The exhibition #AOTD is named after the commonly used hashtag, which is an abbreviation of Art of The Day. It shows 78 works by 54 artists, which have all been carefully chosen from CCA’s own collection in an effort to give our visitors a rare look into the years of our Artist-in-Residence program.
Since the opening of CCA in 2001 we have hosted 48 artists a year in our studios as a part of our Artist-in-Residence program. The program enables us to help up-and-coming artists as well as nurture those who already have well established careers. We give them a studio they can stay in a month for free with an offer to create an exhibition in one of our spaces afterwards.
The program has since its beginning hosted more than 800 artists from all over the world, and we are proud to be able to continuously support artists and give them the opportunity to create without any commercial constrictions.
During its 18 years of existing it have been the general costume (though not a requirement) that the artist leaves a donation upon their departure. These donations have been stored, and have with few exceptions, never been a shown to the public.
In the exhibition #AOTD we have for the first ever, created an exhibition from our donations as well as other stored pieces, in order to give the audience a colorful and joyful behind the scene glimpse of CCA’s Artist-in-Residence program, and the many artists who have been an instrumental part in creating the CCA you see today.
This is the title of the first work you see to your left when you walk in. Presenting the first donation that CCA ever received. It is created as a collaboration between the three artists; Torben Giehler, Frank Nietsche, Les Rogers who for this special occasion adopted the group name ‘The Havana Club’. The work was shown ones before back in the days, and have since been hidden as a part of our private collection due to its sentimental and historical value. As we did not believe that we could call #AOTD a true behind the seen glimpse of the many years of CCA studio residents without including the work that began it all, this work is featured. However, Start! The Havana Club, is not for sale.
On the wall, just in front of you when you walk into the exhibition, between the big work featuring the lemurs and the ‘Please do Not Disturb,’ sign stands a small figurate. The figure that may or may not feature a KKK member holding a sign saying ‘Are you talking to me?’, is a work that was discovered during the preparations for #AOTD. It was found in a small box deep in our storage, without the signature of any artist, label, date or other means of identification.
With more than 800 artists haven been through the CCA studios, it is difficult to identify the origin of the work, however, this is also a part of our history and definitely apart of the behind-the-scene happenings of a large art institution like us. Sometimes things just happens.
It goes without saying that we could not be more proud of the work that we do here together with the many amazing artists who have been supporting us from day one. The incredible energy that every single one of them have brought with them during their studio visit have truly been incredible, and on behalf of the entire CCA team we thank you.