Hjortefar | Bum and Nanna

Curated by Søren Rose

‘When I told my dad about my participation in this project he just replied “BUM!”’, remembers Mads Hjort aka Hjortfar. ‘First I was puzzled but later he told me about a book published by Kvadrat 25 years ago. It was a story about an unusual man, answering to the name Bum (Boom), because he was born the same year World War I began'.

Hjortefar had to know more. ‘I found the book on my grand-mother´s bookshelf and got hold of a short documentary about Bum from the Danish Broadcasting Corporation’s archives. This proved to be a thrilling encounter with an exuberant, vivacious and tireless entrepreneur who among other things collaborated with Nanna Ditzel when creating Hallingdal.’

After getting to know Bum and Nanna better, it became obvious to Hjortefar that he wanted to create portraits of these two masterminds. Each portrait is created using 60 × 60 pixels, each pixel being a 5 × 5 cm small padded foam piece on a base of MDF. The pieces have been padded by inmates of Vridsløselille State Prison, using 29 colours from the Hallingdal colour scale.

Mads Hjort works across a variety of different mediums, including graphic design, motion graphics, art direction, acting, and directing music videos. His diverse output reflects his extensive education. After studying Media Graphic Design and Art, he spent two years learning Furniture Design at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Subsequently, he transferred to the Institute of Visual Communication, from where he graduated.