The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art is a leading international art museum and an absolute top attraction in Denmark. Art, nature, and architecture combine in a total experience that attracts guests from all over the world all year-round.
The Museum is located approx. 40 km north of the city center in Humlebæk, in a beautiful old park offering magnificent panoramic views of the Sound. The park provides a magnificent setting for Louisiana’s large sculpture collection. The museum collection of modern art is one of the most important in Scandinavia and on view in changing presentations. Permanent highlights include the Giacometti Hall and the Jorn Room and there is also regularly access to one of Kusama’s Infinity rooms. Classics and shooting international stars The Louisiana Museum is internationally recognized for its exhibition program, with 8 - 10 major exhibitions annually. Here, the classics of modern art, as well as contemporary international artists and architects, are presented. A vibrant cultural center for children and adults alike With its relaxed atmosphere, the museum also offers a vibrant and dedicated cultural centre with a rich programme of activities and events for children and adults alike.
Take a break at the Louisiana Café When it’s time for a break, the Louisiana Cafe welcomes you to enjoy hot drinks, cakes and a delicious, seasonal lunch and dinner menu. From here you have an astounding panorama view of the sea.Shop Scandinavian design in the Louisiana Store In the museum’s sizeable two-level store, you will find a large and inspiring selection of new and classic items with an emphasis on Danish and Scandinavian design. Interior, clothing, books, posters, graphics, toys and more.
Special exhibitions (Louisiana.dk):
Det uerstattelige menneske, 23.11.23-1.4.24
With works by more than 60 artists, this large-scale, interdisciplinary exhibition seeks to define the phenomenon of creativity from a broad, humanistic perspective. What are the conditions for creativity in society today? And is there reason to fear that artificial intelligence will take over and surpass human creative abilities?
The exhibition The Irreplaceable Human – Conditions of Creativity in the Age of AI aims to create the foundation for a conversation about the role of creativity in our society – and thus also for a discussion about what is really valuable to us. The exhibition presents works by more than 60 artists – with the main emphasis on art from the past 20 years – combined with references to cultural history, science, and literature.
Bourgeois X Giacometti, 9.1.24-26.5.24
In the North Wing, Alberto Giacometti, whose works constitute a significant pillar of Louisiana's collection, has been joined for the first time by Louise Bourgeois – another of the 20th century's all-time great artists – and her iconic sculpture 'Spider Couple'.
Entirely exceptionally, the sculpture ‘Walking Man’ by Alberto Giacometti is on loan this spring, and in its usual place you will instead find the monumental ‘Spider Couple’ from 2003 by French-American Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010): a rather special meeting between two artists who are beacons of 20th-century art history, as well as of the Louisiana Collection. Giacometti and Bourgeois knew each other, and their art expresses a lifelong preoccupation with the human body and psyche, albeit in very different ways.
Nan Goldin - Memory Lost, 12.1.24-22.3.24
American photographer and activist Nan Goldin has just been named the world's most influential artist by Art Review Magazine. Currently you have the chance to revisit her latest masterpiece 'Memory Lost' in our West Wing Cinema.
ARKEN Museum of Contemporary Art
ARKEN Museum of Contemporary Art in Ishøj south of Copenhagen presents exhibitions with Danish, Nordic and international art – from new, young talents to established names
ARKEN is a great and monumental building situated in the artificial landscape Køge Bay Beach south of Copenhagen. The museum has one of Scandinavia's finest collections of contemporary art, and the museum's maritime architecture with the pointed stern, which majestically protudes into the terrain, has won recognition both at home and abroad since its inaugaration in 1996.
ARKEN's collection contains more than 400 works - Danish, Nordic and international contemporary art primarly from the period after 1990. The museum houses, among other things, one of Europe's most important collections of the British artist Damien Hirst. Experience the museum's evolving sculpture park, nine works by acclaimed German artist Anselm Reyle as well as a magnificent masterpiece by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.
Distinctive architecture
The museum building is an attraction in itself. With its scenic location on Kunstens Ø, or ‘Art Island’, the building, designed by the architect Søren Robert Lund, resembles a beached ship. A lagoon meanders its way around the museum, with several bridges linking the museum island with the surrounding beach area.
