Architect, Anne Dorthe Vester and designer, Maria Bruun, have created an artistic space based on the form and pure aesthetics in their common practice. The work ‘Fragment’ is a continuation of the series, Objects of Use, the recipient of the jury’s National Solo Award last year, which questioned our understanding and definition of furniture.

One of Kunsthal Charlottenborg’s characteristic large rooms is the setting for the duo’s most ambitious exhibition to-date, setting the stage for a special meeting between architecture, object and the body. Evoking a scenography backdrop of architectural models, the sculptures incorporate, reflect and interact directly with the room’s pre-existing elements. The viewer’s understanding of place and space is disrupted by an abstract sequence of wall structures, columns, surfaces, stairs, chairs and slats, that encourage movement, interaction, and reflection. Cumbersome passages and architectural fragments incite the audience to move through, pause, observe, reflect, and sit—both with their thoughts and on the unattainable stoneware seats. Central to the experience is how the work challenges and displaces the typical understanding of scale, proportions and depth – similarly to how one looks at the stairs on a silo.

Free of unnecessary ornamentation or decorative compositions, the focal point lies on the aesthetic and the matter used to compose them: oak, steel, stoneware, and their inherent qualities, illustrating how Anne Dorthe Vester and Maria Bruun constantly tests and challenge the relationship between their signature materials.

‘Fragment’ exists within a space of tension, a meeting point between an architectural spatial experiment, a free-form artistic study of material, and a compositional approach to the field of design. This multidimensional understanding allows the freedom to move within this field, a possibility with unlimited appeal and potential for Anne Dorthe Vester and Maria Bruun.