It Will All End In Tears

6 October – 18 November 2006

Galleri Christina Wilson is pleased to present Danish artist Jesper Just's (*1974) second one-man exhibition at the gallery. Jesper Just graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen in 2003, and has produced a film of 20 minutes' duration, recorded in 35mm cinemascope.

It Will All End In Tears - a film trilogy - was recorded in New York and is Just's first film made outside Denmark; A Little Fall Of Rain, And Dreaming Is Nursed In Darkness and It Will All End in Tears are three film sequences which function independently of each other, but can also be regarded as an integrated whole.

Jesper Just increases his level of soul-searching in It Will All End In Tears with sharpness and acuity, and reflects this process in his chosen film location, America. Through subtle references to American affairs, including recordings of the New York Supreme Court and the ritual festive fireworks on the fourth of July, Just probes and uncovers a specifically American discontent.

The American references become an extra layer in an ambiguous and unexplained relationship between a younger and an older man. This theme may be seen as a continuation of Just's earlier films, but this time additional themes are also introduced, such as insecurity and the characters' risk of being discovered and of being confronted with their past. In And Dreaming Is Nursed In Darkness the older man is caught up in the claustrophobic and nightmarish environment of the Supreme Court, where the jury box is occupied by the Finnish shouting choir Mieskuoro Huutajat, who scream out an almost unrecognisable version of Cole Porter's I've got you under my skin at the accused older man, producing a sense of aggression not hitherto seen in Just's films.

Jesper Just mimics the filmic language with its extensive production apparatus. Through close teamwork with film professionals and actors, a consistent and seductive filmic expression arises which at the same time challenges well-known social and filmic conventions and breaks with the idea of the linear narrative.

Jesper Just is represented at several Danish art galleries, including Statens Museum for Kunst, Arken, ARoS and Herning Art Museum. Many foreign collectors and art galleries have also purchased Jesper Just's videos, including FRAC, Fonds Régional D'Art Contemporain Champagne-Ardenne, France, Tate Modern, London, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y Léon, Spain, Carnegie Museum of Art, USA, Honart Museum, Iran, Sammlung Julia Stoschek, Germany, Castello di Rivoli, Italy, Arario Gallery, Korea, Malmö Art Museum, Sweden and Musée d’Art Moderne, Luxembourg. Jesper Just's work is currently on exhibition at the Busan Biennale, Korea, the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC, and the Bregenzer Kunstverein, Austria, and will appear next year at several important exhibitions at Witte de With, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, amongst others.