Asger Jorn Work Damaged in Livestreamed Act of Vandalism
Danish Situationist Asger Jorn’s iconic 1959 work The Disquieting Duckling was vandalized on April 29 in an assault that was livestreamed by right-wing Fb web page Patrioterne Går Stay, which has traditionally posted anti-Muslim screeds and movies. The extensively circulated video appears to point out Danish artist Ibi-Pippi Orup Hedegaard affixing his personal likeness to the portray, which was on show on the Museum Jorn in Silkeborg, Denmark, after which signing his title on the canvas in black everlasting marker.
“When you’re round,” he wrote on Fb, “you’ll be able to go and admire my new work.”
The portray, which depicts the type of a duck, clumsily rendered in gaudy hues atop a discovered canvas exhibiting a pastoral scene, is a traditional instance of detournement. Embraced by Situationists, the mode entails the repurposing or alteration of extant works to make new ones. Ibi-Pippi, as he’s generally identified, claims the act was meant to foster a public dialogue on the query of authorship. He additional contends that by destroying the Jorn work, he’s following within the famend artist’s footsteps.
Danish information website DR experiences that artist Uwe Max Jensen, identified for his right-wing views and for performing in blackface, most notably mocking the homicide by Minneapolis police of George Floyd, is seen within the livestream, the place he could be seen photographing the vandalism and the wall textual content, subsequently exiting the museum with Ibi-Pippi. Jensen posted optimistic paeans to the vandalism on his personal Fb account, evaluating the trouble to a 2020 motion by artist Katrine Dirckinck-Holmfeld, who submerged the bust of an eighteenth-century Danish king in a river as a protest in opposition to colonialism.
Officers on the Museum Jorn have stated they’re assessing whether or not the portray could be repaired. Ibi-Pippi, who was shortly arrested following the assault on the work and has since been launched, claims that he was unaware of the robust bonding properties of the adhesive he utilized in vandalizing the portray.
