Aarhus: Juxtapose Art Fair. I arrived yesterday afternoon and after checking in at my hostel – converted in a very fashionably danish way from the former city library … it’s called Book 1 – I found my way to one of the artist-run spaces that is part of fair’s ’off-site’ programme. There I met some artists that I know from Supermarket and shortly after Alice – one of the Supermarket directors and with whom I work on the magazine/catalogue – arrived. We and several others were then lead to two more artist-run spaces. The last of these required a bus journey to the suburbs. There we very warmly welcomed by a studio collective who once a year have a themed group show in their exhibition space … being the last stop on the tour they had very kindly and generously laid on pizza and beer – one of the artist’s ’bonus’ sons has his own brewery. We spend a nice evening there. Four of us – two Swedes and two adoptive Swedes – decided to walk back to the city, we chatted the whole way and the hour passed quickly, it was good to be outside and the evening … night was warm. It smelled and even looked a lot like England … leafy trees, a certain dampness, a barely discernible mistiness in the air.
I am excited to be here and am looking forward to the fair. It’s been a long time since I was at an art fair other than Supermarket. And my role here is rather mixed – part representant of Supermarket, part participant, part visitor, part artist, part project director (Glitter Ball showroom & projects). As Supermarket’s Meetings programme coordinator I will be spending a lot of time at Juxtapose’s Think Tanks – their equivalent series of thematic network(ing) meetings for exhibitors. I am also moderating/hosting a meeting – one half of what Pam, the coordinator, has dubbed the ’philosophical double bill’. It should be good fun.
It feels really good to be here, to be with other artists who are actively engaged with the artist-run scene … there’s an energy that I find inspiring. And so far I really like what I see of Aarhus – it’s a proper city with vitality as well as what appears to be a good mix of old, new, slick and grubby bits. This morning on a brief but necessary run I picked up a red and white table cloth that I had seen lying on the street last night … material for a future artwork … last night there was also a double bed frame and mattress at the same spot – at 7.00am this morning they were already gone.
