About Eva Koch


 

EVA KOCH

Education

Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen, Denmark. 1992.

University of Barcelona, Dep. Fine Arts. Spain. 1989.


Eva Koch’s art is often place-specific and interactive. Her works are about communication and the shared human experience, often expressed in a sensuous and simple language where image and word merge.

Koch’s video works are often large installations. Sometimes she places the camera in the centre, placing also the viewer in the middle of a story – of a moving image without beginning or end, sucking the viewer in to contemplate its meanings.

Through reflections on her own and on other people’s life, Koch shows that the universal and the personal are not opposed spheres but that one contains the other. This quality makes her work perhaps unusually accessible within a contemporary art context.

Eva Koch’s sculptural installations also relate in scale to the body. From an almost invisibly work like the Mind the Gap-sound installation to the Earth Sculpture, Lyshøjen, Denmark’s largest sculpture near the city of Esbjerg made in in collaboration with landscape architect Steen Høyer: created out of 800,000 cubic meters of earth it’s become a very visible landmark in the West Jutland landscape.

Earth Sculpture, Lyshøjen, Denmark’s largest sculpture


 Outside Denmark, Koch has exhibited in Europe, Equador, and Australia amongst other places. She participated in the Venice Biennale in 2003 and 2005 and in the Sydney Biennale in 2014.

Her anchoring in a sculpture tradition combined with the desire, ability and struggle to conquer new forms of expression make Eva Koch stands out as a clear, seriously working visual storyteller with a focus on the human - in the midst of art’s maelstrom of troubled images.

www.evakoch.net

Calais is a video and sound work created for Auguste Rodin’s dramatic sculptural group The Burghers of Calais (the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen). Rodin’s work is an interpretation of the legend about the 6 leading citizens of Calais who in 1347 offered to sacrifice themselves in order to save their fellow citizens during the English siege of the city. Another version of the story relates that they were not leading citizens but convicted criminals who were due to be executed anyway. Victims or heroes? Whatever the case, the sculpture does not show them as ideal heroes, but as 6 emaciated men terrified by the fate awaiting them. In her work Eva Koch has chosen to bring Calais back to this exiled group of citizens and has filmed the city as it appears today, a city marked by unemployment and the increasing number of illegal immigrants seeking to pass through the Eurotunnel. The video shows everyday life in the city, but devotes especial attention to the traffic, the cars, the train and the ferry that link Calais with the rest of the world.

 

The video work "I am The River" was created specifically for Nikolaj Copenhagen Contemporary Art Center, which was originally a church. In this high-ceilinged room the 12 x 7 m. total installation occupies the altar's central position. The video is a one-on-one representation of part of the great Icelandic waterfall Gljufrarbui.
Eva Koch’s video installation That Dream of Peace is a site-specific work created for a quite special urban space in Copenhagen: The Cisterns under Søndermarken, a former water reservoir that dates back to 1856. Dark, cold and damp the rooms with their dripstone formations remind one both of dripstone caves in nature but also of dungeons, catacombs and bomb shelters, places in which people have been imprisoned or have voluntarily sought refuge from war and destruction.

Villar – Manuela’s Children is based on an unusual story deriving from the artist’s own family, which was split up during the Spanish Civil War and only reunited by chance many years later.

Villar – Manuela’s Children is presented on a single screen and is structured as an interactive documentary, in which 4 siblings tell about their lives from 1934 to today, with a chief focus on the Spanish Civil War and the 1960s. Besides the four main tracks there are sequences that cast light on the family’s common starting-point, the small Spanish village of Villar del Cobo near Teruel.

This visual art documentary combines elements from the cinema’s linear narrative with the interactive possibilities of the digital format. The user can move freely among the narrators, follow a single person continuously, make random swoops or repeat individual sequences.

