"enhver handling er et citat", 2015
(ed. "every action is a quote")

Jacob Jessen / Morten K Jacobsen / Magnus Vatvedt
Curator: Morten K Jacobsen

What makes something become art?
Reflection (Art is not art without the reference; art, ed.) - And of course the aesthetic experience.

Is Reflection more pronounced in art?
No. The reflection may only consist in the desire to pin ones statements for a certain frame or context, in this case an art context. Art history is a family-history, which the work is incorporated in, it becomes a part of its reputation, its experience, and ...

What did one do before this so called experience?
Don't know, sounds religious.

Ok, let me rephrase; what does experience (primarily with art, ed.) mean to the aesthetics?
The aesthetic experience is to walk down a dark staircase; it can predict the rung’s height, depth, width, etc. Are the steps discordant in the construction, encourages the experience that one reaches for the banister, or find the light. With time one becomes familiar with the 'disharmonic' steps and can navigate safely in the dark. Once you have learned that the third step is lower than the fourth, etc. the sensory apparatus will adjust. If you only have experience from this staircase, a more properly proportioned staircase seems jarring. And thus; the aesthetic experience transform disharmony to harmony.

Is it not a paradox to use a 'dark staircase' as an example for the aesthetic?
Perception is much more than what is seen and of the immediate. Take for example, Duchamp's ready-mades: the objects he sought, should have been aesthetically indifferent, that is, neither ugly nor beautiful, and this was actually extremely difficult. As Duchamp claimed, when you look long enough the object will eventually become beautiful. The harmonics (the beautiful, ed.) is not a natural product but a product of experience and familiarity. Today the paradox is that these ready-mades in our time, is anything but indifferent.

If disharmony is just inexperience, is art not reduced to a referential game?
To give a reference is not a reduction. Al understanding, all action is based on some sort of knowledge, even insects postulated instinctive behavior is referential, if it doesn' t work, they do something else, however if this works they continue this (...) in the same sense the artwork refers to other artworks, to its creator, the art history and its fable. Thus any artistic act is a quotation.

What gives the artwork meaning?
The reference. Through it, the meaning is discussed. The distinction between what we see, what others have seen - and later passed on - cannot be undone. What the past has seen is what we see. What we see, others will see. Mediation is the real.

Are all these answers not banal?
It depends upon your acceptance.

Art turn things into signs. The object to a record. The recipient to a secretary?
Something like that.

Press (danish)