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen, duoen Randi & Katrine, Simone Aaberg Kærn og Kirsten Justesen – går i dialog med museets egen samling af kvindelige kunstnere.
Med særudstillingen vil kunstmuseet gerne præsentere kvindelige kunstneres gennemslagskraft og evne til gennem kunstens udtryk – at flytte på vedtagne grænser.
Open Sky
Danmarks Tekniske Museum, Helsingør
OPEN SKY– Himlen er mit lærred, flyet er min pensel
Simone Aaberg Kærn
Et 40 år gammelt Piper Colt propelfly bliver et flyvende frihedssymbol i den eventyrlige fortælling, der folder sig ud i udstillingen OPEN SKY på Danmarks Tekniske Museum i Helsingør.
Det lille lærredsbeklædte fly af Bedstemor And-typen danner rammen om en farefuld rejse, som pilot og performancekunstner Simone Aaberg Kærn sammen med instruktør og fotograf Magnus Bejmar begiver sig ud på i 2002. Rejsen var på 5.700 km og gik fra Lille Skensved i Danmark til Kabul i det krigshærgede Afghanistan. Den ni måneder lange mission impossible bragte Simone Aaberg Kærn til ulovlig indtrængning i amerikansk krigsterritorium og over farefulde bjergtinder med det ukuelige endemål for øje at finde frem til en ung pige i Kabul, Farial, hvis højeste ønske var at blive jagerpilot. Som filmen fra rejsen ,’Smiling in a Warzone’, der er en central del af udstillingen, dokumenterer, opnår Farial på egen hånd at styre Simone Aaberg Kærns lille propelfly over Kabul by. Med sin flyvning udførte Simone Aaberg Kærn et kunstnerisk projekt – a micro-global performance. Rejsen blev gennemført som et metaforisk billede på den fri himmels kraft – selv over et politisk uroligt og ulmende krigsterritorium.
Det er dette eventyr og Simone Aaberg Kærns insisteren på, at den gode vilje sejrer og nedbryder barrierer mellem nationer og folk, der er omdrejningspunktet i udstillingen OPEN SKY – Himlen er mit lærred, flyet er min pensel, som kan opleves på Danmarks Tekniske Museum i Helsingør fra lørdag den 13. april. Udstillingen tager betragteren med gennem det historiske, politiske og æstetiske landskab, som Simone Aaberg Kærn gennemlevede for at nå til Kabul. Den består foruden det ophængte fly af hovedfilmen ’Smiling in a Warzone’ samt en række videoer og kunstfotografier fra rejsen. Udstillingen har tidligere været vist på bl.a. AROS og Malmö Kunsthall og i Schweiz og kan nu for første gang opleves på Sjælland.
OPEN SKY – Simone Aaberg Kærn. Ny udstilling på Danmarks Tekniske Museum
Simone Aaberg Kærn (f. 1968)
Flyvning og luftrummet over os har haft en helt særlig interesse for performancekunstneren Simone Aaberg Kærn, siden hun startede sin uddannelse på Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi. Op igennem 1990erne kredsede Simone Aaberg Kærn i en række animerede videoværker, installationer og performances om mennesket svævende frit over jorden i en både fysisk og metaforisk forstand. Fælles for Simones opgør med tyngdekraften er, at det altid er med kvinden som subjekt.
Under inspiration af 2. verdenskrigs amerikanske, engelske og sovjetiske kvindelige kamppiloter skabte Simone Aaberg Kærn i 1997 45 portrætter – ’Sisters in the Sky’ – malet med flymotorolie. Da Louisiana erhvervede værkerne, gav det kunstneren økonomisk frihed til at realisere sin pigedrøm; at anskaffe sig sit eget lille veteranfly og blive en af luftens kvindelige helte! Simone Aaberg Kærns legende, humanistiske engagement i verdens brændpunkter er stadig stort. For nylig skabte hun igen mediestorm om de danske krige og grænser for kunsten gennem en serie portrætter af danske politikere påført tydelige krigssår.
Udstillingen OPEN SKY – Himlen er mit lærred, flyet er min pensel kan opleves på Danmarks Tekniske Museum i perioden 13. april – 22. september 2013. I udstillingsperioden vil der blive arrangeret foredrag og debat på Danmarks Tekniske Museum med fokus på udstillingens fornyede aktualitet i forbindelse med tilbagetrækningen af de danske tropper fra Afghanistan. Arrangementerne vil blive annonceret i pressen, på museets facebook- side og på www.tekniskmuseum.dk.
