It is rare for an all-new cultural institution to emerge – not just a new opera house or art centre, but an entirely new institutional model. Such a place opened its doors last Friday in Copenhagen’s north-west district. The building in question will now serve as the headquarters for the Bikuben Foundation and a range of foundation-supported activities within the social sector and the performing and visual arts. Among these initiatives is Art Hub Copenhagen, a phenomenon six years in the making – and one that has attracted considerable attention on the art scene right from the outset.
Of course, there is ample reason to be wary of Danish foundations, which tend to want to define and supply the content themselves, as critic Louise Steiwer also commented earlier this week. Nonetheless, there was a sense of promise in the air on the opening night, when the place was packed to the rafters, a sense ably helped along by the impressive architectural overhaul of the former industrial building. The exposed structures and raw concrete give the place the feel of a sociology institute on the outskirts of Paris in a sexy 1970s way.
And, yes, you could probably have provided studios for a sizeable portion of the city’s artists for the amount spent on renovating this building. But offsetting this is the fact that the (hopefully many) artists who are awarded a studio or residency here in the future will enjoy the experience of working in facilities and attractive surroundings of a kind rarely accessible to artists. For once, it will not be lawyers or investment advisors but artists hanging out in a stylish canteen eating new Nordic cuisine or in a library with a cool floor design by Martine Syms.
Whether this will bring about better art or a more vibrant art scene remains to be seen. It’s unclear at present whether this will primarily be a building with a lot of administration going on or a genuine competitor to the art venues. For now, I have invited myself for coffee with one of Art Hub’s PhD students, and will listen closely to hear if Pierre Bourdieu is also being discussed in the café.
Wisely, the name of the building is simply its address: Thoravej 29. A refreshing move in an era where branding is everything, and the first thing new directors do when they take over an institution is to change its name and visual identity. Over the past few years, Overgaden has become O-Overgaden, and Kunstforeningen Gl. Strand has become Gammel Strand. But such changes can be far more drastic than that.
First prize in this regard still goes to the former Nordjyllands Kunstmuseum (North Jutland Art Museum), which has gone by Kunsten (Art) since 2008. It’s an impossible name – akin to naming your son Boy – that can rarely stand alone, but always requires clarification when referenced, as in this example: this spring, Kunsten in Aalborg is showing a couple of video installations by Candice Breitz on loan from the Louisiana collection. In doing so, the museum presents one of the most active voices in the cultural debate raging in Germany these years. It’s interesting, even if the move seems largely coincidental.
The first name change of the season comes from a museum that was founded in 1977 as Køge Skitsesamling (Køge Sketch Collection) and later renamed KØS Museum for kunst i det offentlige rum (KØS Museum for Art in Public Spaces). It will now have an English name only and be referred to as MAPS – Museum of Art in Public Spaces. More intriguing and quite ambitious is the upcoming exhibition, The Story of Public Art, which promises to explore “groundbreaking artistic experiments in public spaces from 1960 to the present day.” Envisioned to evolve over the next four years, the exhibition is curated by Charlotte Sprogøe and features contributions from 120 artists from more than forty countries. Among the names announced so far are Maria Hassabi, Lawrence Lek, and Hélio Oiticica.
It has been a while since Kunsthal Charlottenborg last changed its name, but now another opportunity knocks. The position as Michael Thouber’s successor has been advertised, even if the institution is no longer looking for a “director” but a new “leader” or “manager,” according to the Danish ad. The venue is currently showing an exhibition in the form of a single film, one of the highlights of last year’s Venice Biennale. Karimah Ashadu’s Machine Boys (2024) follows a group of men speeding through Lagos on motorbikes, enacting a kind of illegal and fatalistic taxi service; at 8 minutes and 50 seconds, it is certainly worthy of an entire exhibition.
For its part, Kunsthal Aarhus also demonstrates that an exhibition does not always need a lot of works and fanfare. Since 2017, the kunsthalle has hosted an annual flag exhibition in its park. The new rainbow-colored flags recently raised are by Japanese Fluxus artist Ay-O, who on another occasion produced a 300-metre-long rainbow flag hung from the Eiffel Tower.
Just five minutes away, things operate on an entirely different scale. This spring, ARoS is unveiling a permanent work by James Turrell that was ten years in the making – spanning three different museum directors – and constitutes an entire extension in itself: a circular room with a 16-metre-high ceiling. “The transformation ARoS is undergoing right now is happening once in a generation and will ensure that ARoS becomes one of the most innovative cultural institutions for experiencing transformative art on a large scale,” the latest press release bombastically asserts.
Arken continues its programme of solo shows featuring Danish painters. The first was Apolonia Sokol. Next came Ursula Reuter Christiansen, and in a few weeks Frederik Næblerød will follow, with Eva Helene Pade exhibiting in April. Pade is just 28 years old but is already represented by a major gallery in Paris. Leaving such matters aside, seeing artists this young having solo exhibitions at Danish museums remains a new departure.
Among the solo exhibitions I look forward to this spring, two in particular stand out. One is Henrik Olesen at Den Frie in late February. The other is Kaari Upson at Louisiana in Humlebæk in May. The exhibition featuring Danish artist Olesen, who has lived in Berlin for the past twenty-five years, will be a substantial presentation of new and older works, including a throwback to some very early works first exhibited at the Copenhagen venue Otto in the 1990s. The exhibition featuring American artist Upson, who unfortunately passed away a few years ago at the age of just 51, is also a retrospective. Upson was a powerhouse, and I can still recall the feeling of walking through the oversized and half-dissolved dollhouse she presented at the Venice Biennale in 2019. The exhibition at Louisiana is called Doll House, so it seems likely that her haunted house will be included here as well.
Equally unsuitable for children, even if its theme revolves around them, is the group exhibition Just Kids, opening in a couple of weeks at Gammel Strand. “Darling child, bonus kid, brat, or nepo baby – we find many names for those we love. Children are everywhere; they dominate our dinner tables and public debates. But who are they really, those ever-present children, and how do they appear in contemporary art?,” reads the Danish press release, to which someone has obviously devoted a great deal of care. The list of featured artists (seventeen in total) is enticing, and includes Lene Adler Petersen, Pope.L, Gianna Surangkanjanajai, Pernille Madsen, Paul McCarthy, and Asta Olivia Nordenhof. This is not an exhibition I can picture in advance, and for that reason alone, I can’t wait.
