COPENHAGEN.- Kim Richard Adler Mejdahl presents his first major solo show Lilith Grotto, a heavy-metal hymn on the Christian undertones in present-day doomsday desperation. With equal parts of black humour, poetry, and absurdity, Mejdahl transforms Overgaden into a bizarre and musical dream world where light emerges from the devastation.

Our times are dominated by an omnipresent discourse on the climate crisis and it is difficult to avoid being gripped by the ensuing doomsday scenario. Kim Richard Adler Mejdahl’s show Lilith Grotto plays with the idea of mankind being on the threshold of a new and radically changed perception of nature where our losing control leads to a new self-perception of a powerless human being against something, which is indomitable and menacing. Via seven newly-produced works, Mejdahl asks if this dawning view of nature will mean that man will look at nature as a monster.

But rather than a preachy or political wagging finger, the exhibition will function as a ritual space, activating the resourcefulness of the visitors. Thus, the installations invite visitors to interact with their bodies and voices, creating music and images themselves, which, after the exhibition, will be compiled by the artist into a monumental communal work. The sum total of visitors’ recordings from the entire exhibition will then potentially end as the music work made jointly by the biggest number of Danes ever.

One of the central works in the exhibition ’Psalm Machine’ is an intricate and sculptural string instrument, recording visitors’ playful compositions and musical experiments. Moving further into the grotto chambers, we encounter ’Doomsdaydrummer’ – also an interactive work in stop motion which, when activated by visitors, causes a seven-armed monstrous drummer on the screen to erupt into explosive drumming sessions.

In contrast to the hard-hitting interactive works, there is the ethereal video work ‘Hour of Moth (Etude no. II)’. In this, Kim Mejdahl sings a hymn of love to nature. The artist lies half-naked on the forest floor and via the force of his voice, he intones moths to appear from their hideouts in the forest, so that visitors are surrounded and bathed in the epic presence of nature.

The apparently grotesque or violent motifs pointing to death and devastation embody a deeper intention of converting contemporary doomsday scenarios to communal actions of hope.

Kim Richard Adler Mejdahl studied at the Funen Art Academy and graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 2019. He performs and releases music under the alias Kim Kim. Mejdahl has shown at venues including Kunsthal Charlottenborg, OK Corral, and Villa Kultur and shown his video works at CPH PIX, the Seoul International New Media Festival (KR), the CBS Digital Art Space (DK), the VOID International Animation Film Festival (DK), the Flat Earth Film Festival (IS), and the Animation Volda Festival (NO). In 2018, he earned the Spring Exhibition Solo Award and his video work ODE was purchased by the National Gallery of Denmark this year.