Stories shape the city. The citizens make the city. The culture creates the city. Power shapes the city. The city where the black smoke leaves an army of chimneys like a conversation in smoke and steam. The city where the bull is dressed in red and white, and where there is a scent of hot dogs, draft beer, and victory. The city with granite, corten steel, and seagull screams on a Sunday walk. The city, where new buildings and new homes
rise high into the sky as sculptures in glass, laminate, and lightweight concrete. The group exhibition Stadium facilitates a critically reflective view of a city in change.

It examines how to consciously or unconsciously create spaces and cultural and economic markers that shape the culture of a city, and influence what is ultimately prioritized politically and structurally, as something of value and importance for a cultural city like Aalborg. Stadium draws lines from the private sphere of the home in a new Nordic styl to the significance of cultural policy for an art scene and a city.

Kamilla Mez’ newly produced works Elektrisk succes - Roskilde - 1984 (2021), Idrætsdag - Roskilde - 2001 (2021), and Susan Himmelblå - Aalborg - 2016 (2021) reflect on the social, political, and poetic aspects of art and culture for the citizen, for the city, and for the future. The works question the different types of fiction and rules of cultural life - from sports to contemporary art - and illuminate the position and accessibility of art in a cultural landscape, where social environments and discourses define the access to, interest in, and assessment of art.

STADIUM, 3. - 19.12.2021
Brolandingerne, Aalborg

Curated and exhibition text written by
Sara Løvschall Grøntve and Anne Møller Christensen