Artist and pilot Simone Aaberg Kærn, Foto: Anna Petri, 2007. |
A Feminist Position on the Dream and Art of Being Able to Fly |
Simone Aaberg Kærn, Fighter pilot # 5 (Cockpit), 2002-2006, C-print, 60 x 300 cm, Courtesy Simone Aaberg Kærn.
Simone Aaberg Kærn, Micro-global performance # 1 (Open sky), 2002, C-print, 120 x 158 cm, Courtesy Simone Aaberg Kærn, Foto: Simone Aaberg Kærn & Magnus Bejmar. |
Kunstmuseum Thun In her work, Simone Aaberg Kærn (born 1968, Copenhagen) thematises the dream of flying and the role of women in flying. With various media like photography, video, and object art, Aaberg Kærn addresses social, historical, and political dimensions of aviation and reassembles them in installations. Open Sky is the first solo exhibition of Danish artist Simone Aaberg Kærn in Switzerland. The primordial human dream of flight and the freedom of the "open sky" associated with it are recurring topics for Simone Aaberg Kærn. In 2002 for example, Simone Aaberg Kærn flew in her small aircraft from Copenhagen to Kabul via the Hindukush to enable an Afghan girl to realise her dream of flying — the performative action turned into an adventurous and risky journey, encompassing all the impediments of today’s civil aviation. Also the motif of women in aviation can be found in numerous groups of her works. Her contextual examinations on the first female American military pilots of World War II, female helicopter pilots in Afghanistan or female fighter pilots in Turkey were complemented specially for our exhibition in the Kunstmuseum Thun by works on female pilots of the Swiss air force. Sky and air space become the playground of power and politics, but is at the same time the location of freedom and self-realisation. |
Simone Aaberg Kærn, Micro-global performance #4 (Farial finally flying), 2002, C-print, 120 x 213 cm, Courtesy Simone Aaberg Kærn. |