Permanent sound and video for AUH Psykiatrien, Aarhus University Hospital in Skejby 2018
Eva Koch, Grønningen 2020
More about Eva Koch

 

Selected individual exhibitions
2018 Ese sueño de Paz,, Centro de Arte Caja de Burgos CAB, Spain.That Dream of Peace, Västerås Konstmuseum, Sweden. (Cat) 2017Note to Self, Gallery Martin Asbæk, Copenhagen, Danmark 2016 On a Line, SKF, Stockholm, Sweden That dream of peace, Cisternerne, Søndermarken, Denmark. (Book) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-FN3WBLJ7Y 2015 Evergreen, RayGun Lab, Toowoomba, Australia. (Cat) 2012I am the River, Nikolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen.2011June’s Lace, Brandts – Museet for Fotokunst, Odense. (Cat)Gallery Martin Asbaek, Copenhagen. 2010 Mostyn Gallery, Wales, Great Britain.Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, Denmark. (Book) 2009SCA Gallery, Sydney, Australia.Galleri Magda Bellotti, Madrid, Spain.2 Women, Skagens Museum, Denmark.2007Stenasalen, Gothenburg Museum of Fine Art, Sweden.Nassauischer Kunstverein, Wiesbaden, Germany.2006Evergreen, The Nordic House in the Faeroe Icelands.Galleria Magda Bellotti, Madrid, Spain.2005 VOX,The National Museum, Stockholm, Sweden.2004VILLAR, Museo Pablo Serrano, Zaragoza, Spain.2003Galleria Magda Bellotti, med Fernando Baena, Madrid, Spain.Museo de Teruel, Spain.CGAC, Santiago de Compostella, Spain. (Cat)Bergen Kunsthall, Norway.2002Odd weeks, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden.X – Room, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark. (Cat) Paletten, Göteborg, Sweden.2001GUK – Exhibition Place, Hannover, Germany; Lejre, Denmark; Selfoss, Iceland.Tensta Kunsthall, Stockholm, Sweden. 2000Galleri K20, Halmstad, Sweden.Oha Kunst, Wasserturm, Eutin, Germany.1998Kunstforeningen Gl Strand, Copenhagen, Denmark. (Cat)Cruce, Madrid, Spain.
Selected group exhibitions
2018 Höhenrausch 2018, Das andere Ufer, Linz, Austria.EMAP 2018, Seoul, Korea Airspace Projects: a RAYGUN Project, Australia.The Sound of One Hand Clapping, WARP, Sinkt-Niklaas, Belgium.Writers Block, Huset for Kunst og Design, Holstebro, Denmark. (Cat)2016Friendships, Nivaagaard Collection, Nivaa, Denmark.2015 Nature Encounters, Willumsens Museum, Frederikssund, Denmark. (Cat)Limits of Landscape, Casa de la Cultura, Cuenca, Equador. (Cat)2014You Imagine What You Desire, Biennale of Sydney, Australia. Fyren, Kunstprojekt for Den Svenska Kyrman, Umeå, Sweden.Gangart, Outdoor projection Næstved, Denmark. 2013 Social Videoscapes from the North, Care of DOCVA, Milano.Social Videoscapes from the North, Artibus, Ekenäs, Finland. (Cat)Nordic Art Between Miracles, Center for Contemporary Art, Tbilisi, Georgia.FOCUS, video Festival, Nikolaj Kunsthal,Copenhagen, Denmark.2013Desire Lines, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, Australia. Mas al Sur, Galleria Magda Bellotti, Madrid, Spain. Grønningen, Copenhagen, Denmark. (Cat)201051th October Salon, Beograd, Serbia. (Cat)Groenningen, Copenhagen, Denmark.(Cat)Seascapes, Museum Kunst der Westküste, Alkersum, Germany.