press
release - Henrik Plenge Jakobsen
May 12 - June 24 2000, Opening Friday May 12 from 18-20
It is a great pleasure to present an exhibition with new works of
Henrik Plenge Jakobsen.
In the main gallery: We present an installation related to the myth
of notorious Travel King, playboy Billionaire Simon Spies. Simon Spies
(1921-1984)
Travel King Simon, Simon, what did you do ? You took everybody for
a ride. You sent off the new streamlined coaches to Costa del Sol,
a Spanish caravan breaking in adventurous post-war Scandinavians for
a new kind of vacation. Regulated holiday excess and the greatest
populist welfare clichˇ - "grisefester" (barbecues), sign of the times.
Pale tourists roasting under the sun and partying like pigs in Franco's
Spain. Even your airline company, a second-hand acquisition with a
fleet of DC-7s, was baptised Conair. Here comes the con man, coming
with his con plane ! Was it hereditary in some way ? Your dad ripped
off the bank he worked in. Divine voices made him do it. His son would
become one of Denmark's wealthiest men. Check out the Aston Martin,
folks, and the easy ladies. You went for it Las Vegas style with two
university degrees under your belt (which made you even more amoral).As
in some mythological symmetry your perfect counterpart was Eilif Kroager,
the paster from Tj¾reborg, whose sober Lutheran mind made charter
tourism all right. If you wanted good clean family entertainment you
went with Kroager. If you wanted to party and live it up you went
with Simon, "Spies travel and be happy". As the demon you were you
ridiculed Kroager with grating innuendos: "Well you know, I never
wanted to be the Pope". But hey, let us not forget you took the cloth
yourself! China had Mao, Denmark had Simon Spies, self-proclaimed
chairman, psychedelic tycoon. Total meltdown of the playboy role,
transgressed every norm from the top of the pie. Had your entourage
dressed up like you, the ladies in grey beards and suits; shooting
a movie backwards, starring yourself. The images stick in your mind:
Simon buying seat for his walking cane at The Royal Theatre. Billionaire
Timothy Leary dandy performer, affected hedonist: insane amounts of
laughing gas went down at your parties, later on messing you up on
a daily basis. What annoyed you most during those years was the rumours
of your impotency. Invaluable free publicity: "Bad PR is better than
no PR at all". Perhaps you even fooled yourself.
Lars Bang Larsen
In the backspace Henrik Plenge Jakobsen present a banner with the
text Nasdaq Forever. Venture Capitalists, Assets, Speculative corrections,
Thorvald Linux, Real Estate, Market place, Nokia, Internet, Mergers,
.com generation, Media Technology, Burn Rate, Institutional Investors,
NYSE, Spectacle, New Economy.
We wellcome you in the gallery.
Kind regards, Nicolai Wallner |
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