For yderligere oplysninger kontakt museumsdirektør Jens Breinegaard på telefon 49 22 26 11 eller e-mail jb@tekniskmuseum.dk.
Seize the Sky
San Diego State University
Seize the Sky is a fourteen-year survey of the artist’s video works organized and curated by Tina Yapelli, director of the University Art Gallery at San Diego State University. The exhibition and symposium are sponsored by the San Diego State University Art Council; the School of Art, Design and Art History; the SDSU Center for the Visual and Performing Arts; the College of Professional Studies and Fine Arts; and the fund for Instructionally Related Activities. The exhibition and symposium are organized in conjunction with the fortieth anniversary of the Department of Women’s Studies at San Diego State University. Simone Aaberg Kærn is represented by Galerie Asbæk, Copenhagen, Denmark.
ARoS Kunstmuseum
Aarhus, Denmark
ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum havde fornøjelsen at præsentere en spektakulær installation, som tidligere gennembrød luftrummet over os og lagde hundredvis af kilometer bag sig. Der er tale om ophængningen af det 6 meter lange og 9 meter brede Piper Colt propelfly, som er hovedværket i sensommerens eventyrlige udstilling OPEN SKY.
Som en slags ready-made hænges det mere end 40 år gamle lærredsklædte veteranfly op i Museumsgaden som et vidnesbyrd om en farefuld rejse fra Lille Skensved ved København til Kabul i det krigshærgede Afghanistan. En rute tilbagelagt af den danske pilot og kunstner Simone Aaberg Kærn, som imod alle odds og med livet som indsats fløj de mere end 6000 km i det lille en-motors propelfly fra 1961. En dramatisk flyvetur hvori indgik såvel ulovlig indtrængen i det amerikanske luftkrigsterritorium som en besejring af bjergtinden Hindukush.
Kunstmuseum Thun
Switzerland
Open Sky at Kunstmuseum Thun- Curated by Helen Hirsh
April 19 – June 15, 2008
Simone Aaberg Kærn (born in 1969 in Copenhagen) picks out the dream of flying as the central theme in her works and broaches the role of women in flying. With various media like photography, video and object art, she deals with the social, historical and political dimensions of aviation and joins them together in installations in the exhibition room.
In the process, the thoughts of unbound freedom in the open sky that is associated with flying is a recurring theme in the oeuvre of Aaberg Kærn. In 2002, the artist and trained pilot flew in her small plane from Copenhagen over the Hindukush to Kabul to realise the dream of flying of an Afghani girl – an event that became an adventurous and risky journey interlinked with all the hurdles of today’s civil aviation. Also, the motif of the woman in the male-dominated aviation is perceived in many of her works. Specially for the exhibition at Kunstmuseum Thun, her first solo exhibition in Switzerland, she has added the portrait of Swiss women military pilots to her work with American and Russian women military pilots of the Second World War, Afghani women helicopter pilots and Turkish women fighter pilots.
Sky and space are playing fields for power and politics, but they are also equally the place of freedom and self-realisation.
