SMK : “Against All Odds – Historical Women and New Algorithms”
On August 30, the National Gallery of Denmark (SMK) launches the exhibition Against All Odds – Historical Women and New Algorithms, which unfolds the stories of twenty-four Nordic women artists who achieved great success in the years 1870–1910 but have since more or less disappeared from history. The exhibition explores how we can re-inscribe women artists in art history and whether new technology can be used to write history in completely new ways.
The artists all had one thing in common: they left their Nordic home countries to pursue their artistic ambitions abroad in places such as Germany, Italy, France and Greece. There, they met other women in the same situation, forming networks that cut across national borders. The international networks became a crucial source of support for them in the face of a lack of recognition from institutions in their homelands – a cosmopolitan alternative to the national scenes at a time when women had limited opportunities.
The research underpinning the exhibition shows that women were systematically written out of history throughout the early twentieth century due to the resistance towards women’s liberation. Thus, the twenty-four artists featured in the exhibition achieved success in their own time against all odds.
"In recent years, art museums around the world have launched exhibitions that shed light on unknown and forgotten women artists. But this is the first time the story of the women who travelled out into the world is told through a comprehensive presentation of Nordic art from the period. With this exhibition, we are actively rethinking their place in history. Instead of trying to re-inscribe them into the history that erased them, we are asking whether we can imagine completely different ways of writing history. In the exhibition, we explore, among other things, how new technology can be used to expand and challenge our ways of understanding, remembering, archiving and canonising things", says Emilie Boe Bierlich, the main curator of the exhibition.
One of today’s leading digital artists, Itzel Yard (b. 1990), also known as Ix Shells, has developed an impressive interactive installation for the exhibition. In the installation, data about the 24 women is transformed into abstract forms that surround and react to the movements of the spectator. With this work, Ix Shells strives to unite the historical with the digital in a bodily and sensory experience.
Amongst the 24 artists you will find Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann (PL/DK), Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen (DK), Marie Henriques (DK), Emilie Demant Hatt (DK), Oda Krohg (N), Kitty Kielland (N), Asta Nørregaard (N), Julia Bech (S), Eva Bonnier (S), Hanna Hirsch Pauli (S), Fanny Churberg (F), Helene Schjerfbeck (F), Ellen Thesleff (F) and many more.
The exhibition will open on Friday August 30 during SMK Fridays. On this occasion, French art historian and founder of the AWARE platform Camille Morineau will present her work to rehabilitate women artists under-represented in art history, art books, exhibitions and museum collections.
SMK Fridays are free and open to everyone from 16:00-22:00. Registration is not required.
For the rest of the opening period (31 August – 8 December 2024), the exhibition will be accessible by ticket, which can be purchased by clicking the button on the left.
