Faroese Goodiepal at Statens Museum for Kunst

In a new exhibition at SMK (The National Gallery of Denmark), Danish-Faroese artist Goodiepal unfolds his vast collection of sound art, technology and peculiar devices. The event is accompanied by a performance programme and a series of lectures featuring experts from the sound art scene.

This autumn, SMK invites you to enter a rich and wondrous world of sounds, signals and technology when Danish-Faroese artist and electronic composer Parl Kristian Bjørn Vester – known as Goodiepal (b. 1977) – takes over the museum.

A pioneering figure in Danish sound art and computer music, Goodiepal is also the owner of one of Europe’s largest collections of sound art. In recent years, his collection has been stored in boxes at SMK, but now he unpacks it to present what he himself calls ‘an exhibition for dreamers big and small’.

Opening on 25 September, Unboxing: The Goodiepal Collection focuses on sounds and signal systems, on the relationship between man and machine and on the potentials and limitations of technology. At the same time, the exhibition explores questions such as how to make art for artificial intelligences, and whether sound can be embedded and stored in 9,000 years-old rocks.

The unpacking of Goodiepal’s collection and the selection of works was undertaken as a collaboration between Goodiepal and SMK as well as ULK – Art Labs (SMKs social and creative community for young people) and students from Goodiepal’s open art school, Bananskolen.
Spanning six themed rooms, the exhibition lets you explore a wealth of Danish and international sound art and sound objects. While selected sound works can be heard via headphones, other works will be exhibited as art objects that are primarily intended to be experienced through the eyes rather than the ears.

You will also find many other fascinating artefacts: a delay engine, a computer made entirely of glass, salt and water, and a machine which supposedly makes it possible to speak with the dead.

Every Wednesday afternoon during the exhibition run, visitors have the opportunity to delve even further into the world of sound art when Goodiepal and Bananskolen invite everyone to attend open lectures at SMK. Here you can take part in talks featuring a range of experts and figures from the Danish and international sound art scene as well as Goodiepal himself.

The participants include composer Hans Stubbe Teglbjærg, who will give three lectures on early Danish electronic music, artist Ole Wich, who will speak about Inuit mappings of coastlines in bone and wood, and artist Dalin Waldo, who will unpack the concept of ‘eloptic energy’. The lectures take place in the exhibition every Wednesday from 17.00, and admission is free.

Every Thursday during the exhibition period, visitors can enjoy performances arranged by the team behind the exhibition. The programme includes magic musical chess, an activist choir and meditation. The Thursday events are held at 16.00, and joining in is absolutely free.