Vernissage by Björn Kjelltoft

We are expecting distinguished company on Saturday, November 29, with the arrival of a vernissage. It is VIVE LA DUCHAMP!

An artistic practice that echoes with consequences 25 years later…

In their press release, they write: In 1999, Björn Kjelltoft urinated in Duchamp’s urinal at Moderna Museet. The incident never led to any repercussions, and since then he has combined his artistic work with technical roles at several institutions – including Moderna. But now he is suddenly classified as a “security risk” and is no longer allowed to work there. A day job disappears, but the artistic practice remains – in a limbo where reality and art meet and blur. Albin expands on the perspective: In the exhibition Vive la Duchamp!, Björn Kjelltoft turns his gaze toward a series of intriguing, unsettling, and eerily entertaining contemporary social phenomena. To quote Frank Costanza from Seinfeld, “I like to go in fresh,” I don’t want to reveal the entire machinery behind the exhibition, but let me give you a few clues.

As an artist, Björn Kjelltoft urinated in Duchamp’s urinal at Moderna Museet in 1999. The image reflecting this event is etched in the mind of every connoisseur of contemporary art – at least those I’ve spoken to. Björn has many years of experience as an exhibition technician and most recently worked on an extensive exhibition at Moderna Museet.

Yet, on grounds as loose and unexplored as the sand dunes of Venus’s moons, Björn Kjelltoft is suddenly notified that he is no longer welcome to work as a technician at the aforementioned institution. It’s a day job. There are others. But they matter; everyone knows an artistic career has peaks and valleys. That Moderna Museet, at some meeting with dry conference pears and Loka or San Pellegrino in glass bottles (naturally with full per diem for all participants), decided that Björn Kjelltoft constitutes a so-called security risk.

As a security risk, Björn Kjelltoft proceeds from clarity to clarity – this time finding himself, with the help of Moderna Museet, simply placed in an unwanted limbo that ultimately becomes the catalyst for an exhibition resonating with his previous works on Acne, Gucci, Kosta Boda, Svenskt Tenn and, more or less explicitly, the royal family. In a time marked by a persistent anxiety over even the smallest deviation, Björn lays bare the ambivalent identity-seeking of our institutions with a sharp eye and a playful tremor in his hand. Here at Restaurant Freyja, kryptonite thus emerges – hopefully guiding the compass in your smartphone straight here.
– Albin Rydholm

Björn Kjelltoft (b. 1974) was educated at Konstfack and lives and works in Stockholm. His artistic practice revolves around identity, brands, and the symbolic value of institutions, often with a satirical or detached documentary tone. Kjelltoft has been noted for projects involving, among others, Ulrica Hydman-Vallien and other cultural icons.