The Danish sculptor Bjørn Nørgaard has visited China frequently over the past twelve years, and in October 2014 he left a permanent and impactful mark on Beijing, when his sculpture ‘Busstop’, donated by the New Carlsberg Foundation, was placed at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA).
The inauguration of the sculpture coincided with the opening of CAFA Art Museum’s extension of the large, retrospective Bjørn Nørgaard exhibition ‘Re-Modelling the World’, which was presented at the National Gallery of Denmark in 2010. This exhibition presented a selection of Bjørn Nørgaard’s art from his breakthrough in the 1960s until the present day.
‘Busstop’ is a sculpture that connects China and the West. On one side, we find Romans, Greeks and Vikings, while China is represented by figures from the old imperial dynasties until today. Antiquity, Judaism and Christianity, symbolized by Sisyphus, who rolls his heavy boulder up the mountain over and over again, meet the dragon, which in Bjørn Nørgaard’s interpretation brings together China’s spiritual movements.
In his familiar manner, Bjørn Nørgaard thus incorporates and reshapes the stuff of familiar cultural legacy, joining it together in new, surprising combinations. On a curios note in a Danish context, ‘Busstop’ is shaped like a Danish plastic bus shelter, and the plates that flank the entrance to the sculpture are a nod to the Danish artist Aksel Jørgensen, who included plates among his motifs – inspired by the plate-smashing stand, ‘Breaking up the Happy Home’, at the amusement part Bakken north of Copenhagen.
Bjørn Nørgaard comments, ‘China is so unbelievably crowded, and that includes the university area where the CAFA Art Museum is located, and where the outdoor sculpture is going to be placed. With the sculpture I wanted to create a space for reflection, a place where the students can settle down find some peace and calm – at a bus stop, which is a ubiquitous concept all over the planet.’