(Cat)La Vie en Rouge, Center for Contemporary Art, Icherisheher, Baku, Azerbaijan.Listen to your eyes, FRAC Lorraine, France.2009Skanstull, Stockholm, Sweden.Aluminium, Baku, Azerbaijan.Northwave, videoscreening under åbningen af Biennalen i Venedig. (Cat)A Winters Tale, Gl Holtegaard, Denmark. (Cat)2008Modern India, IVAM, Valencia, Spain.Galerie Vanessa Quang, Paris, France.Tangled Up In You, 21c Museum, Louisville, KY, USA.Untamed Paradises, CAAC, Sevilla, Spain. (Cat)Untamed Paradises, MARCO, Vigo, Spain. (Cat)Phenomena, Pori Art Museum, Finland. (Cat)Danish Devils, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark.2007Queretaro Interfaz, Museo de la Ciudad, Querétaro, Mexico.The Israeli Center for Digital Art, Holon, Israel.Subtle Whispering, Total Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea.Underground – Sound & Vision, Warp, Sint-Niklaas, Belgium.Global Cities, Tate Modern, London, Great Britain.Groenningen, Copenhagen, Denmark. (Cat)2006 Rome in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.(Cat)Signs, Pori Art Museum, Finland.Of the one and the many, Platform Garanti, Contemporary Art Center, Istanbul, Turkey.PhotoEspaña, Madrid, Spain.Bombay Maximum City, Lille, France. (Cat) Mixed Emotions, Haifa Museum of Art, Israel. (Cat)Artspace, Sydney, Australia. 2005Videopulsiones, Tecnologias do Sentimento, Festival X, Lissabon, Portugal.Musée d’art contemporain de Montreal, Canada. Irreducible, Miami Art Central, Florida, USA.The Danish Pavilion, 51st Venice Biennial, Italy. (Cat)2004Heimweg/The Way Home, Galerie Zink&Gegner og Frankfurter Buchmesse, Germany. VideoZone2, Video Art Biennial, Tel Aviv, Israel. BLICK 04, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden. 2003MAD03, Madrid, Spain.Clandestine, 50th Venice Biennial, Italy. (Cat)CoMa, Sala de Exposiciones de Plaza de España, Madrid, Spain. (Cat)1999Close-Ups, NIFCA, Nikolaj Contemporary Art Centre, Copenhagen´, Denmark. (Cat)Galleri Valle Quintana, Madrid, Spain.Mix Blended Spaces, Museet for Samtidskunst, Roskilde, Denmark. (Cat) En Face, Gallery North, Copenhagen, Denmark. (Cat)1998Stretch, Tensta Konsthall, Galleri Index, Stockholm, Sweden. (Cat)Public works2018Bowl and Pearl – A bouquet for Kokkedal, Holmegårds Plads, Kokkedal, Denmark.https://vimeo.com/3030392432016The wheel, Play-sculpture, St Annæ Plads, Copenhagen.2013 Pigeons in the Tower, Christiansborg, Copenhagen, Denmark.Medius Locus – Earth, bowl and Man, 2 videoprojections and a sculpture, Eriksminde, Odder, Denmark. Time is a River, Video installation, KUA2, Copenhagen University, Denmark.2010 Azerbaijan Art Stations, permanent videoinstallation i The Culture House of Bina, Baku, Azerbaijan.2003Span Outdoor Video installed permanently at Sickla Udde, Stockholm, Sweden.2003Video altarpiece in the chapel in Söder Sjükhus, Stockholm, Sweden.1998 Sculpture by the Library Square and Park in Skanderborg, Denmark.1995Earth Sculpture in Esbjerg, Denmark, with landscape architect Steen Høyer.
Public collections
VILLAR – Los hijos de Manuela, Centro de Arte Caja de Burgos CAB, Spain.Hera, Brandts Klædefabrik, Odense, Danmark. IFITRYwaiting, Centre d’Art Contemporain Essaouira, Marokko. Crowds The National Public Art Council, Sweden. Span The National Public Art Council, Sweden.Shine The National Public Art Council, Sweden.Evergreen Gothenburg Art Museum, Gothenburg, Sweden. Postcard The New Carlsberg Foundation, Denmark. Evergreen Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark.Approach Museet for Samtidskunst, Roskilde, Denmark. Print from Many and One Collection Gentofte Art Library, Denmark.NoMad, White Noise/Wave, Haji Ali Museo de Bellas Artes, Santander, Spain. Approach Espacio Escala, C/ Cardenal Cisneros 5, Sevilla, Spain.Postcard to a