Henrik Plenge Jakobsen is a Danish conceptual art

Conceptual art

Conceptual art is art in which the concept or idea involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Many of the works, sometimes called installations, of the artist Sol LeWitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions...

ist, who works in a variety of media, from sculpture

Sculpture

Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...

 and installation art

Installation art

Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...

 to performance art

Performance art

In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...

 and public intervention.

He has studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Art

Royal Danish Academy of Art

The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts has provided a practice-oriented complement to the scholarly investigation of the arts carried out at Danish universities for more than 250 years, playing a crucial part in the development of the distinctive tradition of the art of Denmark.- History :The Royal...

, Copenhagen, Denmark, from 1987–94, École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts

École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts

The École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-arts is the distinguished National School of Fine Arts in Paris, France.The École des Beaux-arts is made up of a vast complex of buildings located at 14 rue Bonaparte, between the quai Malaquais and the rue Bonaparte, in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Près,...

 and Institut des Hautes Etudes en Art plastique, Paris, France

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, from 1992-93.

Henrik Plenge Jakobsen lives in Copenhagen and teaches as a professor at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts

Oslo National Academy of the Arts

The Oslo National Academy of the Arts is a university college in Oslo, Norway, that provides education in visual arts, design and performing arts...

.

Work

Plenge Jakobsens project is socio-critical in the sense that he examines and discusses political, economical, cultural and social structures forming the foundation of modern life. Like the Situationists, he is interested in finding a meaningful art form capable of defining a place in the public space, while directly making use of everyday institutions. His project does not seek to cannibalize reality but to incorporate reality into the work itself. His work is radical exactly because it insists on the work’s real presence rather than interrogating the foundation of reality. For Plenge Jakobsen, art and reality are not separate spheres that can be temporarily forced together. Existing in the world, art represents one of the realities that constitute life.
Henrik Plenge Jakobsens work can be described as a configuration of visual elements in spatial arrangements, often involving an additional element of action or performance. Many of his works combine sculptural elements and objects in a plastic display positioned between sculpture and installation. Differing from the theatrical and systemic, “total” form of classic installation art

Installation art

Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...

. Plenge Jakobsens installation stratagems are based on a more unrestrained, flexible arrangement in which the room is merely an arbitrary architectural frame rather than a meaningful collaborator.

Exhibitions

Recent solo exhibitions have included Manhattan Engineering District, FRAC Pays de la Loire, Carquefou

Carquefou

Carquefou is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France.-Sport:In 2008, the local football team Union Sportive Jeanne d'Arc Carquefou reached the quarter finals of the French Cup after a win over the 8-times national champions Olympique de Marseille on March 19, putting the town...

, France in 2007 and J’Accuse, South London Gallery

South London Gallery

South London Gallery, founded 1891, often known by the acronym SLG, is a public-funded gallery of contemporary art in Camberwell, London - exhibiting artists included Alfredo Jaar, Ryan Gander and Chris Burden...

, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, England in 2005 and Circus Portikus, Portikus

Portikus

Portikus is an exhibition hall for contemporary art in Frankfurt am Main, originally founded in 1987 through the initiation of Kasper König, one of the most influential living curators of contemporary art. It's name derives from the surviving portico of the Stadtbibliothek from 1825 that was...

, Frankfurt

Frankfurt

Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...

am Main, Germany in 2003.

Henrik Plenge Jakobsen is represented by Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen, Denmark.

External links

• The Homepage of Henrik Plenge Jakobsen