Men, Nina Beier

With Men, Danish artist Nina Beier questions male power by subjecting the work to a play of high and low tide. Equestrian statues like these were popular in ancient Rome and reappeared during the reign of Louis XIV. He believed that men on horseback were the ideal way to show power and hierarchy. Beier gathered statues that were no longer exposed in public space and installed them in a formation by the sea. By placing them in this unusual environment, the element of prestige gives way to drama, as if a moment of a forgotten battle by the sea is cast in bronze statues. A daily ritual of disappearing and reappearing, until the statues gradually vanish into anonymity.