Olafur Eliasson (1967–)
Island Series
Color photography
1995
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen
© Olafur Eliasson
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S1E4. Kim Magnusson
The picture from 1995 by Olafur Eliasson, Iceland Series, actually has something that also belongs to me. The first time I was in Iceland was in the late '90s when I did my first short film there. The open sky, open air, vast horizon has underground bubbling water from the craters. It's the last standing frontier in the Western and modern world that we know of. The endless world out there. Full of storytelling, like no other place. What are the opportunities? A small child with closed eyes, thinking about: Where can I go next? What story can I tell next? What story can I be embraced with? Storytelling is all about that. This picture, for me, stands out as a great metaphor for my life in the film industry, and how I see the connection between storytelling and the opportunity to tell what you are meant to tell.
Kirsten Justesen (1943–)
Surfacing
Color photography
1990–1992
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen
© Kirsten Justesen / VISDA
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S1E3. Sigrid Dyekjær
I chose Kirsten Justesen and I chose this amazing not a painting, it's a photo — of this woman. And I think it is Kirsten herself. I love that she put fish in front of her. It's a provocative photo. It's very feminine and it hides some of the normal things you would think would be the most provocative things. And it turns it upside down by having these beautiful fish. I love it. It really is enormously beautiful. It spoke to me because I love the female body. It's just such a beautiful sculpture, and you can't watch it enough.
Caspar David Friedrich (1774–1840)
After the Storm
Oil on canvas
1817
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen
S1E2. Nikolaj Arcel
I have chosen After the Storm by Caspar David Friedrich. And the reason I have that is because, and this is very classical for a director, this was the most dramatic.
Whenever I go to a museum, I love all kinds of art, but I'm always drawn to the slightly dangerous images of a shipwreck or a mermaid trying to lure sailors off. It's the adventure of it. I was drawn to that because it felt quite riveting. It's a small boat, it's a fisherman. And you can see that there's been a storm, and he's almost shipwrecked on some rocks. He's all alone in the world and waves are crashing in. It's not like, it's not like you feel he's going to die. But you feel like this is gonna be a tough one to get out of. And it's just that sort of man against nature thing, which, by the way, also is a theme in my new film, that I gravitate to.
P.S. Krøyer (1851–1909)
Boys Bathing at Skagen. Summer Evening
Oil on canvas
1899
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen
S1E1. Ole Henriksen
The painting that really speaks to me is by Krøyer, a renowned, brilliant Danish artist that actually spent the better part of his life in Skagen, the very tip of Denmark in the late 1800s to early 1900s. The ocean this very day means everything for me, wherever I am, whether it is in Denmark, I jump in the big waves, the bigger, the better. And I always say, also my philosophy of life is, I love to jump down deep because I know I'm always going to reach the surface. Here they are, these little boys in blue, blue colors, different shades of blue — blue being my favorite color. But it really reminds me of me and my love affair with jumping into the ocean as a little kid. The ocean in Denmark is never really warm. But when you're a kid, just the freedom of floating there underwater and learning to swim felt magical. And we often did it naked when we were very tiny, because us Danes are very free-spirited.