OPEN SKY
Malmö Konsthall, Sweden
OPEN SKY at Malmø Konsthall curated by Jacob Fabricius. Simone Aaberg Kærn, in the early 1990s, began working with projects relating to surveillance and control. This, however, soon turned into a fascination for the unreachable and impossible task of floating: flying in the space. Through animated flying videos, such as Air (1994), wanna fly (1995), and Royal Greenland (196), Simone Aaberg Kærn investigated and soon found a symbolic free space in the air. At first, it was animated spaces, in which she flew across the skies of Copenhagen, New York and Greenland seeking the limits of gravity and individual unassisted human flight. Soon after Simone Aaberg Kærn achieved her own flight certificate in order to produce the work, Sisters in the Sky. This was demanded by Anne Noggle, one of the female pilots, who also was portrayed in the work Sisters in the Sky (1997). Simone Aaberg Kærn’s painted portraits of female fighter pilots from Second World War was shown at and acquired by Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk. Sisters in the Sky is an impressive aesthetic and intellectual peephole of how women at that time could realize their dream of flying in a time of hardship. In the painting and sound installation, Simone Aaberg Kærn narrated their stories with a poetic, political and feministic gesture and introduced the notion of aero feminism – an aero feministic sisterhood across cultures and generations. One of Simone Aaberg Kærn’s most spectacular projects started in 2002. One day the artist read an article in a Danish newspaper about the girl Farial from Kabul in Afghanistan. Farial’s greatest wish was to become a fighter pilot. Simone Aaberg Kærn had no doubts; she had to attempt to reach her and show her how to fly. In Micro-Global Performance (2002-03) Aaberg Kærn took off in her fragile Piper Colt flight from Little Skensved, Denmark, to Kabul, Afghanistan. Micro-Global Performance is produced in collaboration with Magnus Bejmar. They flew across borders; crossing the enormous mountain range Hindukush (the Hindu Killer) to Kabul with the risk of the American Air Force would attack them. In the film Smiling in a War Zone (2005) Simone Aaberg Kærn crosses war zones and defies the military power in order to make contact to the girl Farial. She risked her own life so she could give Farial a journey in the air. In the film Farial flies the plane over Kabul. From a global perspective, the sky and the airspace are a place of battles – over power, prestige and politics. At the same time, the sky is a place of refuge for individuals, a place onto which you may project your own wishes and dreams. by Lars Grambye, Jacob Fabricius & Lotte Petersen. from the exhibition catalogue Simone Aaberg Kærn: Open Sky, Malmö Konsthall (Sweden) 2006 Used with permission of the authors and Galerie Asbæk © The authors The Art of Flying to Kabul In 2002, the performance artist Simone Aaberg Kærn did what no one thought was possible, flying a small canvascovered plane 6000 km from Copenhagen to Kabul. FILM talked with Aaberg Kærn and co-director Magnus Bejmar about “Smiling in a War Zone – and the Art of Flying to Kabul”, an artistic statement about freedom sustained by the dream of flying. Af Annemarie Hørsman Publiceret i FILM #47, November 2005 It can’t be done, other pilots told Simone Aaberg Kærn and Magnus Bejmar. Even with a more modern plane and more money, we wouldn’t make it halfway, they said. The two of them nevertheless managed to make the remarkable journey, which they have now turned into a documentary. “Smiling in a War Zone – and the Art of Flying to Kabul” is a modern fairytale about Aaberg Kærn’s stubborn struggle to build an air bridge across two continents. We follow her persistent negotiations with air traffic controllers and generals about airspace access, and...
Crossing Line
Galerie Asbæk, Copenhagen
En morgen bevæger kunstneren Simone Aaberg Kærn sig af sted på en flyvetur. En meget unik flyvetur med et unikt formål; målet om at betyde noget for andre end flyvemaskinens egne passagerer – et mål om at være mere end blot en flyvetur. Hun vil flyve til Kabul i det, af det amerikanske militær, lukkede luftrum over Afghanistan. Hun vil befri luften og give en afghansk pige, der tilsyneladende har et brændende ønske om at blive pilot i det mandsdominerede Afghanistan, en tur i sin flyvemaskine.
Den mest radikale vinkel på projektet er det forhold, at det betegnes som kunst. Handlingen bliver til et værk, en udført idé, og dette drejer fokus til meningen bag. Et jetfly trækker spor over himlen, et lille skrøbeligt propelfly trækker intet spor over himlen, men som kunstværk sætter det måske spor i modtagerens bevidsthed.
Clockwise
Vejle Kunstmuseum, Denmark
TARANEH HEADING FOR THE STARS
The first female pilot of Iran lives in Stockholm. She is running running for parliament as a candidate for the social democrats.
3 channel video installation
2X 3 min video projection with sound + one 10 min video on monitor with head phones.
Production 2002 Flying Entreprise
Pusan International Contemporary Art Festival
Pusan, Korea
“Show me with your hands” – 3 channel video installation with sound.
The American A 10 pilot shows maneuvers for air combat and bombing with his hands. The whore and her daughter flying together out of the blue? Show me Korea is recorded on and around the U.S. Osan Air Force Base in South Korea after 2000. There is also the busy aircrew outside the Soul international airport. Korea, both South and North was bombed to sweitser cheese during the Korean War. Flying is reserved for military and commercial flying. The airspace over the country is a large military operations area. And VFR flight cards rekvirers through the American Department of Defense. Military and commercial interests have occupied airspace but have they also prevent the people from flying? As a small anthropological fly project I transfer the project forward in other countries.