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11.03.2026   at 17:00 - 21:00

RES PUBLICA: A Conversation with artist Claus Carstensen

Artist Claus Carstensen will give a talk about the exhibition "Res Publica", which he curated at the Art Museum in Tønder in 2024.

What does "art as a public matter" mean? What is the public? And not least, as already suggested, what is the relationship between art and the public? These are the three questions that the exhibition seeks to address.

The four basic existential conditions
The exhibition is based on the four basic existential conditions: isolation/loneliness, meaninglessness, freedom and death, and their political instrumentalisation. These four basic human conditions are explored through different psychological mechanisms, political agendas and existential issues in light of concepts such as the welfare state, national identity, solidarity, birth, death, totalitarianism, migration, mass movements, iconoclasm, psychosis, intimacy, embarrassment and shame.
 
Biography: Claus Carstensen is a Danish visual artist, writer and curator with a long history of museum exhibitions in his capacity as both visual artist and curator. He has published 11 collections of poetry, five collections of essays and edited several anthologies.  He trained at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (1977-1983), where he was a professor from 1993 to 2002, and at the Department of Comparative Literature at the University of Copenhagen (1979-1983). As you can see from the above cuff, he has a critical and socially orientated approach to art.

The event is free.