Two empty canvases named ‘Run with Money’ were displayed at the Kunsten Museum of Modern Art in Olbor, Denmark. The canvases were empty with nothing drawn, or pasted, and the creator is Danish artist- Jens Haaning. The Kunsten Museum mainly exhibits from 1990 to the present works by contemporary Danish and European artists. The theme of this controversial exhibition was ‘The Relationship between Art and Labor.’
The case is as follows: The Kunsten Museum asked Haaning to express the average income of Denmark and Austria with actual bills. The museum gave him 534,000 Danish Kroner for the cash-filled artworks and paid him 25,000 Danish Kroner for his work. The total of money is about 100 million won in Korean currency. Since then, the box of works that Haaning sent to the museum contained only two canvases that showed nothing. The museum put the work on display but asked Honing to return the money he lent.
Hanning explained his position on his work on the local radio station, P1 channel. He mentioned that the act was not theft but a breach of contract. That was part of the artwork. Haaning said people in poor working conditions act like him, and if they don’t get paid at a poor job, they run away with the money box. Meanwhile, Lase Anderson, director of the Kunsten Museum of Modern Art, said in an interview with the Guardian, “We are not a wealthy museum. The money came from modest reserves earmarked for the upkeep of the building. We have to think carefully about how we spend our funds, and we don’t spend more than we can afford.” He added the museum wants to get back the production costs provided to Hanning before the exhibition ends in January. The museum also expressed the possibility of legal dispute if Hanning does not respond. In this case, people can have a chance to consider the relationship between behavior and art in contemporary art. Accordingly, people are paying attention to Haaning’s next action.
