The New Carlsberg Foundation has donated a number of artworks to the new rock museum in Roskilde, RAGNAROCK - Danish museum for pop, rock and youth culture. With the donated works, the museum wishes to continue the tradition from Roskilde Museum, ROMU, of integrating relevant contemporary art into exhibitions on cultural history, thus incorporating pictorial art interpretations of cultural heritage statements.
The donation includes the video installation Visual Drone (Unresolved), 2014, by the British artist Graham Dolphin. The installation, which features seven large plasma screens with loudspeakers, is on display alongside three other art installations by the museum entrance. In the exhibitions halls, Günther Beckers, Don Van Vliet, Brian DeGraw are among the artists represented with pictorial arts contributions.
Museum Director Frank Birkebæk comments on what the artworks mean for the museum:
‘There’s art in rock, but there’s also rock in art. Many of the greatest stars of rock also express themselves in painting and sculpture, and with great artistic power. This aspect of pictorial art is important for our understanding of rock music and rock performers. The New Carlsberg Foundation’s donation gives RAGNAROCK an opportunity to complete the presentation of the full artistic scope of rock and related music genres.’
RAGNAROCK is part of the museum group ROMU, and is a museum of national cultural history, which aims to convey the concept of the youth generation and its emergence after the Second World War. The museum addresses the youth generation’s diverse influence on the development of society at large and the contribution of young people in shaping society’s appearance. It addresses the role of rock music as a global medium of communication and a social, political and artistic form of expression.