The museum café hangs like a lifeboat on the side of the building and through the large panoramic windows overlooks Køge Bay.
The museum shop is the area's leading design shop with an inspiring mix of Nordic design, art books, and gift items.
Exhibitions
Group Therapy, 29.2.24-28.7.24
An inflatable flock of chickens and a burned-down preschool. An outboard motor as a national symbol of Greenland. In the exhibition Group Therapy — New Contemporary Art at ARKEN, contemporary art unfolds in many forms. Sharp, insightful, caring, dynamic and humorous - the artists explore our era and invite us to reflect on our place in the world. The exhibition's works have recently been added to the museum's permanent collection, and they are presented in an exhibition that promotes conversations about conflict, emotions, hope and healing.
In her installation, Lisa's Chickens (Farm Life), Benedikte Bjerre has given a large flock of helium hens the 50 most popular girl names in Denmark right now, raising playful questions about our market-driven and gendered world. Cliché-filled ideas about gender are also challenged by Tora Schultz, who, with her Prada stilettos, inspired by the poster for the Hollywood film The Devil Wears Prada, humorously criticises the sex symbols of the fashion industry and the demeaning propensity of our society to compare powerful women to the devil. Martin Brandt Hansen punches a hole in the stereotypical notion of national identity with works such as Uummat (heart in Greenlandic) in which he transforms a Honda engine — a global symbol of strength, speed and power — into an elegant and humorous monument to today's Greenland.
Anish Kapoor, Unseen: 11.4.24-20.10.24
Anish Kapoor
Kapoor's monumental sculptures and installations speak directly to our senses and emotions. Through his unique eye for materials, shapes, colours and surfaces we are drawn into and seduced by his work, which turns the world upside down — often quite literally. Kapoor has been shown in the largest exhibition venues in the world, and he has also created several significant pieces for public spaces. Anish Kapoor was born and raised in an Indian-Jewish family in India. From 1973, he was educated in England, where he has worked ever since.
ARKEN's exhibition
The exhibition at ARKEN showcases a selection of Kapoor's most significant large-scale works created during the artist's more than 40-year career. The exhibition will be spread throughout most of ARKEN's halls: the Art Axis, the Large Gallery, the Graphic Gallery and other adjacent galleries. Despite the large exhibition space, the exhibition contains only about 10 works. The majority, however, are very extensive, and in scale and intensity the works will fill the entire museum. All of the works are built specifically for and integrated into ARKEN's architecture. In this way, the exhibition will take the form of a total intervention in architecture that challenges the usual way the building is used and the spaces are experienced.
Related Attractions
Art gallery, water reservoir and urban dripstone cave
The subterranean space beneath the green lawns of Søndermarken Park works as a breathtaking stage for contemporary art installations. The cold, humid and dark old water reservoir might remind you of long-forgotten cathedrals and gloomy catacombs – it is sparsely illuminated, and the atmosphere evokes fascination and enchantment in both children and adults.
Every year Cisternerne invite an internationally recognized artist or architect to create an exhibition particularly to this underground space – an exhibition in large scale that interacts with and emphasizes the unique architecture, climate, atmosphere and history of Cisternerne.
March 17th to November 30th 2024: Start Again the Lament by Taryn Simon
Cisternerne presents an extensive sound installation by artist Taryn Simon. Building everlasting recitations of loss, Start Again the Lament explores how we mourn individually and collectively, considering the anatomy of grief and who we choose to guide us through it.
In the act of lament, discontent is publicly performed. Professional mourners are granted the authority and solicited by the bereaved to occupy, negotiate, and shape their loss.
In a relentless replay, the lamentations of professional mourners are broadcast into the reverberating space of Cisternerne. These sonic rituals of grief include northern Albanian laments, which seek to excavate ‘uncried words’; Wayuu laments, which safeguard the soul’s passage to the Milky Way; Greek Epirotic laments, which bind the story of a life with its afterlife; and Yazidi laments, which trace a topography of displacement and exile. Cisternerne becomes an instrument echoing recitations of loss with a reverberation of 17 seconds.
