KP Prize 2023 of DKK 10,000, sponsored by Aarhuus Stiftstidendes Fond, is awarded to
Charlotte Skak
for the video
'Æstetisk Redskab 2' ('Aesthetic Instrument 2') / 09:00 min.
The award winner has been selected by a jury consisting of Pernille Lærke Andersen (KP's board), Peter Flejsborg (Galleri Profilen) and artist Jesper Rasmussen, who offer the following motivation for their choice:
Charlotte Skak’s video “Æstetisk Redskab 2” (“Aesthetic Instrument 2”) is an example of the power of simplicity when the core substance is well-defined. Little happens in the piece: three elderly women in their underwear dance quietly and silently in a dark, indefinable space.
One could easily interpret the video as a straightforward body-political statement, where the three women represent an alternative physical ideal to the youthful, slim, well-trimmed appearance normally promoted by the media.
But that would merely be a banal political expression of opinion, one which is already familiar and integrated in the social debate.
So that’s not so interesting in itself.
No, the video’s strength lies in the fact that it is gracefully self-contained, and honest and faithful to both its subject and its actors. There’s no unnecessary staging, no distancing irony, just a steadfast belief that the dancing women are participating in their own right: they’re not representing anything other than themselves and their beautiful bodies.
They’re clearly enjoying it, their own presence, no matter what others might think.
Historically, art has always been obsessed with the concept of beauty. Here beauty unfolds with startling power: not least in the close-up shots of stomachs and thighs, where the shapes, colours and movements of the skin are pure, simple, and exquisite, like in a Renaissance painting.
As the title makes clear, an aesthetic instrument.
Congratulation to Charlotte Skak!
