Artist Gallery

Born 1967 in Denmark


Education:

1997-00 Goldsmiths College, London
1994-97 Det Jyske Kunstakademi, Århus
1993-94 Århus Art School (Foundation Course)
1990-93 Århus School of Architecture


Solo exhibitions:

2003 - Gallery Nylon, London
2002 - rum 46, Århus
2001 The Life of The Dying Swan, Gallery Tommy Lund, Copenhagen
White Shadows, installation & performance, Esbjerg Museum of Art, Denmark
2000 Der Sterbende Schwan, Gallery KUNST auf KAMPNAGEL, Hamburg
Jukebox, performance at Gallery Muu, Helsinki
Hvorfor blir det nat mor, three days performance, Gallery Tommy Lund, Copenhagen
1999 The Dying Swan is back, performance at Goldsmiths College's exhibitionspace
Sailing, performance at Overgaden, Copenhagen
Happy Birthday, performance in Goldsmiths College's canteen, London
Castle, two weeks happening at Goldsmiths College, London
1998 The Dying swan, performance at Det Fynske Kunstakademis Udstillingssted, Odense
The Dying swan, performance at Goldsmiths College's exhibitionspace
1997 Peter R. Callesen præsenterer Peter R. Callesen, happening in rum 46, Århus
Little Peter Spiderman III, performance & installation in rum 46, Århus
1996 Le Déjeuner sur l'Herbe", happening & installation in rum 46, Århus


Selected group exhibitions:

2002 - Artgenda, Hamburg
- Kunstparade, Copenhagen
- Contemplation room, Overgaden, Copenhagen
2001 Masculinities, Nicolai Church, Copenhagen, performance & video
Barcelona Arte Contempereano, BAC, performance & installation
Videomanifesta, Gl. Strand, Copenhagen
Art Fair in Basel, Gallery Tommy Lund
Quality Street, Gallery Tommy Lund
ARTKINO, videoscreening at Frankfurt Art Fair
All the best, videoscreening at the LUX, London
Location, Trinity Buoy Wharf, London, performance The Flying Swan & installation Family
2000 Assembly, London, installation Bridge
Konnektor Berlin, Berlin, performance Jukebox & To be - or not to be
The Rest of the Story, Chelsea College, London, sculpture Little Head
Waterfront, Denmark and Sweden, Folding, Little Peter Spiderman & To be - or not to be
Art Forum, Art Fair in Berlin, Gallery Tommy Lund
Ylikierroksilla, performance project in Helsinki
Art Fair in Basel, Gallery Tommy Lund
Croma2, Inauguración Festival, Madrid, video projection So Cold
Summer Agglutinate 3 + 4, 291 Gallery, London, performance & video
Box Museum 2000, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan, Handy & drawings



1999 Post-Ulu Gig, Singapore, videos Inside Out & Face to Face
The Last Show on Earth, London, performance Jukebox
Art Forum, Art Fair in Berlin, Gallery Tommy Lund
Performancefestival in Odense, performance Folding
Samtidskunstforum in Oslo, videoinstallation Johanne's Cottage
The Sun was Shining Upside-down, Overgaden, Copenhagen
Cardiff Timebased Art Festival, performance Assurance
1998 Kunstnernes Efterårsudstilling in Copenhagen, video Dreamdriving
Kunstnernes Påskeudstilling in Århus, video Handy, Inside Out & To be - or not to be
Environmental, London, video Little Peter Spiderman I & I I
1997 View, Videotek in rum 46, Århus, video Action & So Cold
Performancefestival in Odense, video Lille Peter Spiderman & So Cold
Charlottenborgs Forårudstilling, Copenhagen, video Little Peter Spiderman I & I I


Scholarships and grants:

2001 Sleipnir Travel Grant for research trip to the North of Norway
Århus Kommunes Kunstnerstipendium
Nifca's Artist Residency in Qaqortoq in Greenland, April and May 2002



Peter Callesen - Danasvej 31 B st.tv. - DK-1910 Fredriksberg C - tel: +4533238707 - e-mail: petercallesen@yahoo.com - www.petercallesen.com


represented by Gallery Tommy Lund - Njalsgade 21 byg. 15 - DK 2300 Copenhagen S - tel: +4532577957 - tommy.lund@image.dk

About my work:

During the last few years my work has developed into a combination of video and performance. My first videos were documentations of one-man performances with my camera as the only audience. These videos often use inertia and repetition to reveal neurotic states of mind. Some of them work as installations operating at the meeting point of the private and the social space, as well as pointing towards more existential questions about being and loneliness.

In later videos, filmed in my small room in a student hall of residence, the camera works as an extension of my eye. It reveals a small and lonely fantasy world, and the confrontation of this inner world with the "real" world outside.

During the last years, a continual figure in my performances and in my drawings has been The Dying Swan, who can be described as a hybrid between The Ugly Duckling and a human figure. The Dying Swan reveals different layers of identities, and often he strives for being somebody or somewhere else, or tries to achieve the impossible - but is always confronted with reality and failure. He is not only a symbolic character. In his interaction and power play with the audience, his physical presence often creates an intense and uncomfortable atmosphere. In the drawings, The Dying Swan creates his own universe, where he seems to be trapped in impossible situations and circles, dealing with death, rebirth and self-creation.

A common theme in many of my works is a reinterpretation of classical fairytales as well as a more general interest in memory in connection to childhood - as for instance in my performances Castle, Folding and Jukebox. These playful performances exist in the lost land of childhood, between dream and reality, between possibility and impossibility. It is in this meeting or confrontation of these two conditions, in a kind of utopian embodiment, that these works of art become alive, often in a tragicomic way. This interest for the romantic is clear in my recent exhibition White Shadows at Esbjerg Art Museum, but here, with less focus on the confrontation between dream and reality, leaving more space for the poetic aspect as well as for the possibility of a reality behind or within the dream.

BIOGRAPHY AND PROJECT DESCRIPTION
ARTWORKS