Jens Haaning, a Danish artist, was commissioned by Kunsten Museum of Modern Art, Denmark to reproduce two of his previous works representing the annual salary in Denmark and Austria. He was given cash worth $84,000 by the museum to recreate the artworks using actual banknotes. However, the works were not as promised, the artist sent the museum two blank canvases entitled “Take the Money and Run”.
According to the initial plan, the actual banknotes will be used to show the average incomes of the two countries. The Museum director, Lasse Andersson told CBS News, that the money of $84,000 is not Jens’ and must be paid back when the exhibition closes on 16 January 2022. Although the artwork was not as they had agreed, Andersson said, “the artist hasn’t broken any contract yet” until they will have the money back on January 16th, 2022.
The museum will wait and see whether Haaning returns the money or not until 16 January 2022.
Jens Haaning’s blank canvasses for ‘Work it Out’ exhibition. https://www.cbsnews.com/
Haaning’s works were supposed to be displayed along together with other artworks from 18 different artists, in the Work it Out exhibition at Kunsten Museum of Modern Art Aalborg, from September 24th, 2021 to January 16th, 2022. The exhibition reflects on the meaning of working life in modern society.
Haaning’s Message
For Haaning, his work Take the Money and Run “questions artists’ rights and their working conditions”. Haaning argues that his artwork is essentially about the working condition of the artist. Through his artworks, he emphasizes that “we have the responsibility of questioning the structures that we are part of. And if these structures are completely unreasonable, we must break with them”.
Who is Jens Haaning?
Jens Haaning is a Copenhagen-based artist that is well known for his conceptual arts. He has created artworks since the 1990s that deal with socio-political issues, such as capitalism, globalization, democracy, racism, and structural inequality. His works usually occupy institutional structures or public spaces. For example, Middelburg Summer (1996), which relocated The Turkish-owned clothing factory Maras Confectie, to the exhibition space. In the exhibition, the employees from different countries worked their production of towels, summer dresses, and bed cloth, according to their normal schedule. His selected artworks catalog can be downloaded at this link.
Jens Haaning, Middelburg Summer 1996, Screenshot from “Hello, My Name is Jens Haaning”, Selected Works Catalog. Courtesy of Artist. http://www.jenshaaning.com/
Conceptual Art
Jens Haaning’s artworks are often called Conceptual art. Conceptual art is art in which the concept or idea behind the works is more important than the finished art object itself. This art style is associated with the 1960s and 1970s art movements, although it actually has emerged before these two decades. Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain (1917) was mentioned as the first conceptual artwork.
Conceptual art can be seen as a response to the increasingly commercialized art world. The artist usually intentionally did not want to produce finished art objects, to resist against the commercialization of art. Thus, their artworks could not be easily bought and sold, and also not necessarily be displayed in a gallery.
Maurizio Cattelan, Comedian, 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comedian_(artwork)
Contemporary conceptual art can be found for example in Maurizio Cattelan’s Comedian (2019), a banana duct-taped to a wall. After the overripe banana was sold for $120,000, it has been eaten by a performance artist, David Datuna. Another example is Banksy’s shredded paintings. Banksy partially shredded his painting (2018) in front of shocked onlookers after being sold for over $1.4 million. Now, his painting Love is in the Bin (renamed from “Girl with the Balloon”) is up for sale again and expected will reach approximately $8.3 million.
Onlookers at a Sotheby’s auction react as Banksy’s artwork is shredded in 2018. Credit: Banksy. https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/
Art or Fraud?
What Jens Haaning did with the $84,000 cash and blank canvasses has spawned a debate. Many commentators called this “a fraud”, while others said it was a contemporary artwork. For this moment, Haaning’s case could be part of his conceptual art. He intentionally does not create his repro art objects to draw people’s attention to the issue of working conditions, worker’s rights, and the art world. As the director museum said he hasn’t broken the agreement yet, until the money back on January 16. Hopefully, the money will be returned by the artist. But, no one knows what will happen next. Even, when eventually the artist does not return the money, he might argue that it is part of his works. Certainly, the museum also will take necessary steps to deal with it. We will see.