The work AGAPE both refers to and contrasts with the design of the classical Greek sculpture by appearing as a hybrid between masculine and feminine body features. The sculpture breaks with traditional gendered character traits and space of opportunity and offers a new nurturing masculine identity where vulnerability and masculinity can play together. In other words, the breastfeeding and nourishing man focuses on the gaps between the sexes, and thus questions what the man should be and be able to do. With neoclassical references to the ancient word agape, which in its Greek origin means unlimited love and affection, the work brings to mind the renaissance of the modern man. Where masculine strength in the past has most often been portrayed as destructive, violent and battle-ready, the strength is expressed here through presence, tenderness and care for the new life – a new generation. The work thus equates vulnerability and courage in a fluid understanding of gender and can thus be read into both spiritual and political contexts.
The materiality of the sculpture is partly 3D-scanned from the artist’s own body and also exposes the artist’s own vulnerability in a rematerialisation of a classic marble sculpture, which most often highlights society’s gendered ideals carved in stone. Here, Agape mimics the invulnerable surface of the marble – albeit in a plastic and light, but still strong material. It thus focuses on itself as a digital reproductive work that, like the Renaissance’s artistic depictions of the body, represents a new and still malleable age for man, both materially, technically and metaphysically.
An encounter with death forces a young man to dance with archetypal demons in a mysterious alchemical universe. In his subconscious, he is confronted with his inner shadowy sides in the quest to escape himself, but the more layers he dives into, the harder it becomes to escape …
PRIMA MATERIA is an intense experimental art film written and directed by Aske Jonatan Kreilgaard and produced in collaboration between Aske Jonatan Kreilgaard and FLIMR productions. The film is Kreilgaard’s debut in film art and is supported by The Agency for Culture and Palaces. The film’s primary contributors include dancers Lukas Hartvig-Møller from Dansk Danseteater, Anne-Claire Theissen former dancer at Dansk Danseteater and director of the Royal Ballet in Denmark and Mikkel Alexander Tøttrup from Holstebro Teater, while the music is composed by Simon Littauer with music by Mike Sheridan accompanied by opera singers Richard Låås and Laura Chareun.
Genre DRAMA
Country / year DENMARK, 2021
Playing time 24:00
Movie premiere PREMIERE IN 2022, date coming soon
Language ENGLISH
Text language WITHOUT SUBTITLES
Original title PRIMA MATERIA
Actors LUKAS HARTVIG-MØLLER, ANNE-CLAIRE THEISSEN, MIKKEL ALEXANDER TØTTRUP, SOFIA SELIMAN PEDERSEN, LAILA WODTKE NISSEN, ULRIK FIBIGER RYDAHL, ASKE JONATAN KREILGAARD M.FL.
Instruction ASKE JONATAN KREILGAARD
Production FLIMR PRODUCTIONS AND KREILGAARD PRODUCTIONS
Manuscript ASKE JONATAN KREILGAARD
The number of refugees is higher than ever before, and although borders are closing and the ‘out of sight out of mind’ mentality is flourishing, the refugee crisis is one of the biggest global political challenges today.
With a portrayal of a Sudanese refugee “Thrown out” focuses on the invisible refugees, forced immigrants and asylum seekers. Upon arrival in Denmark, they are placed in hidden asylum centers and deprived of fundamental rights such as the right to work and choose their own place of residence. In the artwork, the refugee is buried in garbage up to his chest, which brings to mind both racial, social and economic inequality structures and the connection between the refugee crisis and especially the West’s over-consumption and waste of resources due to the buy-and-throw-away culture. In the abundance of garbage, computer keyboards and plastic mugs are discarded along with the refugee and the UN Declaration of Human Rights; a concrete image that man himself is no longer ascribed any value. In this connection, the waste container becomes a form of anti-pedestal that plays on the sculpture’s traditional use of the plinth as exalting and honorable.
With one hand on the heart and the other outstretched towards the world, the refugee is portrayed with his forged dignity, social identity and authority. Thus, the artwork contrasts the refugee’s hopeful appeal on the one hand and the hopeless position on the other, thereby staging a close experience of a distant problem.
THROWN OUT is a two meter tall sculpture publicly set up in Svendborg and bought by Svendborg Efterskole. The work is supported by The Agency for Culture and Palaces.
YOU MUST SURVIVE (2017-)
‘YOU MUST SURVIVE’ is an experimental story telling lecture and podcast project.
Through live music, dramaturgy and personal storytelling Aske Jonatan Kreilgaard shows some of the most present problems we face in Europe and ourselves. The lecture is touring in Denmark and has been shown in over 100 public cultural institutions in Denmark and has been in dialogue with over 30,000 people since 2017. The tour has been supported by EuropaNævnet in the year 2021.
“Danish artist Aske Kreilgaard left his life behind and found himself in the Calais Jungle. Deep inside the refugee and migrant camp at the center of the European Migrant Crisis. Aske lived and worked among thousands of refugees, many of them minors. In extreme conditions that Human Rights Watch described as “Like Living Hell”, Aske, together with a small team of volunteers, began to help aid organisations. With the support of volunteers and organizations like ‘Save the Children’ and ‘Help Refugees’ he founded ‘Baloos Youth Centre’, later ‘Refugee Youth Service Calais’, bringing art, creativity and hope to young children who needed it most. Get invited into a world of loss and hope through a captivating talk featuring his tales from inside a refugee camp.”
Pop-up art exhibition ‘The Jungle’ (2016)
Aske Jonatan Kreilgaard (b. 1992) lived for 1 year in the illegal refugee camp Junglen in Calais, where he was, among other things, the entrepreneur of the NGO Refugee Youth Service for unaccompanied children in the former refugee camp in Calais – an organization that now works transnationally in Europe to ensure rights of unaccompanied children. The pop-up art exhibition ‘The Jungle’ is based on the children of the refugee camp in an attempt to convey the camp’s violent impressions and feelings.
The exhibition ‘The Jungle’ could be seen at Østre Stationsvej 41, Odense until 23 December 2016.