Kunsthal Charlottenborg is one of the largest and most beautiful exhibition spaces for contemporary art in Northern Europe
The exhibition space presents an ambitious program with international outlook featuring talents as well as established stars from both Denmark and abroad. Kunsthal Charlottenborg presents uncompromising and agenda setting art still understandable for everyone. The trendsetting exhibition program is supplemented with a large number of activities like artist talks, performances, concerts and film screenings.
Ever since Kunsthal Charlottenborg opened in 1883, the venue has hosted exhibitions featuring many of the leading contemporary artists of the given times, accommodating many different types of shows and activities. Charlottenborg now celebrates its long history with a large-scale exhibition featuring all-new and older works alike. Together, they will evoke and add nuance to the history of Kunsthal Charlottenborg, a venue without a collection or a historical archive. Embracing chaos, affinities and time glitches, the exhibition Full of Days forges intuitive connections between historical moments and less-remembered shows, stories and events. Through a cacophony of voices, contemporary and historical artists are framed into a reflection on the elusiveness of time and the multiplicity of its representations, offering a non-linear account of one the Kunsthal’s possible histories.
Special Exhibithions (Kunsthalcharlottenborg.dk):
Thao Nguyen Phan, Reincarnations of Shadows: 13.3 – 11.8 2024
Visual artist Thao Nguyen Phan (b. 1987) intertwines mythology and folklore from her homeland’s turbulent past with current pressing issues of excessive consumption and the destruction of the earth’s resources. The intersection between the documentary and the supernatural take centre stage in this exhibition, which evokes ghostly presences, lush landscapes and unofficial narratives.
Charlottenborg Art Books The independent bookstore offers a distinctive selection of books and magazines, including publications in the fields of fine art, critical design, typography, literature, and theory.Apollo Bar & Canteen Apollo Bar & Canteen are Kunsthal Charlottenborg’s bar and dining place by chef and creator Frederik Bille Brahe. Every weekday from Tuesday to Friday, you can enjoy a healthy and delicious lunch at the canteen, and all week you can enjoy breakfast, lunch or an exciting dinner or just a cup of coffee, a glass of wine or a drink at the bar next to the courtyard.
Nikolaj Kunsthal presents especially Danish, but also international contemporary art in unique historical surroundings in the middle of Copenhagen.
Nikolaj Kunsthal is located in the former St. Nikolaj Church, Copenhagen’s third oldest church with one of the tallest towers in the city – a unique setting for contemporary art Europe-wide. The beautiful architecture is part of an interaction with changing exhibitions, most recently by Ditte Ejlerskov, Nikoline Liv Andersen, David Lynch, HuskMitNavn, Leonard Cohen and others. Nikolaj Kunsthal focuses on Copenhagen’s contemporary art scene and is preoccupied with art meetings across genres, media and formats. The art centre also regularly presents concerts, performances, guided tours, dinners, talks, etc.
Exhibitions:
Rune Bering: Bycatch, 10.2.24 - 28.7.24
Taking the fishing industry as his point of departure – as a story about both catching and being caught – Rune Bering weaves fishing nets in copper cables that originate from the infrastructures of technology. He works sculpturally with how technology is closely connected with geology and nature. There is a pervasive and underlying ouroboros approach to his exhibition that examines the cycle of destruction, death and rebirth.
Rune Bering elaborates on the upcoming exhibition: ”In this exhibition, I work sculpturally with emotions which I believe are characteristic of our time. We know that we live in a way that can’t last, but at the same time the feeling is that we can’t change it. We live in structures that interfere with each other and that are too complex to really understand, change and get out of. It feels like we are caught in our own net”.
Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art is a must see in Copenhagen for anyone interested in art and architecture.
Den Frie is closed between exhibitions. Please check the website before going.
Den Frie was founded by artists in 1898 and is one of the oldest venues for contemporary art in Denmark. It is in itself a unique and very beautiful wooden building designed by famous artist J.F. Willumsen.
Den Frie’s fundamental aim is to present the very latest in contemporary art. We host exhibitions by national and international artists, all of which address current issues. The extensive programme of exhibitions and events are evidence of Den Frie’s role as an active platform for living art and
art production, and the commitment to contribute to contemporary existence.
With its relaxed and welcoming atmosphere, Den Frie is also a popular meeting place for artists, students, tourists and the many locals who pass by. As a visitor you’ll feel welcome and enjoy having your interest in contemporary art stimulated, whether you’re an art connoisseur or a beginner. On top of which the architecture alone is well worth a visit.
