Danish artist Esben Weile Kjær kicked off the Toaster Performance Biennale with a new version of his performance piece 'Hardcore Freedom' at Den Frie Udstilling. The event drew 1,600 attendees who danced on a lit-up chessboard floor after a freeform performance. DJs Courtesy and Europa followed with sets.
Esben Weile Kjær, a rising Danish multimedia artist, launched the Toaster Performance Biennale at Copenhagen's Den Frie Udstilling with an updated iteration of 'Hardcore Freedom.' The four-hour event transformed the museum into a rave space, featuring self-styled dancers on a 1980s-style illuminated chessboard floor sourced from Sweden by a collector. Over 1,600 people attended, dressed for the occasion and ready to party into the night, as captured by photographer Mark Hunter, known as The Cobrasnake for his indie sleaze documentation of past LA and New York nightlife scenes. The piece originally debuted in 2020 at Copenhagen Contemporary, running for three months and leaving behind traces of revelry like empty bottles and confetti to explore social interactions. Weile Kjær explained his intent: 'I wanted to somehow deal with this emptiness of the word freedom that we’re exposed to so much... What does it actually mean? Is it only a fantasy? How does this feel?' This time, he stepped back from performing, casting young Copenhagen talents shaping the local nightlife. 'I wanted to somehow give it to the next generation,' he said. The nostalgic aesthetic evoked mid-2000s indie sleaze, with Weile Kjær noting, 'culture is that it’s always an echo, this nostalgic echo, going through history.'
