ÉTUDE No. 1–19

Exhibition & book launch
Fortællegalleriet Sept 5th–21st 2014
Holstebro, Denmark
Curated by Kirstine Autzen

Étude No. 1–19 
Étude No. 1-19 consists of a collection of stories in book form and a video based on Haslund’s memories of live music in the Jutland countryside of her childhood. An étude is a piece of music aimed at training a specific technique, and its use in the title indicates the work’s role as a kind of manual or score. In the book’s episodic, almost filmic scenes, Haslund conjures up pictures of places for gatherings – a beer tent, a church and a village hall – describing a range of social contexts in an objective, observational tone. As an audio and visual supplement to the book, Haslund has made a video work that in a minimalist set-up – an empty room with a music stand and score – provides brief glimpses of the concert situations. Haslund comes on screen, takes up position behind the music stand, and performs an excerpt of a piece of music – just enough for it to seem familiar – before exiting again. The scenario repeats itself 19 times, one for each etude, as with changing instruments she plays excerpts of just about every music genre, from classical, jazz and village hall disco, to Danish hits, Jutland psychedelic rock, punk, Greenlandic choir singing and football anthems. Cut to the bone and taken out of context, the work offers an almost innocent view and registration of the social situations and codes closely connected to music in this region of Denmark.

Video 24. minutes, camera and edit by Niels Plenge
Photos by Nils Plenge

The book
'ÉTUDE No. 1-19'
Space Poetry Copenhagen 2014
First edition, red, 500 copies Typography: American Typewriter
Paper: Munken Pure Rough
Graphic design: Åse Eg
Illustration: Dagmar, 1976 Photo: Pelle Henningsen
Translation (English): Sophie Pucill
Printed by Narayana Press ISBN: 978-87-7603-155-8
Space Poetry: www.spacepoetry.dk
Published with the support of the Danish Arts Foundation