Dea Trier Mørch
Into the World

The exhibition dedicated to the work of Dea Trier Mørch (1941–2001) was conceived at Louisiana in Denmark in 2019. It is an atypical museum exhibition because the artist was not part of the art establishment, and her works are not unique masterpieces. On the contrary, Trier Mørch printed her works in vast editions. She was a people’s artist who used poster art, almost as a mass media. In Norway, she is mostly known for her 1976 novel, Winter’s Child, and as a member of the artists’ collective Røde Mor (Red Mother), which toured all of Scandinavia in the 70s with their provoking theatre circus. It was important to Trier Mørch that her art was accessible to ordinary people, and she used motifs that were of an everyday nature and easy to understand. She wished for her art to make a tangible difference in the world, and she had a burning passion for international solidarity, both as a feminist and a socialist.

Just as it was an atypical exhibition to see in a museum, it is also atypical for a contemporary art institution like Kunsthall Trondheim to put on a museum exhibition. It is, however, a relevant exhibition pointing to the historical backdrop from which many contemporary public discussions are an extension, and it opens up for an analysis of the changes that have occurred since the many protest movements of the 1960s.

In 1968, Dea Trier Mørch returns home after travelling through eastern Europe. At this point, there is a cultural revolution happening in China, a student uprising in Paris, and civil rights demonstrations happening in the USA. In 1970, Trier Mørch illustrates an edition of Karl Marx’s communist manifesto. Here, she updates the 1848 manifesto with motifs such as an American soldier in Vietnam, a mushroom cloud from nuclear testing, Latin American rebels and so on. This has inspired us at Kunsthall Trondheim to reflect upon where Trier Mørch fits in our contemporary context. How would Dea Trier Mørch have worked as a young artist in 2020? This has raised many questions about what has changed in a Scandinavian context over the past 50 years, in the realms of political activism, representation and diversity.

While Dea Trier Mørch made tremendous efforts in order to spread awareness about anti-imperialistic movements in Africa, Asia and South America, it was not the voice of these people that emerged from her art. With titles such as Afrikaner (African) and En vietnameser (A Vietnamese), her portraits were generalist in nature. Today, globalism has resulted in a diverse society in which anti-racist movements demand to be heard. Therefore, Kunsthall Trondheim has invited the organisation Lift Every Voice (LEV) to contribute with an exhibition running parallel to Dea Trier Mørch’s exhibition, with the solidarity demonstrations for Black Lives Matter in the spring of 2020 as a starting point, shining a light on the ways in which today’s protest movements are both reminiscent of, and at the same time different from, the movements of the 60s.

Since Dea Trier Mørch’s lifetime, the internet has revolutionised how people make their voices heard. It is possible to reach a previously unthinkable number of people across different continents, and for most people to create their own media platforms on social media. This has resulted in a wider public discussion, in which the marginalised both can, and demand to, be heard. At the same time, the internet has created polarised echo chambers in which prejudice and misinformation are rife. In recent times, it has become ever more evident that the prime purpose of the algorithms behind social media is to transform emotional investment into profitability, and that discord is the main driver for getting people involved.

All of this means that the architecture behind our public spaces has gone through drastic changes. The relations between one’s own voice, the opponent’s voice and the voice of diversity sees an increasing dissonance. The stories in Dea Trier Mørch’s art encompass close stories from everyday life and maternity wards as well as motifs from the wider political arena: from the private to propaganda. Despite this wide reach, one senses a clear, personal leitmotif through this impassioned artistic practice. Answering the question why Winter’s Child enjoyed much more success than her political posters, she said people are always looking for themselves in art. This is an indicator of the necessity of a space for public debate, in which private voices can express themselves and be lifted by others in spite of differences. Trier Mørch’s work provides an opportunity to not only gain insight into the work of an important Scandinavian artist, but also a chance to reflect upon the public arenas we are building today.

–––––


The exhibition has previously been curated by Marie Laurberg, and shown at Louisiana, Kunsten Museum of Modern Art, Holstebro Kunstmuseum and Kunstmuseum Brandts. The exhibition is produced by Louisiana in close collaboration with Kunsten Museum of Modern Art and Dea Trier Mørch’s family. The curator for the exhibition at Kunsthall Trondheim is Carl Martin Faurby.

Thanks to Michelle Tisdel from Lift Every Voice (LEV), Marie Laurberg, Lærke Rydal Jørgensen and Marie Mose Hyllested from Louisiana, Helle Sangild and Lars Lundsgaard from Kunstmuseum Brandts, Sissel Fjærem Giæver and Sara Trier.