Red Summer 2023
Red summer is a prosaic, theoretical and poetic essay. Based on feminist theory and experiences with pregnancy, birth and menstruation, it examines how historical suppression of primarily female experiences has led to lost language and knowledge about our bodies and their signals. The text follows a "she" who menstruates, masturbates, goes through two pregnancies, a miscarriage and a birth, and examines how the reproductive body can provide access to embedded bodily knowledge.

The essay formulates an artistic practice in which the working artist is in dialogue with his body as material; a pactive practice. The term is borrowed from philosopher Jonna Bornemark, and describes a state of being passive and active at the same time. The pactive is a place to recognize the world from, and a place to create from. Like a rider on his horse, the artist receives the signals from the body and the material and gives it direction.

Red summer was written as part of my specialization in Art, Writing and Research at the Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. It was published for the first time, as part of my thesis and presented in 1000 copies as a gift to the guests at the exhibition at Kunsthal Charlottenborg.

Second edition was printed as a catalog for the solo exhibition That which breaths, at Horsens Art Museum in 2024.

Third edition is bilingual, translated into both English and German, and gifted as part of my solo exhibition at the Museum Folkwang in Essen in 2024.

Contact me if you need a copy.