FASHION

JUST SO

Video artist Jesper Just at the HEART Herning Museum of Contemporary Art.


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Video artist Jesper Just at the HEART Herning Museum of Contemporary Art.

Jesper Just, the Danish-born and New York-based video artist, has been captivating the art world with his theatrical and darkly romantic mise-en-scenes for a little over a decade. Whether he’s sending actor Udo Kier strolling the streets of Bucharest wearing fake breasts (“Romantic Delusions”, 2008), showing five women in a sinister car quest through Detroit (“Chrome Sirens”, 2010), or a choreographing a game of cat-and-mouse between a Parisian woman in a wheelchair and what could either be her lover or her stalker (“This Nameless Spectacle”, 2012), Just’s films are always densely atmospheric, creating an often sexually charged psycho-drama that is as beautiful to look at as it emotionally disturbing.

In 2005, shortly after Just had graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, the HEART Herning Museum of Contemporary Art in Denmark became the first institution to give the young artist a solo exhibition, and subsequently acquired many of his pieces for the museum’s collection. Now, almost ten years later, Just returns to HEART for his biggest one-man show to date. Curated by his longtime collaborator Caroline Corbetta, “This is a Landscape of Desire” will feature a new film by the same name (which the artist worked on in China) as well as eight additional works shown on monumental screens in the museum’s main exhibition space.

A clip from “This is a Landscape of Desire”

And if a trip to the Danish countryside is not on your agenda in the next two months (the Steven Holl-designed museum is located in the heart of mainland Denmark, a three-and-a-half hour drive from Copenhagen), there’s always Venice. Just was chosen to represent Denmark at the 2013 Venice Biennale, where, with the help of London architects Caruso St. John, he is planning to transform the Danish Pavilion in the Giardini into a giant three-dimensional video experience.

Jesper Just “This is a Landscape of Desire” HEART – Herning Museum of Contemporary Art 9 February through 21 April, 2013 heartmus.com