© Gedske Ramlov
To which realm does Power belong?
2025
In the series of large charcoal drawings on parchment paper, the attention is on the history of Viborg, a small provincial town in the center of Jutland in Denmark, where the artworks are exposed.
The aims of the project was to examine the landscape surrounding the town as a space of power, focusing on its two lakes and the small hill of Borgvold, a mound that through out history served as both a sacred site and a regional assembly place for all of Jutland, as well as coronation place during the Viking Age.
By reflecting on how the intertwining of historical processes and territorial morphology shapes the socio-political organization of places, Borgvold - the ’locus potestatis’ - is introduced into the exhibition space through its topographical contour lines, here unfolding alongside those of the two lakes, whose shores, in contrary to the hill, was frequented by craftsmen and common man.
So here, the hill and the lake stand as organic shapes – one concave, the other convex – charged with opposing yet complementary forces:
The hill embodies height, dominance, power, and visibility.
The lake, in contrast, is associated with depth, concealment, decomposition, and darkness.
Whereas the hill suggests the act of pushing forward and reaching skyward, the lake represents that which sinks and settles.
The lake becomes an 'archive' for the memories of nature, as well as human societies—a silent receptacle where meanings can be preserved, exchanged, and perhaps reemerge in new forms.
In the artworks, the lake becomes a kind of mirror; a surface that reflects the visible, while simultaneously concealing its depths.
And between the hill and the lake an interplay of power emerges, where the hill rises as the personification of Power – which, according to the French philosopher Michele Foucault, ‘determines the real’ – thus arrogantly mirroring itself in the lake.
Group show Lake Life
Viborg Kunsthal, Viborg DK
Curated by Tijana Mišković and Cila Brosius
Photo credits: Enneke Hempen
1) Installation view
2) Installation view
3) The Mountain,
Charcoal on parchment paper
(213 x 303 cm)
4) The Mountain,
detail
5) The Mountain,
detail
6) The Mountain,
detail
7) The Mountain,
detail
8) The lakes,
Charcoal on parchment paper
(213 x 272 cm)
9) The lakes,
detail
10) Installation view:
Between Heaven and Earth I – II - III
Pigment drawings on 50% cotton paper
(29 x 39 cm, framed: 42 x 52)
11) And Reality mirrored itself in the lake,
Fine art print of 19th century watercolor with pastel pigment drawing and serigraphic print on glass
(45 x 70 cm, framed: 57 x 82 cm)
12) And Reality mirrored itself in the lake,
detail
