Exhibition program autumn/winter 2023–2024

Kunsthal Charlottenborg rewrites history this autumn and winter, where visitors can experience a comprehensive exhibition including new commissions and historic works on the occasion of the Kunsthal’s 140th anniversary, as well as an international group exhibition that connects botanical histories with human and cultural movements through time.

Seeds and Souls
September 16, 2023–February 18, 2024

Seeds and Souls proposes new explorations into the connections between botanical histories, the places and people from which vegetal and mineral matters have been extracted, and contemporary diasporic experiences.

Curated by Christine Eyene, this exhibition takes its cue from her research into family migratory history, from the land of origin to the land of adoption. This has led her to an interest in the links between original soil and vegetation—their extraction, consumption, transplantation, and mutation into new environments—and the phenomena of cultural dispersions anchored within histories that continue to impact us today.

The participating artists all share strands of heritage from peoples whose land was, and in some cases continues to be, coveted by the West for the nature of its soil. They address this either from their own personal perspective or in a manner that translates community experience, knowledge, and practices. They do so through various forms of tangible and immaterial excavations, the uncovering of overlooked and sometimes contentious histories, and through ‘re-rooting’ as a way of reclaiming agency over these histories and cultural expressions.

The exhibition transports the visitors across space and time through art works including small drawings of plants charged with potent properties, and imposing large scale wallpaper, and a textile installation evoking plantations and botanical gardens. Further info here.

Participating artists: Brook Andrew, Shiraz Bayjoo, Sonia Boyce, Ishita Chakraborty, Annalee Davis, Michelle Eistrup, Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe, Linda Lamignan, Yvon Ngassam.

Seeds and Souls is curated by Christine Eyene, Lecturer in Contemporary Art at Liverpool John Moores University and Research Curator at Tate Liverpool.

Full of Days
Charlottenborg Jubilee
September 30, 2023–January 14, 2024

This year marks 140 years since Kunsthal Charlottenborg—or the Exhibition Building by Charlottenborg, as the place was named in 1883—opened to the public. A venue built for the purpose of exhibiting contemporary art, Kunsthal Charlottenborg is an institution without a collection or historical archive.

An open call was launched last year to create a jubilee exhibition. A professional jury selected the proposal by Francesca Astesani and Julia Rodrigues, from the curational collective South into North, which was developed into the exhibition Full of Days.

Paying tribute to the very purpose for which the building was originally created—to show art of the time—fourteen contemporary artists were invited to create new works, each inspired by Charlottenborg’s past. The new commissions are presented in dialogue with a selection of carefully curated historical works as well as historical images.

Resisting the idea of “history” as a singular, linear expression in favour of an approach that relies on multiple voices, time glitches and affinities, the exhibition conjures a tapestry of voices as a flickering, layered image of the Kunsthal’s past. Further info here.

Participating artists: Louise Alenius, Benedikte Bjerre, Valentina Desideri & Denise Ferreira da Silva, Jason Dodge, Emil Elg, Maryam Jafri, Henrik Plenge Jakobsen, Sahar Jamili, Eva la Cour, Isabel Lewis in romance with Dirk Bell, Asta Lynge, Simon Dybbroe Møller, Finn Reinbothe, Åbäke, in company with Gunnar Aagaard Andersen, Pia Arke, Nina Beier, Yvette Brackman, Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen, Claus Carstensen, Ursula Reuter Christiansen, Inge Ellegaard, Olivia Holm-Møller, Asger Jorn, On Kawara, Per Kirkeby, Arthur Köpcke, Marie Luplau, Susanne Mertz, Lee Miller, Ursula Munch-Petersen, Emilie Mundt, Palle Nielsen, Astrid Noack, Lene Adler Petersen, Franka Rasmussen, Nina Sten-Knudsen, Susanne Ussing, and more.

Full of Days is curated by Francesca Astesani and Julia Rodrigues, South into North.