asger jorn 2

29/7/2014 www.smk.dk/en/print/visit-the-museum/exhibitions/asger-jorn-restless-rebel/immerse-yourself-in-jorn/1961-1965/

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© Donation Jorn,

Silkeborg/billedkunst.dk

Asger Jorn, Moot and city

state. Complementarity

between the demand for truth

and the demand for justice in

Western European culture,

1964.

© Donation Jorn,



Silkeborg/billedkunst.dk

Asger Jorn, Value and

Economy. A Critique of the

Economic Policy and the

Exploitation of the Unique,

1962.

1961-1965: Scandinavian Institute ofComparative Vandalism

The Scandinavian Institute of Comparative Vandalism

marked the culmination of Jorn’s interest in folk art,

Nordic tradition, and archaeology.

In 1961 – the year that Jorn officially left the Situationist

Internationale – he set up the Scandinavian Institute of

Comparative Vandalism.

An alternative to art historyThe objective behind the institute was to raise critical

awareness and to act as an alternative to academic art

history. By publishing a 32-volume series of books on 10,000

years of Nordic Folk Art the institute was to conduct image-

based art research.

Jorn hired the French photographer Gerard Franceschi to take

pictures for the project. Together, they travelled throughout

Scandinavia, photographing visual art from prehistoric times

onwards. They took more than 25,000 photographs over the

course of the institute’s 3-year existence.

Closing down the instituteThe institute was closed down in 1965, partly due to financial

difficulties, and partly due to creative differences between

Jorn, Franceschi, external co-writers, and the publisher.

The book series was never realised, but Jorn managed to

print 120 copies of the sample volume 12th Century Stone

Sculptures of Scania and to prepare six volumes that were

published after Jorn’s death.

http://www.smk.dk/en/visit-the-museum/exhibitions/asger-jorn-restless-rebel/immerse-yourself-in-jorn/1957-1961/

asger jorn 2

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