HEIRLOOM is pleased to introduce a new format this autumn. We have invited the French-Danish visual artist Al Masson, who is based in Denmark, for a residency during which he will take over our space and use it as both a studio and a showroom. The collaboration grew out of an enquiry from the artist (included below) concerning the future care and preservation of his works Objets de voyage (1998–) and Sommerfugle (2006). The two works will be on display throughout the residency.

In his enquiry, Al Masson raises important questions that concern most visual artists: What should happen to our works when we are no longer able to take care of them ourselves? How can we safeguard ephemeral works for the future? We hope that the residency at HEIRLOOM will provide the time and space for us to explore these questions together with Al Masson. During the residency, HEIRLOOM will host a series of meetings with experts in the field, while Al Masson will invite audiences to a series of performances that address and further explore the questions raised.

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Dear HEIRLOOM,

I am finishing Christian Vind’s nice text in “Twilight”, the wonderful book project by Henriette Heise, about Francesca Clausen’s “clippings”, and just got into a kind of angst panic last night. There are two of my projects that I assimilate with the Clausen’s “clippings” that were found in a garbage bag after her death. 

 Perhaps you could have suggestion as you are dealing with “archive”. I am worried with my two projects the one with the recycling envelopes and with my plastic trash objects, that I have been collecting since 30 years, are going to end in a garbage container when I am gone?  

I think it could be interesting with the envelops to secure them, as we do not use them anymore, and also having no more post offices! They seem to be a receptable of another time now. The plastic “trash” objects still going on (slowly question of space) as we are still using that material and polluting the planet, unfortunately.  

I come from a generation where people were frugal (Remember and influenced by my grandfather, whom my brother and I lived with in Belleville/Paris in the early 60’s, recuperating things from the factory where he worked and creating small useful things like tables and shelves (all this in a two-room small flat where we stayed for two years without toilet and hot water and only coal heating!)  I guess I was so fascinated with his work, so when he died, I asked to have them and I still enjoy them. 

Often artists as you know have been using cheap objects to create for financial reason (I am so tired of these spectacular/huge budget production I see around, I find it indecent in our time). It was one of the things when I lived in NY that I found chocking the consumerism approach and I can see that it is all over us. I consider myself lucky to have known another period and way of thinking, a reason I had started the two projects I guess.

 Would you have an idea how these two works could be “preserved”? I really do not know how to approach this, it could be fine to find a way.

Hope you are well, too bad I did not see enough of Christian Vinds fine exhibition as I left for France few days after.

I wish you a nice summer from a suppppppppppper warm South of France!

All the best,
Al

Open Studio is part of HEIRLOOM’s programme series Unfiled, in which we make our space available to collaborators, creating a shared opportunity to explore a particular archive. With Unfiled, we seek to draw attention to the many unprocessed and unruly stories that populate the field of art history.

During Al Masson’s residency, HEIRLOOM will be open whenever Al Masson is working in the space, as well as every Friday from 1–5 pm, and by appointment.

Al Masson (FR/DK) is a visual artist working across painting, drawing, photography, installation, sculpture, video and performance. He has previously performed as a dancer with a number of dance companies in France and abroad. Across media, Masson’s practice explores identity and visual biography through a queer approach to representation and storytelling. His works and performances often incorporate fragile and inexpensive found materials, reflecting a vulnerable, embodied experience.