The Kunsten Museum of Contemporary Art in Aalborg, Denmark, opened on September 24 an exhibition entitled "Work it out" (translation: "Work it"), in order to invite society to question the current employment situation, with topics such as stress, digitization, bureaucracy and more. For this exhibition, the museum selected 22 long-standing artists, including Jens Haaning, an artist known for his critical and activist work that has revolved around denouncing social issues such as exploitation, racism, abuse of power , among others.

In the particular case of Haaning, the Kunsten Museum asked the artist to recreate 2 of his works from 2017; some glass squares where the artist placed bills that in their entirety represented the average annual salary of a citizen of Denmark (328 thousand crowns) and Austria (25 thousand euros).

For the realization of the works, Haaning borrowed from the museum the amount of 550 thousand Danish crowns (approximately $83 thousand dollars). However, 2 days before the delivery date, Haaning sent an email to the museum advising that he would be delivering something different than what had been agreed.

Two days later, 2 blank canvases arrived at the museum with the title “Take the Money and Run” (Translation: “Take the money and run”).

"I laughed because it was very humorous," said Lasse Andersson, director of the museum who, despite the surprise, decided to exhibit the works and took the situation with humor.

Haaning, for his part, has ruled that he will not return the money and that recreating the works would have involved the artist spending his own money. “The job is that I have taken your money (…) I encourage other people who have working conditions as miserable as mine to do the same,” he said at a press conference.

But Andersson differs, stating that the museum even has a deal with the Danish Artists Association where they agree to pay artists more when they exhibit.

“(The 550 thousand crowns) is money from the museum and we have a contract that says that the money must be back on January 16. Otherwise, we will be taking the corresponding measures,” concluded Andersson.