Revisit: Thorbjørn Lausten

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This year both floors – as well as the street outside – are filled by a return visit to Thorbjørn Lausten’s 2003 exhibition Datablik (‘Dataview’).

Does the world exist when I’m not in it? During the 20th century this, one of the oldest philosophical questions, became the subject of an extensive, artistic investigation of the relationship between human perception and the world surrounding us – an exploration in which Thorbjørn Lausten was a key pioneer in both a Danish and international context. Based on his enduring absorption with the conditionality of our experience of the world on the systems and technology we use to register and (re)present it, in 2003 Lausten created the exhibition Datablik at Overgaden.

In 2015 we revisit the exhibition to focus on Lausten’s four decades of artistic investigation of the intersections between science, information technology and human perception.

We understand all phenomena through interpretation. But can the motion of a polar bear be reduced to a point on a graph? Can weather conditions at sea be converted into geometrical patterns? What do a person’s movements look like when seen as flashes of light? For Thorbjørn Lausten, the transformation of data, especially from natural phenomena, but also from direct human interaction with his often simple yet striking works, is pivotal. The prime focus of REVISIT: Thorbjørn Lausten is the infinite ways Lausten has worked with the visualisation of data, drawing clear inspiration from constructivism’s focus on mathematics as a guiding principle and minimalism’s interest in staged spaces.

At a time of renewed interest in science among young artists, REVISIT: Thorbjørn Lausten presents central aspects of Lausten’s long-standing career through sketches, old and new works – including a rehanging of the work Datablik from 2003 – internet projects and his brand new work POL (‘Pole’), which converts data streams from geomagnetic measurements at the North and South Poles into abstract light compositions projected onto the front of Overgaden throughout the entire exhibition period. The exhibition also has a reading room where visitors can delve into Lausten’s extensive back catalogue.