COPENHAGEN.- A large retrospective of works by Bjørn Nørgaard, shown in Beijing, will present a considerable number of the artist’s key works as well as an all-new work, Bus Stop, created especially for the CAFA Art Museum in Beijing. The exhibition is sponsored by the Danish Ministry of Culture and is part of the recent efforts made to promote Danish culture in China.

When the push to promote Danish culture is launched in the autumn of 2014, Denmark will be represented by one of the key figures on the contemporary art scene. Featuring more than 100 works in the form of sculptures, installations, graphic works, films, and one of the huge cartoons for the Tapestries in the Great Hall at Christiansborg Palace, the exhibition showcases the evolution evident in Bjørn Nørgaard’s art from the 1960s to the present day.

"The Bjørn Nørgaard exhibition in Beijing relates an important story about cultural co-operation between Denmark and China. Nørgaard was one of the first Danish artists to work in China. More than a decade has elapsed since then. In the meantime he has become a visiting professor at CAFA in Beijing, where his works will now be presented in a large-scale exhibition that I greatly look forward to opening on 24 October. At the same time the exhibition is part of the ‘Danish Cultural Season in China’, an efforts that will, over the course of the next 10 months, pave the way for new working relations between Danish and Chinese artists and art institutions – and offer a vast Chinese audience the opportunity to explore Danish art and culture on their own," says Denmark’s Minister for Culture, Marianne Jelved.

Breaking and reshaping the world
The exhibition bears the title Re-modelling the World, which was also the name used for the SMK’s own vast Bjørn Nørgaard exhibition in 2010. The title is a reference to Bjørn Nørgaard’s characteristic working method: he quite literally breaks up our familiar view of the world like pictures in a puzzle, reassembling them in new ways. This is true of his earliest minimalist studies, conducted in the 1960s, of the relationship between materials – such as glass, wood, plaster, fabric, and metal, as well as of his so-called recycled classicist works such as Tomb of Christian III from the 1970s, and in recent works such as The Queen’s Tapestries.

"Bjørn Nørgaard’s multi-faceted and highly influential work will undoubtedly attract interest in China. I look forward to presenting Chinese audiences with his use of surprising materials, the incorporation of ancient skills and craftsmanship, and with the exhibition’s underlying concept of how we all contribute to shaping our world and our history," says Mikkel Bogh, director of the SMK.

New and old also meet in the all-new work Bus Stop, created especially for the CAFA Art Museum. The large bronze sculpture combines impressions from Buddhist grottos of the East with a traditional Danish bus stop; the work will be erected in front of the museum, which is part of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. The work was donated to CAFA by the Ny Carlsberg Foundation.

Chinese Connections
The SMK has collaborated with the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing before. During the Cultural Revolution CAFA lost several of the sculptures that used to adorn the academy’s drawing studio. In 2008 the SMK had 11 new plaster casts made for that studio, and on this occasion Bjørn Nørgaard, in his capacity as Chairman of the Friends of the Cast Collection, acted as a middleman.

Today, Bjørn Nørgaard is almost a kind of unofficial cultural ambassador in China; he has worked regularly in the country since 2003, when he took part in the sculpture show Sea and Music in Xiamen City Park with the sculpture The Throne. In 2007 he carried out the action Sisyphus Meets Confusius and Gets His First Cup of Green Tea at the Danish Cultural Institute in Beijing.

Over the last decade Nørgaard has produced many of his works at workshops in China and has created monuments for public spaces in China – most recently The Little Danseuse for the Guangzhou Opera House (2010-11). In 2008 he was appointed visiting professor at the art academy in Beijing.

Danish-Chinese cultural exchange
The Bjørn Nørgaard exhibition forms part of the Danish Ministry of Culture’s focus on Danish-Chinese cultural exchange: from the autumn of 2014 up to 2015 a large Chinese audience will have the opportunity to experience Danish culture and art. The activities include exhibitions, concerts, film festivals, book events, symposiums, stage art, theatre, events focusing on design, architecture, and crafts, and special events focusing on children and young people.

These endeavours are staged in close co-operation between the Danish Ministry of Culture, the Danish Cultural Institute and the Danish Embassy in Beijing, and the Danish Arts Foundation, Danish cultural institutions, artists’ groups, and individual artists.

The exhibition at CAFA Art Museum is sponsored by the steering committee for international cultural exchange under the auspices of the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Danish Ministry of Culture, and by the Danish Agency for Culture's museum fund. MÆRSK has kindly sponsored transport of the artworks.