Danish artist appeals demand to return money for exhibition with blank canvases

Danish artist Jens Hanning appeals on the decision of the Danish court, which demanded that he return the money to the KUNSTEN Museum of Contemporary Art. This was announced yesterday, September 27, by the artist’s lawyer. In 2021 Mr Hanning took KUNSTEN had 534 thousand Danish kroner (€71.6 thousand) and did not return it, calling it a work of art. He took the money to have his earlier work reproduced in the museum, which consisted of two glass frames filled with banknotes – Danish kroner and euro – and reflecting the annual income of Denmark and Austria, respectively. However, in the end, the artist sent a box with this work to the museum, which contained only two blank canvases and no money.

Mr. Hanning himself stated that this was his work, which he renamed “Take the Money And Run.” He also later explained that this work reflected his current work situation. As a result, KUNSTEN went to court. Last week, a court ruled that Mr. Hanning must return 492,500 kroner (€66,000) that was supposed to be part of his work, but could keep about 40,000 kroner (€5,000) in fees for the exhibition , which still took place, albeit with empty canvases.

Jens Hanning is a conceptual artist whose first works appeared in the early 1990s, and since then he has taken part in many international exhibitions. Among his works are “Summer 1996 in Middelburg” (he moved a small clothing factory from the outskirts of the city to the art museum of the Dutch city of Middelburg, which employed immigrants from Turkey, Bosnia and Iran) and “Turkish Jokes” (a recording of a conversation between Turks telling telling jokes to each other in Turkish, this recording was played in a public space in Oslo).

Yana Rozhdestvenskaya