DANIEL SVARRE

Spectre

August 20 - September 25, 2021

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SPECTA opens Daniel Svarre's new solo exhibition Spectre - an exhibition where sculptural works constitute a complete installation filling the gallery space as a whole. With a strong sense of presence the installation seem to take us through different states, shifting between the individual, a group identity, and the surrounding society, and the installation confronts us with anxiety, loneliness, and questions of belonging and rejection.

The exhibition features a number of recognizable objects and garments. A group of t-shirts and polo-shirts that have been shaped and covered with epoxy and soil hang from the ceiling. The textile seems to have been kept in the moment when it has been torn or ripped, so that each individual object appears as if it has frozen in a situation of abuse or aggression. An intense and violent moment, which can seem tumultuous and also revolting - because what happens next?

The installations and drawings in the exhibition point to both activity, communication and action, but at the same time it is the loneliness of the individual that runs like a thread through the works. In a series of new drawings, Daniel Svarre points to this contrast between the inner and the outer world, as a number of places we usually perceive as spots for physical encounters - the bench, the sports field, etc. - are empty and abandoned. These are places where we seek out the community and aspire to part of a community. But in the drawings, these places are completely empty and abandoned and in that way they represent something unredeemed. The same can be said about an installation where we see a computer, a telephone and magazines, elements that all point to a world in roaring activity with contacts and communication in all directions, while a mattress signals a body in a standstill, closed off in its own world.

 The title of the exhibition Spectre can be read as both "ghost" and "spirit", something that appears threatening or alienated. As a feeling that is present in the space, without being physical. It is this alienation that is a recurring theme in Daniel Svarre's practice, where his focus is on the mismatch between the individual, group identity and the surrounding society. The return in recent years of extremist and misogynistic groups, such as insels, right-wing radical groups, nationalist heads of state from Hungary to the United States, shows us that a masculine alienation and conservative idea on masculinity still thrives and has wide appeal. It is this vision of darkness that Daniel Svarre's Spectre revolves around, while at the same time the frozen assaults also shows us the individual's vulnerability and loneliness.

Daniel Svarre (DK / 1976) was educated at the Malmö Academy of fine Arts in 2006. Svarre has done a number of solo and group exhibitions, most recently My First Encounter with Pornography at Vejle Kunsthal and Rum 21 in Vejle  DK (2021), Ringsted Galleriet (duo with Dan Stockholm, 2019), Father's Watch (solo in SPECTA, 2016). Further more Daniel Svarre has curated exhibitions in collaboration with artist claus ejner, among others exhibition and performance day Pluralist Activism in SPECTA in 2021, Hjemstavn at SAK (2018) and The Norm at Sydhavn Station (2016). Svarre is represented in private and public collections, a.o. 21C Museum in Kentucky, POC in Belgium, MUDO Collection, Turkey, Majudia Collection, Canada and the Danish Arts Agency.