Galschiots activities in 2016

January

We started the year by wrapping up to our extensive COP21 activities in Paris. Here, we had with our copy of Statue of Liberty, an impaled polar bear and a 10-man polar bear army roaming the city’s streets. We could see ourselves in extremely many international medias – including The Guardian to Iranian, Chinese and Vietnamese news papers.

In January we dismounted the impaled polar bear ’Unbearable’ at Cite Universitaire in Paris and loaded it on a truck to Denmark. Fortunately the polar bear got some awesome exhibition sites later that year, as we shall see below.

We also finally began to produce The Dockworker Monument, which had already been under way for a long time. The large sculpture is going to decorate DOK1 at the harbour of Aarhus. It is the Salling Foundation, which has donated the DKK 3 million for the sculpture. In return, it will become very nice, showing 7 dock workers in copper unloading coffee.

February

In connection to the movie ”The Danish Girl” we made, at Gallery Galschiot a small exhibition with paintings by Gerda and Ejner Wegener from Galschiot´s collection. The movie is about the painters Gerda and Ejner (and Lili) and the world’s first sex change operation.

Regarding the The Dockworker Monument, we collected a lot of old photos of the dock workers in Aarhus to inspire the work process with the sculpture. Later that year, some dock workers from Aarhus came to visit us, and they could recognize themselves and their former colleagues, who are to be immortalized in copper.

Gallery Galschiots art collection by Eugène de Sala was lent to the Art Museum in Randers (Jutland), which used them for a Sala-exhibition.

March

The month began with the sad message, that our Mexican friend and super-artist Emmanuel Cruz had died at the too young age. Emmanuel worked in the workshop in 2009, where he impressed all of us with his abilities within hyper-realism and among other things modelled nearly everyone at the gallery. We made a memorial exhibition of some of his pictures in the Gallery, and you can still see some of them out here.

In connection with the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination were shown a pillar of scriptures at the City Hall of Odense.

April

The Impaled Polar Bear 'Unbearable' was erected in front of the Danish Parliament in Copenhagen. It was exhibited for 4 months, attracting a lot of tourists and one could read about it in all sorts of media - from Iran and USA and of course in the Danish newspaper Politiken. It was the Danish Green Party 'Alternativet', which in cooperation with Galschiot arranged the set-up in order to remind the government of its climate responsibility.

At the same time a sculpture model of the impaled polar bear was in New York in connection with the climate actions from the 17^th to the 22^nd April. Again it was the Green Party that used the project to focus on the climate crisis.

The huge sculpture Fundamentalism was put up at the Copenhagen’s Town Hall Square. The exhibition was a part of a festival with the purpose to create intercultural dialogue. Since we had not yet made the sculpture vandal-proof, we had to take care of it around the clock for 14 days the exhibition lasted. So it was quite hard but also fun. On the other hand, we also got the chance to talk to the audience and talk about the sculpture and the project.

May

The International conference Women Deliver find Galschiot-exhibition to 'Negative'. Galschiøt had been invited to exhibit at the conference and should have exhibited the sculptures ’550+1', which deals with trafficking and prostitution, and ’The Pregnant Teenager 'In The Name of God' which deals with womens' right to have sexual education and the right to use contraception. But it was decided to drop the exhibits as the organizers wanted to focus on the 'positive' side of women's struggle. At Gallery Galschiot we think the organization lacks courage. Galschiøt had actually been invited by the Danish foreign minister to attend, and we disagree that the way to counter the oppression of women is to talk about how much they can do - without criticizing the society which oppresses women.

Our Kurdish premium designer began to sew 9 new polar bear suits for the polar bear army. The polar bear suits used in Paris was borrowed from the WWF so we had to give them back.

June

Galschiot and the Prime Minister talks on Constitution Day (5^th June). Galschiot was invited to participate at the Festival for Democracy at Ollerup Academy of Physical Education (Funen), where two of his ‘Inner Beast’ sculptures flanked the stage. Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen held a speech, and Galschiot had been asked to reflect on the Prime Minister's speech immediately after. Doing so he had to say no to an invitation to speak to the Conservative Party’s Constitutional meeting, so he must have felt quite popular (and confused about being invited to speak for the conservatives).

We finally finished the work with the Fundamentalism sculpture. We filled 10 tons of cement in the letters, so that the sculpture was safe from vandalism, and we mounted 60 cooling fans in the screens so that they could cope with the surprisingly warm Danish sun.

