Fold, Bend, Hold

The first large exhibition of Mikkel Dahl’s sculpture in Copenhagen, with works brought in by boat from his studio in Aarhus. Dahl works at full size from the start, with no models and no drawings, in a boat shed he rents by the harbour.

His sculptures look like they were folded out of paper, but they are steel, stone and aluminium. Most start as a flat sheet that he bends by hand, on a press he built himself, until it can stand up on its own. Heavy Light goes the other way: two tonnes of granite balanced on a steel point no wider than a coin.

The main hall was cleared to the walls for the show, so you can walk all the way around every piece. The floor was reinforced before the heaviest work arrived, and the installation team needed a crane, two days and very good weather.

Dahl will be in the gallery on the first Sunday of every month, answering questions and explaining how the folds were made, and which ones went wrong first.