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):   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. Firelei Báez, 5.10.23 - 20.5.24 The first solo exhibition in Europe of Dominican-American artist Firelei Báez (b. 1981). In her monumental paintings and installations, New York-based Báez creates images bursting with colours and symbols based on her own Caribbean culture, featuring folktales, colonial occupation, revolution and divided societies. A key figure in painting today, Firelei Báez succeeds in drawing her viewers into enveloping, fictional worlds with poetic precision. Taking point of departure in how inherited stories shape and maintain culture and identity, Báez challenges powerful concepts like truth and history. Her approach to painting is thus intentionally destructive. Chaïm Soutine, 9.2.24-14.7.24 Explosions of colour. Flaming brush strokes. Dizzying perspectives. Paintings that vibrate between merciless distortion and heartfelt sensitivity. Louisiana presents the first ever exhibition in Northern Europe with Chaïm Soutine, one of The School of Paris's leading and most distinctive expressionists. The painter Chaïm Soutine (1893-1943) is considered one of the leading expressionists of the so-called School of Paris – a central figure in classical modernism, who masterfully captures his time, around and between the two world wars, with an intense, disturbing and torn imagery. Kentridge: The Refusal of Time, 28.2.24 - 29.9.24 Revisit one of the most significant new major works in the museum's collection: 'The Refusal of Time' by the South African artist William Kentridge. It is a virtuoso and all-encompassing installation that mixes film, animation, music, graphics, etc. As a spectator, you are entirely absorbed in the immense, pulsating, symphonic visual drama..

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”.   

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.

North Atlantic House is an art center where you can encounter North Atlantic art and culture. Here, people and artists from Iceland, Greenland, The Faroe Islands, Denmark - and the rest of the world - meet and inspire one another. A visit to North Atlantic House is guaranteed to expand your horizon and stir your senses. You will find two exhibition rooms in which you can get a taste of North Atlantic culture through changing exhibitions, that shed light on the art scene of each of the three countries, in turn. Furthermore, on specific days and evenings, you can experience everything from concerts, movies, presentations and events. Explore North Atlantic art and culture in the beautiful warehouse from the 1700s. Built in 1767, North Atlantic House was the port for maritime traffic between Denmark and the North Atlantic for over 200 years. Special Exhibitions (nordatlantens.dk): GROUP PORTRAIT OF THE SELF, Hallgrímur Helgason; 10.2.24-26.5.24 In the exhibition Group Portrait of the Self, Icelandic painter Hallgrímur Helgason shows a series of works that put a new spin on the classic self-portrait. For the past three years, Helgason has worked with the self-portrait as a way of portraying the many different voices or characters we may all find our minds populated by these days. There are people talking in there, and they do not always agree. Here they stand side by side: the slow one, the brave one, the creative one, the livid one, the one who would rather have stayed in bed. Each portrait contains between six and sixteen figures, brought together like rock bands assembled by the brain’s crossed wires. Hallgrímur Helgason’s style is energetic, overwhelming, eclectic, fantastical, satirical and quite literally colourful. The second half of the exhibition consists of works on paper from the 4Faced series. These fierce, imaginary portraits all contain four faces, visualising the multi-communicating human being that present-day society seems to demand. As Helgason himself puts it, it takes eight eyes to function in today’s world. Hallgrímur Helgason (b. 1959) is perhaps best known in Denmark as a much-loved writer (60 Kilos of Sunshine being the latest published in Danish in 2021). But he began his artistic career as a visual artist and has maintained an active dual practice throughout. Focusing on new paintings and works on paper, the exhibition at the North Atlantic House is the first major presentation of Helgason in Denmark. Authentic surroundings These days, other ports serve the North Atlantic market, and the historic warehouse is now a thriving cultural centre, dedicated to the art and culture of Denmark’s former North Atlantic colonies Greenland, the Faroe Islands, and Iceland. North Atlantic artists are often inspired by the landscapes, light, and nature sounds of their region, which lends a fiercely visual, bodily, and musical quality to their art. The rustic, maritime spirit of the old warehouse with its raw plank floors and exposed rafter ceilings offers a unique and beautiful contrast to the artworks on the display. Nordic food Visit the cultural centre to get your own first-hand impression of this intriguing harbour front area. The North Atlantic House is open all year round and offers a lovely café where you can enjoy a good glass of wine or a cup of coffee. On the Nordatlantens Brygge Harbour Front you will find the Faroese and Greenlandic Representations, the Icelandic Embassy, and the culinary treasures of Restaurant Barr.

Visit Vedbækfundene Museum and meet the hunter-gatherers who lived a tough and dangerous life 7000 years ago! At the museum Vedbækfundene you can experience unique finds from Danish prehistory. In our main exhibition a reconstruction of the life in the Stone Age Denmark, containing both graves and lifelike dioramas, will bring you back in time. The Special Exhibitions gives you the opportunity of meeting Jacob – a bog skeleton from the Iron Age, admiring beautiful neckpieces from the Bronze Age and much more. A young woman from Vedbaek, Denmark, buried with her newborn child who had been placed on the wing of a swan, 4000 BC.Vedbaek 'The swan's wing burial' Tomb 8 is the most famous of the burials, containing a young woman, who may have died in childbirth, and a premature baby. The archaeological finds are of international importance because it has given great insight into human life and society in Stone Age Northern Europe. It is possible to book a guided tour. Transport The Vedbæk Finds is included in COPENHAGEN CARD - DISCOVER, which also includes public transport in zone 1-99. To get to The Vedbæk Finds, you can take bus 150S from Nørreport (approx 25 minutes) to the stop "Øverødvej" and walk about 10 minutes to the museum.

Denmark’s museum for public art As Denmark’s only museum for public art, KØS collects sketches, scale models, and a variety of other preliminary works for the art that is placed or takes place in public spaces in Denmark. These are artworks that many feel ownership of because they are close to us in everyday life, and therefore are often the subject of wonder, discussion, disapproval, and interest among local users. The finished works are typically placed permanently somewhere out there, unless they take place as temporary projects that over a period occur in more or less direct interaction with the audience. The works themselves therefore do not form part of the museum’s collection, which instead through drawings, watercolors, and models in plaster, clay, paper, and wood or in the form of project descriptions, notes and sketches, films and photos etc., shows the quality of and the range in the country’s publicly placed works. The collection’s often impressive sketch sequences, which typically can accommodate many phases in the artistic creation process - from early, loose drafts to gradually more detailed studies and composition sketches to final, thoroughly worked templates and working drawings - can be studied when the museum shows collection exhibitions. The Queen’s tapestries The main works in the museum’s collection are visual artist Bjørn Nørgaard’s extensive sketch material for Queen Margrethe II’s tapestries, which she received as a gift from Danish Business in 2000. The sketch material for the 10-year-long work process consists of 11 colorful cartoons in full size with a wealth of historical motifs. Changing collection exhibitions The KØS Collection is regularly shown in collection exhibitions at the museum and typically consists of a mix of new acquisitions and known works from the collection. Read about our current exhibitions here. The collection consists of more than 18,000 unique sketches, models and preliminary works for art in public spaces and an archive that documents processes and conflicts around art in public spaces. Selections from the collection are regularly exhibited at the museum and activated in KØS’ teaching, just as artists are periodically invited to engage in dialogue with the KØS collection and KØS as an institution. Explore indoors over three floors or outside on the artistic forecourt by visual artist Ann Lislegaard. Combine the visit with a trip to the KØS Café and the museum shop with exclusive design items. Free guided tour the first Sunday of every month."   Current exhibitions: '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?