William Kentridge – The Refusal of Time

The work of William Kentridge (born 1955) has been presented all over the world. His childhood experiences during South African apartheid serve as a basis for expressing universal truths about human existence. Although William Kentridge mainly uses black and white colours, his perspective on the world certainly is not. The historical events are utilised to examine our relationship to Time and the course of History. 

The exhibition William Kentridge – The Refusal of Time centres around the artist’s principal work of the same title. The work is a culmination of the artist’s development in recent years; he cross-pollinates his primary medium, charcoal drawing, with elements from the world of cinema, music, dance, opera, theatre, literature and performance. The Refusal of Time is a grand, virtuoso installation presented on five different screens, unfolding a fascinating universe that unifies past, present and future, transforming them into a single magical, condensed ‘now’. 

Seeing Kentridge’s art is moving in many ways. The spectator becomes a sort of narrator, who has to make sense of a cacophony of impressions. There is no unambiguous story or truth, and that is the point. The work is a melting pot and a jumble of impressions, much like the artist’s hometown Johannesburg. 

The work is on loan from the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art and is presented in Kunsten's New Gallery.

The internationally renowned Danish art museum Louisiana and Kunsten have previously announced a collaboration that would bring Louisiana’s famous collection to other parts of Denmark. The first major exhibition in this collaboration is 'The Refusal of Time'. 

Over the course of the next three years Louisiana will present a series of exhibitions at Kunsten. 
Louisiana has chosen to collaborate with this unique museum, as they have always had a soft spot for the architectural miracle in Aalborg, designed by Finnish starchitect Alvar Aalto. 

Reviews

★★★★★★ in Nordjyske on April 17, 2018