Disconcerting, endearing and often humorous, the subtle and powerful universe of Peter Martensen (1953-…) grabs us with its evocation of familiar yet strange situations. The human being lies at the centre of his universe – most often however it is a human being bereft of all individuality – a form of “clone”. A far call away from the “psychological” portraits, here the artist presents us with “neutral” figures inviting the spectator’s projections. A form of “open narrative” where the situations seem to belong to the post-war period, but in which the subjects ‘hit home’ with their relevance and subtle proximity to issues of our time.

In Peter Martensen’s work the relation between form and content is a permanent concern reflected in his use of multiple media forms: the best known of these, his painted work, a classical form of mastered figuration, exists alongside an extensive and continuous practice of photography, video and music. A number of paintings or drawings use photo or stills as a point of departure, just like the painted universe has triggered the creation of video and photo. The photographic image as an instant ‘truth’ with its formal content, its composition – the positioning of beings and things or the simple detail of a gesture – can trigger the creation of a new image. The series of works from the Nuremberg trial testifies to this procedure, more frequent though is the use of more anonymous photos often coming from the media. A complex, very personal world, rich in references and associations has progressively been built through this dialogue between various supports.

This exhibition is presented in collaboration with the “Mois de la photo, Paris - 2008”. It brings together a new selection of video, photo, painting and drawing: a central piece is the video THE TEST. The idea for this video was to create an enlarged version of the artist’s last video, PRELUDE presented in his 2006 retrospective exhibition in Denmark. PRELUDE is a kind of music for choir, a chorale for three clones sat on chairs. Here, for the first time, Peter Martensen has sought to create a link between his painted work, his video and sound in a common form of expression.
His new video THE TEST came from the idea of juxtaposing three films where the same action is shown simultaneously. Each of the three films was shot at different times thus the small differences between the shoots create a horizontal interference between parallel actions. Yet fairly quickly the courses of events evolve dramatically and in different ways whilst also crossing over occasionally. The result is an epic poem where form dances with content, constituting the portrayal of a daily situation becoming at once playful, crazy and absurd, thus exhibiting the surreal potential in ritual actions. A kind of “meta” account, THE TEST is a crescendo voyage into the Martensen universe: we find his interrogations on the significance of the images’ composition, the themes of repetition and multiplication, suspense lying between anxiety and comic delirium, the stereotypes and the strange relation of sound, language and meaning. The initial off-screen voice clearly announces the stake: “I’m seeing but not looking” – it remains up to us to look well in order to really see and perhaps understand a little bit more.
TESTING FREEDOM is the fourth exhibition of Peter Martensen (1953 - ….) at the GALERIE MARIA LUND. His work figures in public collections: Victoria & Albert Museum, Statens Museum for Kunst (Copenhagen), Kunsthalle Rostock, Centre Culturel de Hainaut, the FRAC Haute-Normandie. Articles have been published in Art Press, Le Figaro amongst others.

• THE TEST was created with the support of the Danish Arts Council.
• From 21st October 2008 the works by Peter Martensen will be visible on the website of the GALERIE MARIA LUND: www.marialund.com
• OPENING: Thursday 23rd October 2008 from 6pm to 9 p.m., the artist will be present.
• LATE NGHT VIEWING: Tuesday 28th October until 9 p.m.
• The exhibition ends on Tuesday 2nd December 2008.
  
  
  

For any further information or to obtain visuals, please contact:
GALERIE MARIA LUND 48 rue de Turenne 75003 Paris mardi - samedi 12pm-7pm tel. (+33) 01 42 76 00 33
mob. (+33) 06 61 15 99 91 fax (+33) 01 42 76 00 10 e-mail galerie@marialund.com www.marialund.com