Queer Longing and Faroese Abortion History
Join us on Saturday, August 9, just before this year’s Degree Show closes, for two talks with artists Noah Holtegaard and Alda Mohr Eyðunardóttir. Together with a range of speakers, they will go deeper into the themes of their works.
Explore desire, transformation, and queer longing through the lens of Noah Holtegaard’s piece from Afgang 2025. Following this, Alda Mohr Eyðunardóttir’s film script on abortion history in the Faroe Islands will be discussed from academic, artistic, and activist perspectives. Before or after the talks, you’ll have a final chance to see the exhibition Afgang 2025, which closes the next day.
Programme:
14.00-14.45: Desire, Transformation, and Queer Longing
Noah Holtegaard, Luka Holmegaard og Mons Bissenbakker
15.00-15.45: Mapping Faroese Abortion History
Alda Mohr Eyðunardóttir, Turið Nolsøe og Maria Guldbrandsøe Tórgarð
Talk: Desire, Transformation, and Queer Longing
Noah Holtegaard, Luka Holmegaard and Mons Bissenbakker
Taking as a starting point the sculpture ’Jeg håber du kan elske en som mig’ by artist Noah Holtegaard, writer Luka Holmegaard and gender studies researcher Mons Bissenbakker will discuss how Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid can be interpreted today through a contemporary, transgender lens.
The sculpture, which is part of this year’s Degree Show, depicts two transmasculine figures in a tender embrace – one a human, the other a merman – and references both Andersen’s fairy tale and his romantic declarations to men. The conversation will be moderated by artist and student Noah Holtegaard and will explore themes of desire, transformation, and queer longing.
As curator of Afgang 2025, Mariam Elnozahy, writes of Holtegaard’s work: “For what else, if not the embrace of two lovers, can better create a new world, a queer
utopia?”
About the participants:
Luka Holmegaard, author of Havet i munden (2024), a poetry collection about top surgery, pleasure, swimming, testosterone, and the sea. Mons Bissenbakker, gender studies scholar at the University of Copenhagen, whose research has focused on queer literature and pop culture with a particular emphasis on transgender identities and desire between men for over a decade.
Talk: Mapping Faroese Abortion History
Alda Mohr Eyðunardóttir, Turið Nolsøe and Maria Guldbrandsøe Tórgarð
The video and sound installation Dráttir, part of the current Degree Show, is based on visual artist and student Alda Mohr Eyðunardóttir’s research into how the restricted access to abortion in the Faroe Islands is spoken about – or more often, not spoken about. By collectivizing a story usually surrounded by silence, Eyðunardóttir’s work becomes both a reflection on shame and a space for visibility, where the unspoken and complex is given voice. She also uses the positioning of this Faroese issue in a Danish context to examine power relations between Denmark and the Faroe Islands and how abortion fits into this dynamic.
The work unfolds through a series of conversations between Eyðunardóttir, filmmaker Maria Guldbrandsøe Tórgarð, and researcher Turið Nolsøe. The dialogue is in Faroese, and subtitles can only be read by physically moving around the installation, thus missing out on the video track. The search for meaning becomes a physical act, challenging imposed silence – whether political, colonial, or personal. For the event, Alda will moderate a conversation between Turið and Maria, who will share their scientific, artistic, and activist insights on Faroese abortion history and the conflicts it creates, both locally and globally.
About the participants:
Turið Nolsøe, researcher in the rhetorical intersection of biopolitics and geopolitics. She has studied Danish journalism about abortion in the Faroe Islands and explored the discursive overlap between abortion rhetoric and colonial narratives within the Danish Kingdom.
Maria Guldbrandsøe Tórgarð, filmmaker and activist. Drawing on personal experience, Tórgarð has been a prominent voice in the fight for abortion rights in the Faroe Islands. Her work includes documenting Faroese youth culture, notably in the award-winning documentary Skál.
Please note: The talk with Noah Holtegaard will be in Danish. The talk with Alda Mohr Eyðunardóttir will be in English.