Ballerina Centro de Arte, Caja de Burgos, Spain.VILLAR CGAC, Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostella, Spain.Approach 21 C Museum, Foundation, Louisville, Kentucky, USA.With the architect studio Preben Skaarup, winner of the landscape competition, Stige Ø, Denmark, 2006.MTG IV, a Radio Programme with Morten Carlsen, 1996.67 Danish Female Artist, an Internet site, 1996. Artspace #3, an internet project, 2003.Architect on Seeing the world Anew, The National Museum of Photography, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2002. CoMa curated with Fernando Baena, 2001.
Teaching
Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore, India. 2016. Bergen National Academy of the Arts (KHiB), Norway, guest professor, 2009, 2016. Higher Institute for Fine Arts (HISK), Gent, Belgium, guest lecturer, 2008.WARP, Portfoliodays, Sint. Niklaas, Belgien, 2008. Valand Art Academy, Gothenburg, Sweden, guest lecturer, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009. Department of Photography and Film, Gothenburg University, Sweden, professor, 2004 – 06.Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst, (HGKL), Luzern, Switzerland, 2004, 2010.The Royal Academy of Art, Stockholm, Sweden, guest professor, 2003.The Jutland Art Academy, Denmark, guest lecturer, 2002.The Royal Danish Art Academy, guest lecturer, 2000.The Royal Danish Academy, The Landscape Department, guest lecturer, 1996, 1997.
Boards
Board member of Kunsthøjskolen Holbæk, 2015 -. Board Member of The Jutland Art Academy, Denmark, 2008 – 2016.Art consultant for the Danish Ministry of Climate, Energy and Building, 2012 – 2015.Board member of Kunsten.nu, Denmark, 2009 – 2013.Art consultant for the Danish Ministry of Climate, Energy and Building, 2012.Board member of Kunsten.nu, Denmark, 2009 -2013. Board Member of The Danish Graphic Association, 2000 – 2011. Board Member of The Danish Arts Council, Danish Ministry of Culture, 2007 – 2011.Board Member of The executive committee, The Royal Danish Academy, Denmark, 2005 – 2007.Board Member of The National Workshops for Arts and Crafts, Denmark, 2004 – 2007. Board Member of The Royal Danish Academy, the committee for Landscape, Denmark, 1997 – 2003.Board Member of Danish Ministry of Culture, The Development Foundation, 1998 – 2001. Board Member of The Charlottenborg Foundation, Denmark, 1994 – 1997.
Grants and honours:
Tagea Brandt’s Travel Grant 2016.Aage og Yelva Nimb’s Fond, 2011. Ole Haslunds Kunstnerfond, 2011. The Royal Danish Academy, The Thorvaldsen Medal, 2011.The Danish Arts Foundation, Price for Calais, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, 2010. “Best Achievement” for the installationen NoMad, The 51 October Salon, Belgrade, 2010. Niels Wessel Bagge’s Art Foundation, Denmark, 2009. The Royal Danish Academy, The Edouard Eggeling Grant, 2008.Vilhelm Thaning Art foundations Travel grant, 2008.The Art museum “Arkens” Travel Grant, 2008.Honoured by The Anne Marie Telmanyi, born Carl Nielsens, Foundation, 2005.Honoured by The Royal Danish Academy, The Torjussens Foundation, 2004.The Royal Danish Academy, The Eckersberg Medal, 2003.The Danish Art critics Artist Price, 1999.The Danish Arts Foundation, Price for the exhibition en face, Gallery North, Copenhagen, 1999. Elna and C.T. Hollesens Grant, 1998.Architectural Price of the year 1996, with Steen Høyer for the Earth sculpture in Esbjerg, Denmark.3-years Grant, The Danish Arts Foundation, 1996.“David Samlingen”: “Agnes Lunds Mindelegat”, 1991.“The New Carlsberg Travel Grant”, 1989.The Royal Danish Academy, “Conrad Oscar Carlsons Mindelegat” 1986.
