Denmark - Delicate magic under the surface of Copenhagen

When I was in Copenhagen two weeks ago, my main reason to go was first of all to visit museums and art exhibitions. My friend and I really had a surreal experience in the Cisternene of Copenhagen. This is one of the most impressive exhibitions I have seen in a long time. The artist is Japanese born Chiharu Shiota who with her exhibition "Multiple Realities" gives the visitor magical moments with delicate creations, that is such a huge contrast to the world of cold darkness beneath the surface of Copenhagen. The use of flash light was prohibited, so high ISO was my only option.

Cisternene used to be an underground water reservoir built in the 1850s to supplied the inhabitants of Copenhagen with water. I am not sure since when, but it now functions as an underground museum and gallery. Artists are invited to create exhibitions that will work well with the unique atmosphere and architecture of the reservoir. The entrance that looks like a glass pyramid, is located on a huge lawn that belongs to a park. But when you enter by walking down the stairs and into the darkness you will discover that this place is quite big. It covers around 1000 sq meters of rooms, labyrinths of corridors and arches. Because of the reflection in the water on the floor, I got a feeling of that the corridors never ended. Water is covering the floor (not that much that your shooes get wet) and water is dripping down the walls. Quite gloomy.....

It was like entering a dark, cold basement. The first thing we saw was the yarn installation in a large rectangular room. White yarn woven around a white dress hanging from the ceiling and in the middle of the web. It's possible to walk all the way around and thus see it from every angle.

When looking at it, I couldn't make up my mind about it. Is the dress imprisoned by the web or protected by it? After the exhibition I bought a book about the exhibition and read the meaning from the artist herself. To her the white dress enclosed by the web symbolizes purity, protection and captivity. Maybe that's why I couldn't make up my mind. When she moved to Berlin, she felt alone and lost. That was when she began creating her first yarn creations (1996). She explains that the way she looks at weaving these yarn creations, has to do with how she felt at that time. The weaving of a structure is something she experienced as protection.

As we kept walking further into the labyrinth of corridors we came to this red sculpture hanging from the ceiling, rotating making a buzzing sound.

We keep walking. White and red dresses hanging from the ceiling, rotating and stirring the water beneath is another amazing sight. One of them must be made of plastic since it had water splashing on it. In between there are more rotating sculptures.

Shiota sees the dresses that spin around as a holster for a body. There are reflections from both mirrors and water surfaces all around us. Together with the repetitive pattern in the architecture, it really is difficult to see what is what and where the the rooms or walls ends. It did give me a feeling of being in a never ending universe.

In the booklet, she says that what she wants to explain with the dresses is «precense by absence». The dresses are empty. No one wears them. Shiota wants to create a feeling of these persons being here. She is doing that in the way she make them come to life by swirling around. We can also walk all the way around the dresses to see them from every angle and in this way make us feel "multiple realities".

Chiharu Shiota has transformed the old water reservoir in a way that gave me a surreal experience that I wouldn't have expected before I was there. I just hope I have managed to give you a little of that experience too. Her exhibition will last until 30th of November 2022.

Sources: The booklet sold at the entrance: «Multiple Realities, Chiharu Shiota.

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