In Varde the local art association exhibited the 60 meter long sculpture ‘550 + 1’ at the Museum of Art. It was the first time the sculpture was presented in a museum context.

July

The sculpture Fundamentalism was exhibited at Gallery Galschiot during summer holidays and we had a lot of joyful visitors at the Gallery and workshop.

We also sent 20 refugees (sculptures) to an exhibition in Husum/Flensborg, Germany, which in turn made way for huge project this summer, where 30 harbors in Northern Germany will be visited by a refugee boat from Lampedusa, containing Galschiots refugee sculptures. More about that later this year.

August and September

The art- and dialogue project 'The Children of Abraham' was exhibited in Varde, and the giant sculpture Fundamentalism was placed in the town square. For three months the city was marked by dialogues about Judaism and Christianity as well as Islam's tenets. There were a large number of dialogue and discussion meetings in the city. Schools, educational and cultural institutions were involved, and there were specially developed training materials based on the project.

October

The sculpture 'Man on Bench' was finally launched in Holstebro at Skovvang, a home for socially vulnerable. The sculpture had been underway for many months and was quite nice. It depicts a homeless man and is made by inspiration from one of the home's residents "Kaj E", who stayed at Skovvang for 30 years.

Homeless in Stavanger: The 9 homeless sculptures were transported to Norway and exhibited around the Stavanger city to create dialogue about social exclusion in Norway.

November

The gallery was packed with tango dancers when we fired up during an original Argentine orchestra on their European tour came by. A great evening where we had to put a special floor for the dancers to slide right in the tango dance.

Also, the Kurdish singer Tara Jaff visited the Gallery. She is one of the stars of the Kurdish song sky, and she played the Gallery up with her Celtic harp.

All good things come to an end. 'Children of Abraham' / Fundamentalism exhibition was taken down after 3 months in the municipality of Varde. The exhibition was absolutely fantastic, and we have received reports from the Commerce and Tourism Council on extraordinary many busses full of visitors who often came to see the exhibition and at the same time increased business revenue.

Morocco received a visit from the polar bear army. The occasion was the COP22 held in Marrakesh, and inside the polar bears were students from Faxehus Efterskole, Sealand.

As part of a major conference for Christian and Muslim leaders in Denmark Galschiøt exhibited a ‘pillar of scriptures’ with dark and light religious quotations. Galschiot was one of the main speakers and the assembled bishops, priests and imams discussed on the basis of his work of art ‘The Children of Abraham's theme: 'Holy Scriptures and democracy'.

December

In the month of Christmas in 2016 many visitors came to the Gallery. Some came to buy gifts, others to get a free sculpture-Christmas card, to get Christmas cookies and coffee or just to see the Gallery. Whatever the cause, we had a really good month and loved the visits.

We finished modelling the first two 'dockers' and as usual the year ended with a treat for the staff and volunteers.

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ABOUT GALLERY GALSCHIOT

Gallery Galschiot is owned by sculptor Jens Galschiot and consists 2500 m2 studio and museum. The place is one of Denmark's most spectacular and biggest private art workshops. The place is full of activities, and besides the artist's workshop, there is also a bronze foundry, gallery shop, art schools, wicker workshop, TV-studios, Sculpture Park and a 400 m2 art gallery.

The entire area is approximately 10.000 m2 and it is open for audience all working days between 9am and 5pm. It is open at Sundays between 12am and 4pm. - Closed during the Saturday and other holidays. You can book a guided tour. Free admission.

If you visit Jens Galschiot at his great atelier and workshop, with dedicated people, you will get a feeling of witnessing something great, and as time goes, the life's work will start to form and be seen in the greater perspective, you will understand that this art goes further than the borders of Denmark.

Jens Galschiot is one of a kind on the international and Danish art scene, and his artistic activities have attracted much attention all around the world. His intense commitment, energy and artistic talent has something to say, and his sculptures and art happenings touches everybody who sees them. The entire artistic work is mainly about having something to say and having the heart in the right place - to make the world's sufferings and taboos visible and make the viewer think and make up his own opinion about the matter.

This is art that is not subject to the bourgeois norms. It dares to move against the stream, and that is what great art is about. The strength of the work is that it does not end up in a rigid protest, but offers genuine indignation paired with emotions, aesthetics, sensuality, energy, and humour.

- Recommendation from a visitor at Gallery Galschiot.