During the years 1870-1910, a number of Nordic female artists achieved success against all odds. However, despite their success, they were later forgotten and quietly disappeared from history. What happened? SMK investigate this question, bring the artists back into the spotlight and explore how artificial intelligence can be used to understand and communicate history in new ways.
Success against all odds
All 24 artists in the exhibition have 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 across national borders.
These international networks became a support — a cosmopolitan alternative to their home countries, where they had limited opportunities to train and work as artists. As a result, they all managed to achieve success and recognition in their own time. But later, a conservative backlash against women emerged — and they were all more or less written out of history.
With this exhibition, we are actively rethinking their place in history. Instead of trying to reinscribe them into the history that erased them, we are asking whether we can imagine completely different ways of writing history
<strong>Chief curator</strong> <strong>Emilie Boe Bierlich</strong>
Experience a major interactive installation by Ix Shells
In the exhibition, one will encounter both spectacular artworks by the 24 artists and digital installations based on artificial intelligence. These installations use the women’s artworks, biographies and research to tell their collective story.
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 the visitor and react to their movements. With this work, Ix Shells strives to unite the historical with the digital in a bodily and sensory experience.
Kilde: SMK National Gallery of Denmark