JOHANNES LARSEN MUSEUM (DK)

SPECIAL EXHIBITION
Rylen in the Limfjord 1924 – 2024
16 March – 24 June

Achton Frii’s (1871-1939) and Johannes Larsen’s (1867-1961) voyages to Denmark’s small islands with the expedition ship Rylen in the 1920s are the starting point for exploring the Limfjord anew, and sensually and critically revisiting the roots of their image of Denmark from the beginning of the 20th century. 2024 marks the 100th anniversary of the Rylen voyage in the Limfjord, which was included in the monumental book De Danskes Øer, which now forms the basis for the special exhibition Rylen in the Limfjord in 2024. The exhibition project was created in collaboration between the Johannes Larsen Museum, visual artist and Rylen skipper Jens Bohr and the Johannes V. Jensen & Thit Jensen Museum.

Tours and exhibition
Rylen sailed from Kerteminde on summer voyages in the years 2022 and 2023 in order to see, examine and interpret the Limfjord. It is the result of these two trips that can be experienced at the special exhibition Rylen in the Limfjord in spring 2024 at the Johannes Larsen Museum. The invited artists, who are visual artists and writers, have each interpreted how the country (and the water) is in a time when local, regional and national identity is up for debate. At the same time, art as an interpreter of the zeitgeist points to a global focus on nature, climate and man’s footprint on our planet. In the meeting with selected older works from the Limfjord region, a dialogue is created that sheds light on both universal and time- and context-related themes: Nature, culture and living conditions, before and now – and perhaps never. The exhibition shows painting, graphics, video and installations together with literary texts in prose and poetry. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue, which conveys the new Limfjords works in words and images and sets these in an art and literary historical relief.

Ryle’s story
The Rylen is a converted belt boat from 1896. It is a pearl of maritime history; the vessel which in the 1920s brought Larsen and Friis around Denmark. Today Rylen is owned by the Johannes Larsen Museum in Kerteminde, where as its main task it sails with artists and nature and culture mediators. The opportunity for the participating artists to sail with Rylen on two summer cruises in 2022 and 2023 makes the project original and forms fertile ground for new realizations and artistic expressions. Rylen is the DNA that gives the project its distinctive character. Sailing is a concrete experience of time, space, presence, meetings and the opportunity to convey different points of view than the usual ones, with the feet planted on land.
Limfjorden and Kerteminde – then and now

In 1913, the Limfjords poet Jeppe Aakjær (1866-1930) suggested Achton Friis write travelogues of the Danish islands – Friis himself had plans to write a book about Greenland but was taken up by the idea for what later became De Danskes Øer, published in years 1926-28 In addition to Aakjær, the Fynbo painters were linked through friendships and alliances to, among others, the writers Johannes V. Jensen (1873-1950) and Thøger Larsen (1875-1928), who visited Alhed and Johannes Larsen’s hospitable artist home on Møllebakken. In connection with Rylen’s journey in the Limfjord in 1924, i.a. Jenle, where Jeppe Aakjær lived. Johannes Larsen Museum is concerned with being able to maintain and reinterpret the connection between the Funen painters and Jutland poets to this day, and therefore selected parts of the exhibition Rylen i Limfjorden will travel after the exhibition period in Kerteminde to the author museums Johannes V. Jensen & Thit Jensen Museet , Jeppe Aakjærs Kunstnerhjem Jenle and Lemvig Museum (Thøger Larsen). These exhibitions can be experienced in the period July to October 2024, and thus the celebration of the 100th anniversary of Rylen in Limfjorden from Funen to Jutland – and the historical connections between Limfjorden and Kerteminde – continues. Further dates and information about this will follow.

The trains and the exhibition project “Rylen i Limfjorden” are generously supported by the New Carlsberg Foundation, the Obelske Familiefond and EH invest.

Exhibiting artists
Mia Nelle Drøschler, Anne Mette Larsen, Christina Capetillo, Toni Larsen, Mette Vangsgård, Svend-Allan Sørensen, Jens Bohr, Jens Frimer, Søren Assenholt and Claus Handgaard.

Authors
Thøger Jensen, Jens Smærup Sørensen, Sanne Flyvbjerg, Carsten Rene Nielsen, Ingrid Nymo, Marianne Larsen, Maja Elverkilde, Lotte Kirkeby and Rikke Oberlin Flarup.