Roni Horn: The Detour of Identity

Considering the cinematic elements of Roni Horn’s multimedia practice centered on an exploration of identity

Published to accompany the eponymous exhibition at the Louisiana Museum of Art, Humleb k, Denmark, The Detour of Identity reads the work of Roni Horn (born 1955) through the prism of cinema, thereby revealing an intense psychosexuality that is often submerged under its empirical and conceptual character. Images of Horn’s photography, sculpture and drawing are presented alongside stills and excerpts from films by Robert Altman, Carl Theodor Dreyer, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Alfred Hitchcock and Nicholas Roeg, among others. Essays by Louisiana Museum Director Poul Erik T jner, critic Elisabeth Bronfen, art historian Briony Fer and novelist Gary Indiana clarify the central importance of film to both the making and the understanding of Horn’s practice. Literature and language are often grasped as keys to Horn’s art, but by juxtaposing her work with film this book reveals that the body, desire, fantasy and sexuality are equally crucial to her exploration of identity.