Masculinités Exhibition at Nikolaj, Copenhagen Contemporary Art Center

The exhibition 'Masculinités' at Nikolaj, Copenhagen Contemporary Art Center (November 3–December 30, 2001) brings together 17 international artists exploring diverse conceptions of masculinity through painting, photography, video, installation, and performance. Curated by Benny Dröscher, Peter Hansen Scherfig, and art historian Rune Gade, the show challenges stereotypical male imagery. Maria Friberg's series 'Somewhere Else' features three large photographs of men in black suits floating in azure water, questioning the cliché of male control versus female madness. Don Bury edits out women from 'Saturday Night Fever' to create a homoerotic John Travolta. Benny Dröscher stages a camp in an artificial forest with Calvin Klein underwear, referencing the rape scene from 'Deliverance' (1972). Artists like Jack Pierson, Mike Sale, and Janine Gordon address male nudity, while John Øivind Eggesbø photographs intoxicated teenagers on a Viking Line ferry. Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dragset ironically comment on the romanticized male worker. Tracey Moffatt's video 'Heaven' reverses the voyeuristic gaze, filming muscular surfers on Australian beaches. A debate titled 'L'honnête homme – la masculinité contemporaine esthétisée' accompanies the exhibition. The show occupies a deconsecrated church, with the nave and tower as exhibition spaces.