Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

It is a great honour for me to open Per Kirkeby’s Retrospective Exhibition at the Tate Modern, here in London.

I would like to thank Dr. Borchardt-Hume and Mr. Todolí for the tour of the exhibition this evening. Your team has done an exceptional job in displaying Per Kirkeby’s masterpieces.

However, this is not Kirkeby’s first encounter with the Tate. After many years of mutual affection, this exhibition in many ways fully embraces Kirkeby’s art by exploring the diversity of his career over four decades.

It is wonderful to see such a great and internationally acclaimed Danish artist at the centre of one of the most important contemporary art institutions in the world. Kirkeby has been very important for Danish culture throughout his career, and is without doubt one of the most influential artistic characters in Scandinavia today.

The Danish Ministry of Culture works to encourage and enhance international cooperation between art institutions as well as individual artists.  I am delighted that this exhibition will give both the British and international visitors the opportunity to experience an artist, who means so much to Denmark.

At a time when the world is becoming smaller, art plays a crucial role in creating bonds and transgressing visible and invisible boundaries.

This is also true for Kirkeby’s art, which distinguishes itself by transgressing the boundaries between reason and feeling.

Relying on his intuition that drives him like a moral necessity, Kirkeby creates art that takes us beyond reason, language and nationality.

Kirkeby himself describes it, as such: “There are things that words don’t fathom. A store of unprocessed, unnameable feeling remains beyond language. Good pictures address this realm.”

Therefore, it is not until the personal meeting with Kirkeby’s works that one can start to realise their true magnificence.

With these words, it gives me great pleasure to officially open Per Kirkeby at Tate Modern.

Thank you.