Soft Power

Year:

The exhibition Soft Power by Emilie Bausager consists of two works: a sculpture and a textile piece.

The sculpture Woolsack is a version of the chair of the same name that stands in the House of Lords in London. The original chair is upholstered with wool from the wool-producing regions of the British Empire and Commonwealth, thereby giving a symbolic presence to the far-reaching realm. It has existed in various versions since the 14th century and underscores the economic importance of the wool trade in an English context.

Curtain is an almost three-meter-tall and more than five-meter-wide textile collage made of unstitched wool suits, partly abstract, concrete, and image-forming in its composition. The work hangs across the space, shortening the gallery’s otherwise rectangular shape.

In this newly staged architecture, Bausager gives the concept of Soft Power physical form. A concept most often used in relation to a nation’s or government’s instrumentalization of culture and art, broadly understood, in their politics with the aim of exercising a form of power over their citizens and guiding them in a particular direction, as if they were sheep.

Exhibited at Lagune Ouest.