The Mentor Show
Show from january 15 – february 27, 2010
The participants and their mentors:
- Sofie Bird Møller – Günther Förg
- Andreas Schulenburg – Finn Thybo
- Søren Hüttel - Anette Abrahamsson
- June Pilaiphorn - Peter Bonde
- Mie Mørkeberg – Elmer
- Jonas Hvid Søndergaard – Nils-Erik Gjerdevik
- Ida Kvetny – Anette Abrahamsson
- Troels Carlsen – Asger Carlsen
- Trine Boesen – Daniel Richter
- Jon Stahn – Jens Jørgen Thorsen
Press Release:
The Mentor Show
Ten young Danish contemporary artists and their mentors.
When Odysseus went forth to battle the Trojan War, he left his son, Telemachus, in Mentor’s care. And where do you leave your son, when one is forced to go to war and might never return? A trusted person. A person you feel great confidence and has as much respect for. This is precisely the starting point for “The Mentor Show”.
The idea for the exhibition is based on the generation of young artists and their respect for previous generations of talented and inspiring artists. Ten contemporary artists are invited to participate in the exhibition, while they have been asked to invite their mentor to exhibit with them. The younger generation of artists have been selected by some criteria such as age and variation in training, various art colleges in both Danish and foreign institutions are included. Just as there are also sought a certain variation in the medias. The younger generation is around the age range between 30-40 years.
But what is at stake between mentor and protégé. Inspiration and fascination are two of many general instruments. But this do not just go one way, from mentor to protégé. When the mentor has been pouring of his or her wisdom and experience and protegé becomes the favorite, which unfolds its wings. Potentially mentor will be reminded of his or her own mortality in his mirror in youthful vitality. Therefore contains the relationship between mentor and protégé a latent disaster. A love-hate relationship. The need for separation is pronounced, and although the consequences are disastrous, as it is autonomous, allowing Icarus free when he defies his father’s prohibitions and flies too close to the sun.
An example of the relationship, and not least the latent disaster, is the relationship between the world famous Karen Blixen and the younger writer Thorkild Bjørnvig. It was a relationship built on spiritual exchange, mutual confidence and the feeling that there was a sense of the meeting. “A sort of happy, productive dimension,” as author Thorkild Bjørnvig wrote about his relationship with his mentor Karen Blixen. After a highly dramatic showdown between the two ends of the intense, platonic relationship with the two never seeing each other again.
Another example taken from the literature is in “Flaubert’s Parrot” by Julian Barnes. Here the author writes about the relationship between Emile Zola and Flaubert Gustava:
“Is the master responsible for his disciples? Who chooses whom? If they call you a master, can we afford to despise their work? Are they on the other hand, sincere in their praise? Who is most in need for whom: the disciple of teacher or teacher to disciple? Discuss it without drawing any conclusion. ”
Sofie Bird Møller, who is trained diploma from Munich, by Professor Günter Förg, who she has invited to the exhibition, says:
“I really like the quote. That our relationship was ambivalent, is without doubt, we really quarreled. Günther was always right. But I feel that he is sincerely happy to be invited to exhibit with the younger artists. “