FRANS JACOBI
ARCHIVES / FROM THE VAULTS
A random selection of earlier artworks. The central projects and all the in-between attempts.
Finished works and loose sketches. Small ephemeral pieces and larger monumental structures.
Interspersed with retrospect notes.
Arial
work on paper (30x21cm), 2022
Cosmology
textile/curtain (500x400cm), 2021
+
Opening Speech
The Living Unliving Surveillance Poet
from the exhibition Cosmology
at Small Projects, Tromsø, Norway, december 2021
The exhibition was a total presentation of the hybrid
tv-series Are You Ready? including all 7 film-episodes,
a large series of conversation-cards, an even larger series of posters and this huge cosmological map.
In collaboration with Gitte Sætre
HOPE
video still (50x40cm), 2016
8 flags for a future, performance + film
People's Museum, Birzeit, Palestine
For 8 days I was driving around Birzeit for 1 hour, each day with a new flag. On the last day we hung all the flags on the front wall of the People's Museum; inside the Museum Gitte Sætre and I conducted a circular Soups & Stories discussion with various local participants
Purple Sky
photo (50x40cm), 2006
off-shot from the series The Future is Now! Shanghai 2006
Silver Linings: blue blue day / feel like crying
work on paper (A3), 2004
Betonhjertet
photo, edition of 18, 2002
Produced in connection with the performance/rock-opera Betonhjertet (Heart of Concrete). This photo-edition served as a gift to all participants in the project.
The photo is from the area Urbanplanen in Copenhagen South. I was very inspired by the concrete modernist architecture when producing Betonhjertet in 2002. Much later, in 2016 I myself moved into Urbanplanen and spend a couple of years in a small apartment, exactly like the one in this photo.
The title is taken from a song by the Danish rock-circus Røde Mor. The text describes the suburban cities as a collective heartbeat; the heart of concrete beats with a common pulse:
BETONHJERTET
Solen går ned bag ved jernbanesporene
fodgængergaden er øde og tom
Men pulsslag blir ved i motorvejsbroernes
konstruktion af fantastisk beton
Et S-tog standser og skifter mandskab
og busser og taxaer kommer og går
Maskiner og mennesker fylder mit landskab
og strømmer så længe betonhjertet slår
Hvor skal vi gå
hvis betonhjertet går i stå
Jeg lytter og hører
betonhjertet slå
Neon blir tændt og i P-husets huler
høres der af og til lyden af skridt
Mit landskab fyldes af mørket som skjuler
forstadens højhuse lidt efter lidt
Men hjertet vil slå sig gennem natten
vi spiser og elsker - tar ud og tar hjem
Bevæges i byernes blodkarnet af den
bankende puls som driver os frem
Hvor skal vi gå
hvis betonhjertet går i stå
Jeg lytter og hører
betonhjertet slå
Røde Mor 1975
Nylonvinden
series of photos, 2002
In the last part of the 1990ties I lived in this housing block in Vesterbro, Copenhagen. Fascinated by the coloring of the balconies, I made a series of photos of the entrance-areas leading into the appartments. The photos was made in parallel with the rock-opera Betonhjertet, and the title was also a quote from a song by Røde Mor: Nylonvinden.
Betonhjertet
poster, 2002
Poster for the performance/rock-opera Betonhjertet (Heart of Concrete).
Photo: Frans Jacobi, Graphic design: Martin Kern
Betonhjertet was performed 4 evenings at INK, institut for nutidskunst, in Copenhagen February 2002.
Clou
photo, 1997
Photo taken from the documentation of the installation Clou (Room 14)
Various Rehearsals for Good Vibrations
photo, 1999
Photo taken from the documentation of the installation Various Rehearsals for Good Vibrations (Room 17)
OPERA / Phoenix
drawing, 1997
Drawing serving as documentation of the installation Hotel (Room 12)
Thomas & Anita
photo, 1994
Photo taken from the documentation of the installation
Thomas & Anita (Room 7)
PiG, Oslo 1994
Hotel
drawing, 1995
Drawing serving as documentation of the installation Hotel (Room 3)
KÆRLIGHEDEN ER SOM DØDEN
flag
collaboration with Terje Dragseth
PiG, Oslo 1994
Purple Orange Party
Reworked print
(photo-polymere print + acrylic) 24x46cm, 1994
Boy by Bus
Reworked print
(photo-polymere print + acrylic) 46x24cm, 1994
Around 1990, I worked quite a lot with printmaking. Sometimes at Eks-Skolen and sometimes at Niels Borch's, both in Copenhagen. It was really exciting to collaborate with top skilled printers and the final prints always posessed that exquisite materiality that defines real craft quality. These two images are test-prints that I later later reworked by adding a layer of painting.
LandPress
etching (29x21cm) 1990
Silver test-print of an image that later turned sick green.
This was part of a body of work inspired by a
3 week residency in the Faroe Islands.
Drawings, prints and sculptures.
Here I am trying to portrait the weather, instead of the land.
Schein
silver poster print (without text)
1990
from the exhibitions Schein, at Ribe Kunstmuseum in Denmark and Hordaland Kunstsentrum in Bergen, Norway.
Drawing of a Cat
drawing a5
1979
Maybe this was the beginning.....