Louisiana

Allis Helleland, Jorgen Haugen Sorensen, A Biography:

"The expulsion of Italy in 1973 meant that Jorgen Haugen Sorensen in the following years was denied access to workshops in Verona and had to stay in exile. Naturally he initially stayed in Denmark, in his house on Læsø, where, after many years abroad experienced the first Danish winter. In 1974, he bought an old farmhouse and made himself a large studio. Jorgen himself describes the summers spent there as some of the happiest, with family, friends and dogs around them. The big kids Jacob, Julie, Simon and Tobias was with him at times, and in 1975 Jette gave birth to his daughter Rosa.

Also, his best friend from the years in Verona, the painter Giovanni Meloni, came with him to Denmark, where they could work on joint projects with politicized art, for an exhibition at Louisiana in 1975 and the Henie Onstad Museum in Oslo in 1976. Together, they did drawings and graphics, and a great relief in soft materials - a 3 x 7 meters large painted canvas with glued-upon soft sculpted bodyparts that clearly signaled slaughterhouse and violence. The title They cut the legs of the white horses, had clear references to violence and political conditions in Northern Italy, which they were both deeply involved in. The title refers to a dream that Jorgen had:

"I came into a fishmonger with some friends as well as my brother. There were some pieces of meat in the window, so I say: Let's get some beef steaks. As I say it, I can see that the meat also has hooves on. At the same time my brother says: One cant do that. Then the scene shifts. I am alone in the store, and in the window a foal is tethered. It slips on the linoleum that is wet and sloping. They have also cut off the mane plus its tail, they have made it a living beef steak. Its head was bound to the linoleum, its muzzle glided down to the slippery floor."

Photographer @ Gregers Nielsen