MARTIN BIGUM RADICAL MYTH, 1993 LITERARY BODY, 1995

32 years old and one of the most well known artists in Denmark, Martin Bigum is heading for new territories. He is preparing the ground for an international launch of his works - first stop Stockholm Artfare, March 1998. With an artistic production that shows an extraordinary integrity and originality in as diverse media as video, poetry, photography and painting, he is almost certain to attract a great deal of interest. by ULLA RØNBERG

"My figure is my needle, the things I have to say are my threads, and then I sew." Bigum's hallmark is the cartoon-like figure Art. A conglomerate of a cheerful, big-nosed fellow dressed in a monk's habit that is far too big, and a deathly ghost with a sharp-edged scythe, Art is Bigum's painted personification of - art. During the last couple of years, this ambiguous figure has been cast in the leading role in Bigum's paintings, and with the 1997-touring exhibition: The Adventures of Art, the world of Art has been revealed to all parts of Denmark.     "Art will also be present in my next series of paintings: The Homecoming. To me, he is the perfect bearer of meaning. It is like this: My figure is my needle, the things I have to say are my threads, and then I sew," Bigum says.     Art is not the only serial figure Bigum is working with. Alice, an oyster-blue globe on legs, is another one. And the Runner, performing in the shape of Bigum himself in the video Runner (Millennium) (1996), and in the collection of poems Overmorgen (Millennium) (1996), is a third. All in all, Bigum's entire artistic production is in a unique way an integrated whole, where ends are tied to ends in an ongoing creative act. Each work in itself a narrative that tells its own story, and at the same time each work joins an oeuvre that exposes interwoven threads of a continuous production of meaning and messages.     "The video could not have been made if I had not been writing the collection of poems. As I was writing, this image of a silvery dressed runner that sprints around the globe kept coming to me, and as I could not integrate the image into the poems, I had to make a video. At the moment I am composing music to the poems, and will launch a cd in the near future," Bigum says. "In the end, the video Runner (Millennium) is about the way we all search and run and search - but getting nowhere, finding nothing." On the one hand, one could regard Bigum's art as statements of coherence, continuity and the production of meaning in an otherwise fragmented world, where the notion of a home town and the search for ancestors is replaced by a global community and the search for life on Mars. One great narrative structure that defies the ever increasing dispersal. But on the other hand, Art, Alice and the Runner are all ambiguous figures, half-breeds born out of comic relief and a sense of death. If one tries to detect a final, meaningful statement from their adventures on the canvas, one will find that the figures somehow seem to draw back from any pointed finger and know-all attitude that one might have to direct against them.     Thus, although Bigum's whole oeuvre exposes a continuity in theme as well as in the use of serial figures, it is not possible to read his works as delivering an outspoken message.     "I like creating a universe, in which the spectator can go travelling. I do not expect an answer from the spectator. I do not have anything to teach, only to give. But my figures are not optimistic follies, despite their gay appearance. My universe indicates that there is something wrong," Bigum says. "In the end, the video Runner (Millennium) is about the way we all search and run and search - but getting nowhere, finding nothing." STILLSHOT FROM THE VIDEO RUNNER (MILLENNIUM), 1996, 12 min CLICK THE IMAGE TO SEE MORE VIDEO STILLS According to Bigum, Millennium, regarded as the 1000 years of salvation that will come after Christ's resurrection, is an illusion created by the belief in time as an ongoing progressive process that will bring glory and greatness to a new era. At the end of 1999 we will all be standing at a threshold, watching for signs of change. But nothing will happen, and we will continue to run and search and run. Looking for signs of the new. "It is a pity to see art treated as mere merchandise. In this sense, I consider the 90's art world as tone-deaf." This search for the new is reflected in the art world today, Bigum claims. The tradition of reaction upon reaction that epitomises the avant-garde, has burned out, and the fuel that once gave art its power to move on, has gone.     "In the art world today we are experiencing a loss of meanings. You are left to yourself in order to give art a direction. And as there are no ideologies to lean on, the art world reacts like a herd of sheep, chasing the new - at the expense of absorption," Bigum says.     "The only force that art still seems to be able to keep intact, is the fact that art is not dictated by a customer. Art is still immaterial and spiritual. But - here in the 90's you are right to question even this facet of art as well. The situation in the art world today is like this: If, as an artist, you are able to deliver the goods that are requested by a customer, you entitled yourself to be called a trendy artist. These are mostly younger artists reading the same international art-magazines and, roughly speaking, clinging to the same fashionable style. As this counts for the curators as well, you end up creating a powerful elite in the art world."     Artists and curators heralding the same up-to-date style, arranging shows where the same artists exhibit and the same people circle to create networks - that all include the same faces. This is, according to Bigum, the scenario of the international art world. The consequences are severe.     "From the beginning the choices of the artists and curators, and their criteria for selecting have been unoriginal and dictated by the current trendy style or tone. It is a pity to see art treated as mere merchandise. In this sense, I consider the 90's art world as tone-deaf," Bigum says. "...I do hold on to my views, as the present art scene does not expose artistic expressions created on behalf of the artist's own experiences and recordings." To Bigum, the only real alternative is to approach the work of art as an entity in its own right. Art should not be part of a trend. On the contrary, it should originate from the will and conviction of the artist himself. Art should express an inner necessity, of an existential search for meaning - in life as well as in art.     "What I miss in the art world today, are the choices that have to be an integrated part of a work of art. The process of selection and reduction in which a full stop arises - an arrested period in which you choose among your artistic possibilities. I see the work of art as a full stop where inspiration presides," Bigum says. He continues: "I would like to stress the fact that what I have said so far about the younger, trendy artists has to be seen as part of a polemic. I would certainly be a villain, if I regarded my art as the only artistic expression today that possesses inner necessity and spirit. But even so, I do hold on to my views, as the present art scene does not expose artistic expressions created on behalf of the artist's own experiences and recordings."     According to Bigum, creating art from inner necessity implies that the artist is attentive to the tones that stem from his own mind. Hereby, he will find himself capable of creating something that reaches beyond the present fashions, and touches a universal string. Since 30.000 people came to see Bigum's exhibition The Adventures of Art, the figures Art, Alice and the Runner do possess the qualities that make the viewer listen - and wait for the paintings to pass on a sign of meaing. RADICAL MYTH (JUDD) 1992, acrylic on canvas, 160 x 115 cm "I would like to create an art-form that is universal in the sense that everyone can understand it," Bigum says. "At the same time, my figure Art is a reference to the traditions and institutions of art. But, it is not a condition that you are aware of these references! Everybody can get an experience out of looking at the paintings. I guess that is why my paintings appeal to a wide group of people. With success."     The Danish audience, the critics and the art institutions have proved to Bigum that he is right. Now it is up to the international art world to reflect on the adventures of Art, Alice and the Runner.~