With the exhibition Dead End, visual artist Jiyoon Chung reflects on the heightened security now embedded within Politikens Forhal—a legacy of the terrorist threats that swept across Europe in the 2010s, leaving lasting marks on both the architecture and the ways we experience and inhabit these spaces. Today, control and openness coexist in a delicate tension, constantly negotiating the multiple functions and security requirements at stake in Politikens Forhal. Treating crises as an inevitable part of everyday life, Chung examines how feelings of insecurity reveal themselves in small, often overlooked gestures—from hesitant movements to pauses in front of automatic doors. She stages the very symbols in which we seek comfort and safety, yet which no longer suffice.
Dead End actively engage with the physical space, creating new pathways and automatic doors that confront visitors with fundamental questions: How do we navigate the world when potential threats, both large and small, are ever-present? Where do we turn when the institutions we once relied on, such as religion, fail to offer reassurance? Hair, bodily fluids, fingerprints, and discarded chewing gum are arranged with forensic precision into sculptural gestures, establishing an unsettling interplay between bodily presence and absence.
Jiyoon Chung (b. Seoul, 1990) graduated from Städelschule (2024) and Chung-Ang University (2012). Her work has been exhibited at Kunsthal Charlottenborg (DK), Marres – House for Contemporary Culture (NL), Kunstverein Wiesen (DE), and Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden (DE). Chung won the Charlottenborg Foundation Solo Prize in 2025. Each year, the winner of the Solo Prize is selected in collaboration with the Spring Exhibition jury and Politikens Forhal. The award includes a solo exhibition at Forhallen the following year.
Installation photos by Brian Kure.