Given IDR 1.1 Billion by Museum, Danish Artist Deposits Blank Canvas

The modern art museum in the Danish city of Aalborg has given artist Jens Haaning around 70,000 euros (Rp1.1 billion) for the quirky artist to reconstruct two works he has created, to be exhibited in an exhibition entitled "Work It Out".

.Two of his works that the Museum of Modern Art would like to display again are images of notes on Danish krone and euros denominated in notes, which show average salaries in Denmark and Austria.

 

.but two days before the exhibition opened, Jens Haaning turned out to hand over two blank canvases to the museum for inclusion in the exhibition. He says, that's his art.

 

Haaning: The act of taking money away is a "work of art"

.the artist gave the work the title "Take the Money and Run". He told museum officials that it was precisely what he did that was the real work of art, namely that he took the money that was given, without making the work the museum wanted.

 

."The work of art is that I took the money," Jens Haaning told the Danish broadcaster's "Kanal P1" radio, DR. He declined to say what he made with the money the museum gave him or where he kept the money.

 

.Jens Haaning is known as a provocative artist. His works are often expressions of protest against everyday conditions.

 

Blank canvas on display at the exhibition

The museum said Jens Haaning had "broke an agreement on the use of money" that the museum gave him. .but the museum hasn't decided whether to report the case to the police as theft if Jens Haaning doesn't return the money.

 

The artist insisted he did not commit theft. ."This is not theft, this is a breach of contract, and this breach of contract is part of my work," he said.

 

Despite the dispute, the museum still displays the artist's artwork, namely two blank canvases entitled "Take the Money and Run". .the exhibition runs until January 16, 2022. The museum says that until the exhibition ends, Jerns Haaning has time to return the money given to him.

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