A black Ferrari 458 Spider collides with a wall on Beijing’s fourth ring road early in the morning of the 18th March 2012. A young man dies instantly and two young women are seriously injured. The car is almost unrecognisable, the wheels have fallen off, one woman is naked and the dead driver is the son of one of China's leading politicians.

This tragic accident serves as the background story for Frandsen’s work 18.03.12 Beijing, part of the exhibition Whoever has most things when we die wins. The exhibition includes new works: sculptures, mosaics, painting and concrete work.

03/18/12 Beijing is one of 2 large installational sculptures that tie the exhibition and gallery space together both aesthetically and thematically. 03/18/12 Beijing is a Ferrari covered with fabric remnants in shades of blue. The fabric itself comes from work wear sewn together by women from China. The process is an intrinsic part of the artwork’s concept; this performative element is visible in the car whose initial simple and elegant lines are blurred by the texture of the clothing. The work's aesthetic qualities reflect its complicated background story. The work addresses important issues such as the merging of the masculine and the feminine; the blurring of the car/reality; individual interpretations; consumerism; class division and alleged corruption.

The exhibition thus offers the possibility for the viewers to immerse themselves into each individual work, while at the same time experiencing the exhibition as a single work.

Erik A. Frandsen is interested in opposites, often struggling to capture and evoke the transient and the ephemeral in life. This can be said for the works presented in this exhibition. Frandsen is known as one of the founders of the collective “Værkstedet Vækst” which was a central part of the Danish art scene during the 1980s. In 1992 Erik A. Frandsen participated in Documenta IX. Frandsen is represented  by Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, ARKEN Museum of Modern Art, ARoS Museum of Modern Art, The Danish National Gallery, Kupferstich Kabinett in Berlin, The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Norway and Shenzhen Art Museum in China.

Galerie Mikael Andersen is taking part in Copenhagen Art Week 2013. See the full program at: copenhagenartweek.dk

Photo credits: Jan Søndergaard