What Is a Peice of Art With Two People

Visitors view a blank canvas that is part of "Take the Money and Run," by Jens Haaning, at the Kunsten Museum of Modernistic Art in Aalborg, Denmark. The piece is part of an exhibition called Piece of work It Out, which explores people'south relationship with work. Niels Fabæk/Kunsten Museum of Modern Art hide explanation

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Niels Fabæk/Kunsten Museum of Modern Art

Visitors view a blank sail that is part of "Accept the Money and Run," by Jens Haaning, at the Kunsten Museum of Modernistic Art in Aalborg, Denmark. The slice is part of an exhibition called Piece of work Information technology Out, which explores people'southward relationship with work.

Niels Fabæk/Kunsten Museum of Modern Fine art

The money was supposed to be used to create modern art. And it was — but not in the way a Danish museum expected when it gave an artist the equivalent of $84,000. In return, it received two empty canvases.

The artist, Jens Haaning, says the blank canvases make upwards a new work of art — titled "Take the Money and Run" — that he calls a commentary on poor wages. One matter it's non, he says, is a theft.

"It is a breach of contract, and breach of contract is role of the work," he said, co-ordinate to Danish public broadcaster DR.

"The work is that I have taken their money," Haaning stated.

The Kunsten Museum of Modern Art in Aalborg isn't satisfied with that caption, merely that hasn't stopped information technology from displaying the two canvases as part of its exhibition chosen Piece of work It Out, which explores people'south human relationship with piece of work.

Creative person's unexpected delivery provoked laughter and questions

Haaning took the money equally part of an agreement with the Kunsten, which says it loaned Haaning more than half a million kroner so he could frame the cash in a reprise of an earlier artwork. The artist had previously used two canvases, one larger than the other, to illustrate the gap in average annual incomes in Kingdom of denmark and Austria in physical terms — or, more accurately, in paper.

Haaning sent two big crates to the museum, every bit it prepared to mount the piece of work-themed show that opened last weekend. Just when staff members opened the boxes, they were surprised to detect two blank canvases.

"I actually laughed equally I saw it," Kunsten CEO Lasse Andersson said in an email to NPR, adding that the museum first suspected things might non go as planned when Haaning told them he had created a new slice of fine art, with the title "Take the Coin and Run."

The delivery rapidly provoked a flurry of emails and messages at the museum. Andersson says that while Haaning's initial work converted money into art, "The new work reminds us that nosotros work for money." It besides adds a new twist to the fence over how an artist's work should exist valued, he said.

Jens Haaning'due south artwork "Take the Money and Run" is seen in the Kunsten Musem of Modern Art. The empty canvas was meant to hold thousands of dollars in greenbacks — but the artist chose to hang on to the money. Niels Fabaek/Kunsten Museum of Modern Fine art hide caption

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Niels Fabaek/Kunsten Museum of Modern Art

Jens Haaning'southward artwork "Accept the Money and Run" is seen in the Kunsten Musem of Modern Fine art. The empty sail was meant to hold thousands of dollars in greenbacks — but the creative person chose to hang on to the coin.

Niels Fabaek/Kunsten Museum of Modern Art

Artist urges the public: Accept the coin and run

Haaning told P1 Morgen that he decided to keep the money subsequently rejecting the idea of reproducing fine art that was more than a decade old. Instead, he said, he wanted to create a piece of work that dealt immediately with his ain work state of affairs.

"I encourage other people who have simply equally miserable working conditions equally me to practise the same," he said, according to a translation from Artnet. "If they are sitting on some s*** chore and non getting money and are actually being asked to give money to go to piece of work," they should accept the money and run, he told the radio programme.

Haaning says he would have had to pay 25,000 kroner (effectually $2,900) to re-create his art work — an unfair burden, he told Danish radio. But Andersson says the museum's contract provides upwardly to 6,000 euros, or nearly $7,000, for Haaning's piece of work expenses. Under the agreement, the creative person also receives a fee of ten,000 kroner, plus a "viewing fee" determined by the government.

The museum isn't taking legal activeness — notwithstanding

Haaning signed a contract with the Kunsten, promising to evangelize the artwork and to render the $84,000. The artist now faces a deadline to give the museum its money back on Jan. 16, when the work exhibition closes. The museum says it's talking with him about that deadline; it also acknowledges that Haaning did produce a provocative piece of work.

"It wasn't what we had agreed on in the contract, just nosotros got new and interesting fine art" from Haaning, Andersson said.

Haaning is a well-known artist in Denmark, where his attention-grabbing projects have included rendering the Dannebrog, Kingdom of denmark'due south red and white national flag, in green, according to public broadcaster DR. He also "moved a car dealer and a massage clinic into exhibition buildings," the news agency says.

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