The Pavilion

In the late summer of 2016 the front courtyard of Kunsthal Charlottenborg was home to six temporary pavilions that housed a bar, an eatery and an exhibition venue during the CHART fair. The pavilions were designed by students from leading Nordic schools of architecture and the winning projects were selected via an open call. The competition was part of the art fair’s inter-disciplinary initiative CHART SOCIAL: every year, this initiative focuses attention on fields where art, design, architecture, music, performance art and gastronomy intersect, doing so through a wide-ranging programme of cultural events, projects and talks.
 
Now that the fair has ended, one of the pavilions still remains within the courtyard at Charlottenborg. Bearing the title The Walkin’ Display, the square structure was originally designed by Emil Fabritius Buchwald & Mads Nikolaj Brandt and acted as a restaurant and exhibition space during CHART. At that point The Walkin’ Display was inaugurated with an installation created by three students from the Schools of Visual Arts: Cecilie Skov and Benedikte Bjerre, who have just concluded their MFA programmes at the Schools of Visual Arts, and Jacob Alrø, who is a sixth-year student. Today, management of The Walkin’ Display has been placed in the hands of these individuals, who now operate it as an exhibition venue under the name Pavillonen (the Pavilion).
 
In the year to come, Pavillonen will present exhibitions by students at the Schools of Visual Arts. Contributions are invited via open calls and curated by Skov, Bjerre and Alrø. According to the artists, the intention behind Pavillonen is to fill a gap between Kunsthal Charlottenborg and the student-run exhibition venue Udstillingsstedet Q by offering a platform capable of presenting the students’ rather more comprehensive projects:
 
“We want Pavillonen to act as a kind of link connecting the training received at the Schools of Visual Arts with Kunsthal Charlottenborg and the student-run Udstillingsstedet Q. Its programme is distinct from the major exhibitions featuring established artists presented at Kunsthal Charlottenborg, and also from the many smaller, spontaneous exhibitions at Q, which are created by students, but not curated,” comments Skov and Alrø.
 
They go on to explain that: “Each show at Pavillonen will have an exhibition run of around six weeks, which is comparatively long. Thus, the curating takes its point of departure in presenting works of high quality and with a gravitas that merits long-term exposure. At the same time, the location in the courtyard of Kunsthal Charlottenborg gives Pavillonen excellent opportunities for attracting audiences that may not be familiar with the activities at the Schools of Visual Arts.”