Selected bibliography
That Dream of Peace, by Margaretha Rossholm Lagerlöf, Västerås Konstmuseum, 2018.Light and Dark – on Eva Koch’s work That Dream of Peace, Cisternerne, Denmark, 2016.The Migrant Artist by Brad Buckley, RAYGUN PROJECTS PRESS, Toowoomba, Australia, 2015.A Matter of Time by Louise Lassen Iversen, RAYGUN PROJECTS PRESS, Australia, 2015.Limits of Landscape, by Fernando Baena, Casa de la Cultura, Cuenca, Equador. 2015.You Imagine What You Desire, by Juliana Engberg, 19’th Biennale of Sydney, 2014.Junes Lace by Mai Misfeldt, Brandts – Museet for Fotokunst, Odense, Denmark, 2011.Salammbô – new works by Eva Koch by Mai Misfeldt, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Denmark, 2010.Scenes from Villar del Cobo, by Lars Movin, Eva Koch, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Denmark, 2010.Passage,Pause og Perspective by Mikkel Bogh, Eva Koch, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Denmark, 2010.The in-Between by Nicola Carola Heuwinkel, Museum Kunst der Westküste, Germany, 2010.Nortwave – Overview of video art in the Nordic Countries, by Lorella Scacco, Silvana Editoriale, Venice, 2009.Evergreen – On the recent works of Eva Koch by Mai Misfeldt, Phenomena, Pori Art Museum, Finland, 2008.Indlevelse och vetenskap Margaretha Rossholm Lagerlöf, Atlantis, Sweden, 2007.Mixed Emotions Tami Katz-Freiman, Haifa Museum of Art, Israel, 2006.Catching On, Letting Go, Holding On by Mai Misfeldt, 51th Venice Biennial, Italy.Notes on the Work of Eva Koch The Danish Pavilion, 51th Venice Biennial, Italy.Coincidences and Differences by Marianne Torp, Black Box Iluminated, IASPIS, 2004.Eva Koch by Miquel Fernández-Cid, Santiago B. Olmo and Celia Prado, CGAC, 2003.Sublime Interview by Celia Prado, Arte y Cultura Contemporánea, Spain, February 2003.Europæisk Videokunst by Lars Movin, Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi, Denmark, 2003.VILLARMarianne Torp and Celia Prado, Statens Museum for Kunst, Denmark, 2002.I Fokus och Periferi, Staffan Cullberg, Årskatalogen 2002, Statens Konstråd, Sweden.Lyshøjen by Allan de Waal, Arkitektur DK, 3/2001.Jordskulptur i Østre Kjersinge by Steen Høyer, Landskab 4/2000.Erdbewegungen und Landschaftsbild, by Høyer & Koch, Werk, Bauen und Wohnen, Jan/Feb, 2000.Glimmende Landmarken by Steen Høyer, Garten und Landchaft, June 1999.Parks/Parchi Gianpiero Donin, April 1999.Jord- og lysskulptur by Steen Høyer, Byggekunst nr. 7, 1997.Ideology in Denmark today by Malene Hauxner, Topos European Landscape Magazine, June 1997.Close-Ups by Lars Movin & Lene Crone, Catalogue, Nicholaj Contemporary Art Center 1999.NoMad by Mai Misfeldt, Catalogue Eva Koch 1999.Interaktion by Tage Hind, Øjeblikket, number 22. 1994.Mobilizing Spacesby Helle Damsgård, Index, number 1.1994.Eva Koch by Michael Hübl, Skulptur i Eventyrparken og Kunsthallen Brandts Klædefabrik,1993.Eva Koch by Karsten Ohrt, “Norrsken 1992”, Kunsthallen Göteborg, Sweden,1992.Artistas en Madrid by Miquel Fernández-Cid, Pabellón de la Comunidad de Madrid, Expo 1992.Space in Time by Esteban Pujals Gesali, “Propuesta 92” Circulo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, Spain.The Hypothetical Space by Carsten Juhl, Catalogue Eva Koch 1991.