*Alberte working in Umbria on the seven 'Honey Rug' paintings; Hold me, Honey, Soothe me (Swing Design Gallery – Telese, Italy )*
*'Honey Rug’ 1-7; Cotton paper, fireplace charcoal, pigments, beeswax*
*Photo by Julie Lecuelle*

Athens Design Forum is pleased to present our inaugural partnership with The Danish Institute, inviting artist-architect Alberte Agerskov for a one-month residency in Athens. Agerskov is developing a film in collaboration with Athens Design Forum, consolidating modern myths by challenging the historicity of Tinian labor practices. Unearthing hidden architectures and recognising skin as a penetrable shelter, Agerskov’s approach furthers Athens Design Forum’s mission in engaging the socio-cultural and material politics of green marble extraction. The film acts as the primary product of Agerskov’s research – a dialogue between her, the stone and the people – that will evolve into a series of multidimensional pieces.

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ALBERTE AGERSKOV

Completing her studies at Central Saint Martins and the Royal Danish Academy, Agerskov’s early architectural practice immersed her in Chile and India, collaborating with Pezo Von Ellrichshausen and Studio Mumbai. In 2019, Agerskov began her own practice incorporating a phenomenological and New Materialist approach, combining architecture and art. With exhibitions previously held in London, Copenhagen and Naples, Agerskov unveiled concept and furniture design for Copenhagen-based womenswear brand Saks Potts alongside Rasmus Schatter in 2021. Now based between Rome and Copenhagen, Agerskov explores through video and sculpture the possibilities of working transhistorically – relating bodies, myths and landscapes. @alberteagerskov / alberteagerskov.com

Supported by:

The Danish Institute of Athens

For Press Inquiries:

Katerina Papanikolopoulos, Founder

info@athensdesignforum.com

Portfolio

[Accretion] directed by Alberte Agerskov, shown at Central Saint Martins, London, 2020. Co-direction Vittorio Antonacci and Eleonora Ghezzi; sound Filippo Lilli.

Athens Design Forum releases Maya Matsuura’s images of the interior and furniture design made for Saks Potts (first shown in Gothersgade, Copenhagen 2021) courtesy Schatter Agerskov (SA).

Been Table in tadelakt and steel frame by SA

Butt Bench in tadelakt and steel frame by SA

Eye Separé in okoumé by SA

Floor Lamp, cylinder (steel structure, light bulb, hand made washi paper) by SA

Swan Dreams, 9 reliefs fired in clay, 44x64x3 cm

Lava Lamp in Sicilian lavic stone and found stone, washi paper, light bulb, cord

On Alberte Agerskov’s process: “Lamp in block of lavic stone, green tuff from Ischia and hand made Washi paper. The Washi is made by artisan Rogier Uitenboogaart, in Yusuhara, Japan, whom I visited during a residency in rural Southern Japan in 2019. Each lamp is made of a base of lavic stone cut with a single slit to fit the cord and the light bulb. The block in Sicilian lava stone functions as a podium for the rough stone that is unique for each lamp. Each of these stones is found on my travels and residencies – they always have a special meaning, a sort of hidden beauty that I want to enhance. The washi paper renders the diffused light soft and almost tangible.”

“The first clay reliefs were made for the Saks Potts Copenhagen pop up store in 2021, a project that I designed in collaboration with Rasmus Schatter with whom I have an architecture studio. We wanted to make a big wall piece, and while I still lived in Milan, I got in contact with Petersen Tegl (DK), a classic brick company that agreed to support the studies of wall reliefs in clay. I hurried to the south of Denmark to make the first ones that were designed by Rasmus and I. At Petersen Tegl I met a great team who supported my needs in the creative process and taught me so much about clay, earth, drying and firing. This summer at Central Saint Martins (UK), I showed a diptique in a new series of reliefs that I am doing in dark clay.”

Fields of Ashes - a series of sculptures made at Agerskov’s residency in Viafarini, Milano 2021. The sculptures later became the protagonists of a performance held in April 2022 at Casa Vettese Donati thanks to the generosity of @vetteseangela and @giudivettese. Agerskov is currently working on a film recapturing the project to be shown in Milan in 2023.