Den Frie also houses the café, Polykrom, where you can enjoy a delicious lunch or a well-made cup of coffee.
Exhibitions:
Marie Lund & Rosalind Nashashibi: O Rose, 10.2.24-7.4.24
O Rose is a collective exhibition, which grew out of a collegial relation and friendship between Danish sculptor Marie Lund and British-Palestinian filmmaker and painter Rosalind Nashashibi. The two artists work in different media and with different aesthetics. But there turns out to be methodological overlaps in the way they conceive their works and in the way their works open up to and absorb the lived life in which they are created.
The conversation between the two artists takes its starting point in Rosalind Nashashibi’s film Denim Sky. In this domestic sci-fi film, Rosalind Nashashibi explores ways of forming a community around her single parent family through, amongst other means, journeys into space and non-linear time. With this film in mind, Marie Lund created a new series of sculptures, Daily, which, through repetition and variations, similarly collapses the expectation of a linear time. Made from residual materials, paper pulp and rubber granules, the sculptures – in their own way – also speak of fragility and strength.
Welcome to Gammel Strand
A UNIQUE PLACE FOR ART LOVERSIn the heart of Copenhagen’s historical district right by the canalside lies Gammel Strand, an art institution focusing on modern and contemporary art. Gammel Strand showcases 6-8 exhibitions annually focusing on new Danish talent, the international contemporary art scene and artists art-historical themes in a present-day perspective.In connection with the series of exhibitions Gammel Strand regularly presents a perspectivizing programme of events involving talks and debates, literature readings, concerts and guided tours.
Visitors can also enjoy a break in the café with the charming courtyard, and buy art books, posters, and design items in the shop.
This spring, Gammel Strand presents an extensive exhibition with Yael Bartana (b.1970, Israel).
Through video works, photography and installations, Bartana explores current, complex issues of national and cultural identity, trauma and power structures. The exhibition presents a wide range of Bartana’s work, from early video works and photo series to her latest comprehensive film work Malka Germania (2021).
The exhibition runs from 2 February to the end of May 2024.
Special Exhibitions (gammelstrand.dk):
Slumping, Tove Storch; 02.02.24-20.05.24
Tove Storch opens a new path in her practice between the everyday and the alienating. With five new works created specifically for Gammel Strand, Storch explores subtle, unassuming gestures and showcases sculptures on a grand scale.Slumping is a craft technique within glass art and slang for exhaustion and laziness. In the exhibition, Storch demonstrates her unique understanding of the capabilities of materials as she tests their different strengths: Can silk break down metal? How does the liquid shape the solid? How does time affect shape? Through her choice of colors, motifs, and attitude, the works intertwine with archetypal narratives of the body, romance, and sexuality, gently shaking free from fixed interpretations.Tove Storch (b. 1981) graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen in 2007, from the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna in 2004, and Weissensee Kunsthochschule Berlin in 2006. In 2021, she was awarded the prestigious Carl Nielsen and Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen Honorary Prize.
Things to Come, Yael Bartana; 02.02.24-20.05.24
Yael Bartana works with grand narratives. In Things to Come, she challenges the blind spots in our understanding of history and establishes new spaces of understanding between the actual and the imagined. She processes collective memories, origin myths, and some of the darkest chapters in human history, which she uses as raw material to formulate new narratives about the future.
The exhibition shows, among other things, Malka Germania, Bartana's most extensive film work to date, which revolves around the German-Jewish relationship in a dream-like future scenario in Berlin; Two Minutes to Midnight, a power- and gender-critical paraphrase of Stanley Kubrick's legendary science fiction film Dr. Strangelove; and Overcoming the Future about redemption and forgiveness.
Yael Bartana (b. 1970) was born and raised in Israel. Since the mid-00s, she has lived in Amsterdam and Berlin. Her works have been shown all over the world and are part of the collections of many prominent institutions. In January 2024, she was appointed as one of two artists to exhibit in the German Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2024.
Take a trip to Køge Museum and enjoy an experience you'll never forget.
