Going up the Round Tower in Copenhagen, one expects to see spectacular views of the city. However three quarters of the way to the top is another view, that of an art exhibition featuring works by The Art School for Adults with Disabilities. The school’s fourteen students showcase selected pieces they created during their daily four hour classes. Art historians may classify this work as “outsider art,” a term used to describe pieces made outside of mainstream culture. But there are complications that come with this classification —what constitutes mainstream culture, how is it handled, and what good does labeling these artists as disabled outsiders do? It is a big topic to take on and if done incorrectly the results can be harmful to the artists and their communities. Perhaps this is why the Round Tower’s top notch execution of the exhibition is so impressive. There are still moments that might have been better, like the absence of entrance wall text for opening context, and a photographic collage that started to peel off the wall; but not being perfect or normal, as we learn from the exhibition, is just as spectacular.
The dilemma of how much to tell about an artist’s background is often debated in museums. Biographies can complement, enhance, and subtract from one’s experience of the piece both before and after seeing it. We know that the artists are intellectually disabled from the title of the exhibit, but it isn’t used to define them in bios underneath their names and artwork. Each artist is elegantly given space for their art to breathe in exciting u-shaped formations that allow for discovery of what’s around each corner, while at the same time allowing open dialogue with the center of the room where a video is playing. The film on display and surrounding collage are physical manifestations of the artists’ biographies using pictures and their own voices to highlight who they are as creators. Surrounding the screen are black and white photographs that freeze moments from the video in a uplifting milieu that though overwhelming in number, does not overpower the video because of their black and white nature.
An unexpected strength of the exhibit was its diversity of media. A range of styles was portrayed, as unique as the individuals making them. With multiple artists, and chairs in the back of the room for talks and performances, it could easily have felt too crowded. However the sculptures fit right in with the watercolors, linoleum prints, and acrylic. Some sculptures were placed in window nooks and others even floated in the center of the room from strings. Take Medusa by Christine Jensen, a papier-mâché life size figure who is absolutely magnetic to look at with her green gravity defying hair and arresting wide-eyed gaze. She hovers in the center of the room slightly suspended and swaying on her string, ready for her next victim. She doesn’t look out of place even with work by Christian Carlson, a painter at the Art School for Adults with Disabilities since 2006, beside her. Christian paints blocky, crisp bicycles and buildings that are so Copenhagen: a look from across the room and I was immediately transported to the harbor with the stark sunlight and bitter blue air. I’d nominate his paintings for a Denmark calendar to be sold to tourists and locals alike.
This brings up another dimension of the exhibit: the art can be purchased, and 70% of the profits go to the artist. Many intellectually disabled adults are unable to find work because of stigmatization. The Art School for Adults with Disabilities not only functions as a class but as an opportunity for adults to earn job experience and an income. The exhibit is a way of empowering disabled artists, an inspiration for people that may be outsiders in one way or another, and filled with pieces as alluring as Medusa and as breathtaking as Copenhagen’s cityscape. Remarkably, all of this appears in the context of Copenhagen’s famous Round Tower where the choice of the exhibit serves as a statement of the city’s support for outsiders and the arts.
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