ARoS Kunstmuseum
jul2009

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.

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Kunstmuseum Thun
apr2008

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.

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