Køge Museum is located centrally in the town of Køge - just a few minutes' walk from Køge Station and Køge Torv - in the old merchant's house from 1619. In the museum's exhibitions, you can look forward to a journey through Køge's history. From the mighty Viking Age to the hunter-gatherer people of the Stone Age.
When you're done, you can take a break in the museum's cozy courtyard - shielded from the noise of the city. Here, you can enjoy a cup of well-brewed coffee from the museum cafe while the kids play on the ship-themed playground.Approx travel time from Copenhagen Central Station is 35 minutes with public transport, included in COPENHAGEN CARD - DISCOVER. We recommend using journeyplanner.dk when planning your trip.
KØS is Denmark's only museum dedicated to art in public spaces.
Enjoy changing exhibitions, events and debates about unique forms of art that we encounter in public spaces. Go exploring indoors over the three floors or outdoors on the artistic forecourt of artist Ann Lislegaard.
KØS Museum of Art in Public Spaces is dedicated to researching, promoting, and debating public art nationally and internationally. The museum exhibits, produces and promotes art projects by national and international artists, initiates research that boosts the field theoretically, and collects and registers the material and digital traces of public art projects to ensure they are accessible in the present and preserved for posterity.
Combine your visit with a trip to KØS Café and museum shop with many exclusive design items.
Free guided tours the first Sunday of every month.Approx travel time from Copenhagen Central Station 35 mins. We recommend using journeyplanner.dk to plan your trip
Udstillinger (koes.dk):
'IN THE ARCHITECHT’S HOUSE - ELINA BROTHERUS ON ALVAR AALTO'; 01.03.24-02.06.24
In her three new photographic series, visual artist Elina Brotherus takes us deep into the heart of Alvar Aalto’s architecture. The new photographic series by Elina Brotherus, one of Finland’s most internationally acclaimed artists, are captured in three key Aalto buildings in Finland: Aalto’s home in Helsinki, his summer cottage also known as the ‘Experimental House,’ and the modernist masterpiece Paimio Sanatorium.
The three new series are now being exhibited for the first time in Denmark through a collaboration between KØS Museum of Art in Public Spaces and the Alvar Aalto Museum, where they premiered in 2023. In 2019, the Aalto Foundation granted the artist exclusive access to photograph in Alvar and Aino Aalto’s home in Helsinki and Alvar’s and his second wife Elissa’s private summer villa, the Experimental House in Muuratsalo. The summer villa is a pilgrimage destination for designers and architects due to the couple’s numerous material experiments conducted in the central, beautiful courtyard. It is brought to life in Elina Brotherus’ masterfully composed photographs and takes on a new vitality and presence.
'(self)infatuation'
When a Country Falls in Love with Itself is the title of Elmgreen & Dragset’s artistic dialogue with the Danish sculptor Edvard Eriksen’s world-famous sculpture, The Little Mermaid. Erected on Langelinie in 1913 as a gift to Copenhagen from brewer Carl Jacobsen, The Little Mermaid is undoubtedly the most viewed and photographed sculpture in Denmark today. The romantic sculpture is both a tourist magnet and a national symbol.
In 2008, the Danish-Norwegian artist duo Elmgreen & Dragset casually placed a mirror in front of the mermaid, in which she – the symbol of the nation – self-reflects. The resulting photographic artwork, When a Country Falls in Love with Itself seemed to indicate that she, the nation, is no longer so interested in gazing out to distant shores but prefers to admire herself. Like The Little Mermaid herself, When a Country Falls in Love with Itself is now a central piece in art history, illustrating how public art functions as focal points for interactions between different viewpoints. It is an example of how contemporary art can elegantly contribute to adding new layers and narratives on top of the already existing.
In 2012, Elmgreen & Dragset once again mirrored the small sculpture with symbolic significance when they created Han for Kulturværftet in Helsingør — a male version of The Little Mermaid who gazes longingly, not at himself, but out into the world. Unlike his sister on Langelinie, who is crafted in bronze, both Han and the stone he sits on are made of polished stainless steel, reflecting the surroundings and those who look at him. And if you are lucky enough to visit the sculpture at the right time, you may experience the young man on the stone opening his eyes and blinking. With Han, Elmgreen & Dragset invites us to look at both him – Han – and ourselves with a loving, but also investigative, curious gaze. Perhaps an invitation to fall in love with something other than ourselves?