Focus on CPH: Jesper Fabricius

Having debuted as an artist in 1979 and having never stopped since then, Jesper Fabricius can be called a milestone in the artistic scene in Copenhagen. But, if you tell him openly, he nods his head yes and no and pours you more tea. “I’m just older than others”, he replies after a while with a charming rascal's smile. By the time I met Jesper in his studio, I had already witnessed to what extent Danish people strive for mediocrity and modesty about their achievements. So, I smiled back and decided not to believe these words too much. 

As an artist, Jesper works with a wide range of media: installation, ready-made, painting, photography, graphics, collage and drawing. But even if the means of expression are many, there is an overriding intention in his whole practice, that is, the relationship between imagination and reality and how meanings change depending on the context where they are located.
As an editor, Jesper runs Space Poetry, a publishing house dedicated to artists’ books he founded in 1980 with a bunch of people, some of which he still collaborates with. “These young artists, in their youthful arrogance, think their art is so unique that the following year they launch the art magazine Pist Protta, which recently released its issue no. 116” (1).

Pist Protta is an experiment with the journal as a medium: sometimes it takes form of artists books and other times it mimics more conservative magazines. Printing, binding and format change from issue to issue, but the concept always remains the central point.
In this interview, originally published on www.artistoftheweek.dk, Jesper Fabricius talks about his working methods, projects, inspirations and opinions.

In your artistic practice, which themes and questions are you engaged in?

I have worked a lot with collage and clippings, often with pornographic materials, but also with everything else. I am concerned with formal issues, the turnover of material into new images, simple compositions as abstract shapes, or sometimes landscapes. I am also interested in the change of meaning in the material, the combination of different or very similar pictures.

Which artist, both deceased and alive, do you feel related to?

René Magritte is the main one. I have also been very fond of Klee and Kandinsky very much, and of course Carl Fredrik Hill.
Among the living: Hans Peter Feldmann, Céline Duval, David Shrigley, but in general I look at all sorts of artists, and I am also - for example in my work with Pist Protta / Space Poetry - constantly in dialogue with various and very different artists. Last but not least, my co-editors Åse Eg Jørgensen and Jesper Rasmussen. Last year I worked a lot with Claus Egemose.

What do you do to push your artistic practice in new directions?

Nothing.

What characterizes your latest discoveries in your practice? What do they have added to your artistic expression?

One thing I have started working with in recent years is excerpted texts. It started pretty much a long time ago with finding titles for artworks and shows, which I have always enjoyed a lot. I was / am intrigued by the duality that exists between language and the image / imagery. Lately, I have made some collages with just text clippings. The written extracts can be taken from philosophy books, art history texts, sociology essays, encyclopedias, household publications, pornography magazines, novels, pretty much anything. For example, I might amuse myself by turning pornographic texts into not pornographic, and vice versa. It looks like poetry.

How is your working day structured? How does your process unfolds on a practical level?

I have a studio space at Fabrikken for Kunst og Design (Factory of Art and Design). I go there almost every day, not always so early. I frequently spend the morning answering emails, packing books for shipping and other administrative work. Sometimes I visit antiquarians or second-hand dealers to provide clippings material.
At the workshop I cut, combine, glue. Last year I worked in collaboration with Claus Egemose on two exhibitions titled Lulbas & Kylfos, for which we produced two artists books. We basically used two blank bound books (the first one of over 300 pages), that each of us kept in turn for a while and on which we drew, painted, cut, glued, until it was completely filled up. We also worked on each other's actions, correcting, improving, deleting. The result is a concerted effort which none of us could come up with by himself.

What does inspiration mean to you? Where do you find it?

I see so much art, and I visit so many exhibitions. But much inspiration comes from books and magazines about art, but also about everything else.

What do you do when your artistic process gets blocked?

In those cases, one sits and looks out into the air and enjoys being a bit bored, or gets himself a small razor.

What has recently excited you artistically?

Lise Nørholm's form-oriented drawings made with Letraset markers and letters.

How would you describe the Danish art scene and how do you personally find yourself within it?

We will try to answer exactly this question in Pist Protta's next issue.
There are many exciting, inspiring, funny and nice artists. Of course there are also some boring ones, there will probably be a list in Pist Protta.
Many of them work very enthusiastically to put things together: exhibition, publications, magazines and so on. I think there is a big artistic excitement.
The scene is of course made also of commercial galleries, art centers and museums. Perhaps not so many interesting events take place in such venues, but they can be found there too. Though I would like to see more space for experimentation in that part of the scene.
One of the most annoying things going on right now is the closing of several residencies for foreign artists. Here the work is for provincialism. It surely can't be the real intention...

We are fascinated by your studio - the way everything is sorted and non-sorted. How have you shaped your studio over the years and what does it mean to you and your work production to have arranged it like that?

My workshop is my place. I collect things. I reorder them. The workshop is full of things. It is confusing and I love it. I love to look at pictures. There is a lot of loss in it. Loss of control. A new language comes out of it.

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