This view from the terrace of the museum café disclosed some of the many masts and antennas securing the need for communication of our time. Photo: Lasse Ernlund Lorentzen. 

A Work on the Way

In collaboration with art historian Peter Meyer the museum contacted Lasse Ernlund Lorentzen (born 1974) in order to acquire a work of art for the museum's collections. Lasse Ernlund Lorentzen who is about to finish his education at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts has previously been working with examination of the urban space and the hidden power structures that are defining it. The finished work should twist our customary view of present days' communication and give us his view of what the mobile phone's universe also contains.

What Nobody Sees

The result is an installation consisting of three, large, panoramic photographs created specifically for the walls of Café Hovedtelegrafen. The pictures are reflecting the view that the guests can enjoy from the café. By making such a reflection Lasse Ernlund Lorentzen is picturing what we are surrounded by every day and makes us contemplate the urban space as an object. He puts the urban space into perspective in order to make us realize new aspects. The beholder is encouraged to look inward and reflect on his/her everyday life.

In the street we are surrounded by the hectic everyday life and the demand to be present all the time with the mobile phone always turned on. If, however, you take the lift to the museum's rooftop café, you will be entering a peaceful room where the view of the city roofs gives you a breadth of outlook and the drifting clouds or bright blue summer sky provide a kind of peace otherwise difficult to find in the big city. What we often fail to notice is that even at roof level we are in the middle of the highly strung, although silent communication that cut through the sky in all directions. The skyline of the city has changed and bears the impress of the communication in the city. Among old verdigris green spires and towers new ones have appeared in the shape of mobile telephone masts, antennas, and satellite dishes.

Reflection

The mobile telephony that we are presented with here is tranquil and silent and forms a sharp contrast to the more noisy kind that we usually surround ourselves with in the street. By presenting the well-known in a new shape Lasse Ernlund Lorentzen gives us a key to perception of new communication forms.

See the result in Café Hovedtelegrafen from 28th August 2007 to 13th January 2008.