A KASSEN

17A Riding House Street

6 September - 14 October 2012

NETTIE HORN is pleased to present a solo exhibition by the Danish collective A Kassen who, as a response to our new premises and neighbourhood, will drastically revisit the gallery’s space and architecture. Through interventions and sculptural works, A Kassen’s practice exploits with humour the notions of physicality, architecture and the codes associated with institutional structures, as a way to re-imagine the encounter between artwork and public. 

A Kassen’s intervention entitled “17A, Riding House Street” at our recently renovated premises will feature an architectonic sculpture made uniquely from the materials and objects constituting the gallery’s façade. The artists here engage in an act of destruction to recycle the materials and symbols associated with the gallery’s “presentation” format and visible characteristics. As a result, NETTIE HORN’s windows as well as the front door will be missing throughout the exhibition – a gesture that endangers the legal division between the public and gallery spaces. The sculptural piece stands here as an entity of the architecture itself and re-invents the history of the building while simultaneously being a simple rearrangement of a plane facade.

Alongside this installation, A Kassen will present another sculptural work to create a narrative and geographical parallel with our former premises in east London. A year ago NETTIE HORN met Christian, Morten, Søren and Tommy of the collective A Kassen for the first time. The gallery was then located on Vyner street and our office was positioned over the charming and bucolic Regent’s Canal. The gallery’s east London life-style had a countryside feel, which was however regularly shaken by kids who playfully enjoyed throwing stones at the windows of the industrial buildings situated at the Canal’s edge. This characteristic and somewhat local tradition caught A Kassen’s attention who then retained this gesture to drive their new project while also creating a parallel between NETTIE HORN’s new gallery space and our previous premises. Stones from the canal will be used by the artists to create an artwork as a symbolic gesture through the recycling of vandalistic weaponry into an ornamental object.

A KASSEN is composed of Christian Bretton-Meyer (born in 1976), Morten Steen Hebsgaard (1977), Søren Petersen (1977) and Tommy Petersen (1975). They work and live in Copenhagen.

Solo shows include Encirclement, Maisterravalbuena galleria, Madrid, Spain (2012); The Color of things, Kling and Bang, Reykjavik Art Festival, Reykjavik, Iceland (2012); THE TITLE IS A PILE OF LETTERS, IMO, Copenhagen, Denmark (2011) ; Auto Nivelant, New Galerie, Paris, France (2011); Opus incertum, Sørlandets Kunstmuseum, Kristiansand, Norway (2011); Window to the world, MUSAC- Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, León, Spain (2009)

Group shows include: Centrefold, Zabludowicz Collection, London, UK (2012); Vores Kunst, KØS, Køge, Denmark (2012); Fetiches críticos. Residuos de la economía general, Museum of Mexico City, Mexico (2011); La Vie Mode d'Emploi, Meessen De Clercq, Brussels, Belgium (2011) ; Facetime, IMO, Copenhagen, Denmark (2011); I feel like I'm disappearing, getting smaller every day / but when I look in the mirror, I'm bigger in every way, West, Den Haag, The Netherlands (2011); Rauma Biennale Balticum 2010, Rauma Art Museum, Finland (2011); Fetiches críticos. Residuos de la economía general I, CA2M - Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Madrid, Spain (2010)

For inquiries regarding availability of works and prices, or additional information about the artist, please contact the gallery

Installation view, 17A Riding House Street, NETTIE HORN

Cabinet (17A Riding House Street) detail, 2012

Cabinet (17A Riding House Street) detail, 2012

Flatten Image #12, 2011
C-print and wood
212 x 114 cm

Flatten Image #8, 2011
C-print and wood
164 x 123 cm

Flatten Image #9, 2011
C-print and wood
125 x 123 cm

Flatten Image #3, 2011
C-print and wood
131 x 90 cm