Glaskistens Forvandling- en tibetansk beretning om - Stalke

Unavoidably our conversations dur-
ing the installation of the show turned to
more personal and intimate subjects than is
normal during the practical work before an
opening. And over the following weeks Lone
told me that she had decided to travel with
her glass plates to the Himalayas and place
the coffin there. My first thought was that
she was brave. Very brave.
On the trip a month later Lone Mertz sat
up the coffin at the Bonpo monastery and in
the Daulagiri Himals – and the Glass coffin
found the following year its destination as
the “inverse” ready-made – as 4 windows in
the temple Dhorpatan, Nepal.
In the catalogue for this show “The trans-
formation of the Glass Coffin – a Tibetan
Tale about Reality”, Lone Mertz tells in short
about her journey – and about some of the
many occurrences which followed through
the interval of years. The entire unfolded tale
one can look forward to reading in the book
Lone Mertz has written, and which will come
out later.
Like in those days in 1994, this show also
opens up in the winter month of January. It
has developed as a close cooperation between
Lone Mertz, her present husband Tenpa Gy-
altsen, whom she met on her trip to Nepal,
the musician and composer Morten Carlsen
and the film photographer Steen Møller
Rasmussen.
In connection with her show Lone Mertz
herself uses concepts as reality and metaphor –
and stage setting. For me it first of all is about
transformation – I see it from outside – and
about the magical everyday events, how they,
fantastic, concrete or unusual, can be trans-
formed by an artist. About how Lone Mertz
remakes the deeply personal and intimate
into something commonly valuable and
essential – into a space we step into, which
reflects our own life’s processes and actions.
About the courage to accept the possibilities
which lie there just in front of all of us – and
the courage to act. It might be, it is so pretty,
that it almost hurts. But the occurrences,
which lie as sounding-board for what we see,
also contain something hard, rough, risky,
dangerous and troublesome.
The expanded multidimensional time
and the real space form the frame of the
show. The requisites, texts, sound, voices,
photographic and digital landscapes from
Denmark, Nepal and Tibet are reflected and
draw us into the tale. We are inevitably con-
fronted with the choice between being active
individuals or passive viewers.
Both concrete and metaphoric mirrors
have an alarming ability to multiply the
world. To show us unknown sides of life.
Create other viewpoints, so more co-ordi-
nated glances on reality raise. As Jorge Luis
Borges says:
We are our own memory; we are a chime-
rical museum of changing forms, and this
heap of broken mirrors.
Welcome to a show one can be reflected in,
live and identify with.
Maybe it is all about the decision to go to
the Himalayas. Where the Himalayas might
be found however – for you and for me.
Warm thanks to Lone Mertz for an
unusual, generous and fine cooperation.
Tanks to Tenpa Gyaltsen and to Steen Møller
Rasmussen, without their participation and
inspiring counterplay this show would have
developed differently.
Specific thanks go to Morten Carlsen, who
with his engaging, creative and cooperating
sound works has supplied the show with
new dimensions.
Also thanks to Lawrence Weiner and to
Marianne Filliou for use of works.
To Henrik Ammitzbøl, who restored
all digitalized photos. Lawrence Minsker
and Priscilla Mouritzen for help with the
translation.
Sponsors of the show are all cordially
thanked: Danish Art Administration, State
Art Foundation. Scanglas a/s. Without sub-
stantial support a show like this would not
be possible to realize.
Lone Mertz: The glass coffin – a readymade
story? Translated from danish by
Jacob Lillemose
In brief the story goes: I constructed the
glass case by the sea at Glænø beach, close
to my residence. The case was shattered to
pieces in a storm a few months later, so I
decided to build a new one to be placed in
the Himalayas.
The nomadic box
The 18 plexiglass panes had holes in them
and could be tied together. My mother
sewed a square backpack and like a soldier of
fortune I was ready to set out with my special
work of art on my back.
32 33