SONJA LILLEBÆK CHRISTENSEN med CHRISTIAN SCHMIDT-RASMUSSEN

Sonja Lillebæk Christensen (DK) was 2003 educated at Jutland Academy of Fine Arts. Sonja Lillebæk Christensen works primarily with video as artistic medium where she makes use of the documentary genre for portraying different environments that are rich of stories. With often a subtle and humorous twist, you are pulled into floating stories, which often question the perceptions that people have of each other in society and peoples ordinary life.

For instance in the video Frigjort – min mor (Liberated – my mother, 2004), Sonja Lillebæk Christensen portrays a middle aged woman. She asks the woman about her relationship with Wheel of Fortune considering how she spends her time after the show was closed. This way, Sonja Lillebæk Christensen is interested in getting behind people’s stories in the surrounding society.

In connection with the project for Kbh Kunsthal, which is now installed at Krabbesholm for the exhibition EKSIL (EXILE), this work is conceptually based on a newly displayed work at the exhibition “SID NED! – Samtidskunst på Mimersgade” (SIT DOWN! – Contemporary art at Mimersgade) where Sonja Lillebæk Christensen made the project Forestillingen om naboerne, illusioner og mareridt (The conception of the neighbours, illusions and nightmares, 2006) The project was installed in a trailer where you can sit down on a comfortable sofa and watch a portrait of Sonja Lillebæk Christensen’s own neighbour in Sydhavnen in Copenhagen.

The project got a twist at the exhibition because already in the beginning of the exhibition period, somebody broke into the trailer and stole the expensive projector, which Sonja Lillebæk Christensen had bought for the project. An MP3 player was left on the floor in the trailer. Perhaps a piece of evidence of the thief? Or perhaps the material was insufficient?

Immediately, Sonja Lillebæk Christensen began to trace the thief. But unsuccessfully, the thief was gone. Therefore, the project at Krabbesholm once again tackles the way conceptions shape our view of the surroundings. In the exhibition case, there is a model of the trailer where the video was installed. A ghetto blaster with music from the MP3 player, a sign telling about Sonja Lillebæk Christensen’s and Christian Schmidt-Rasmussen’s changed perceptions about Nørrebro area in Copenhagen and on the other side of the sign all the names of the music files at the MP3 player. This project was made together with the painter and colleague Christian Schmidt-Rasmussen.

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