Full of Days

This year, 140 years have gone by since Kunsthal Charlottenborg – or Charlottenborg Exhibition Building as its was called in 1883 – was completed. Ever since its inception, the venue has hosted exhibitions featuring many of the leading contemporary artists of the given times, accommodating many different types of shows and activities.

The first art school for women was housed in the exhibition building in the early 1900s. For many decades, artists’ associations such as Grønningen and Corner showed their work in the exhibition building parallel with exhibitions featuring artists as diverse as P.S. Krøyer, Auguste Rodin, Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen and Joseph Beuys. Ever since the beginning, the juried Spring and Autumn exhibitions have been regular recurring features, establishing a rhythm on the Copenhagen art scene while presenting an array of new, unknown as well as established artists, architects and designers. National exhibitions from several European countries have also been staged here, and the darker aspects of history include a German propagandist book exhibition during Denmark’s occupation. Anthropological exhibitions such as the legendary and controversial Family of Man also took place at Charlottenborg in the 1950s. The rebellion of the hippie era was marked by major manifestations such as Festival 200 in 1969, the Women’s Exhibition XX in 1975 and the ‘Rainbow exhibition’ Love or Chaos in 1977.

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.

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.

The exhibition is curated by Julia Rodrigues and Francesca Astesani from South into North and supported by the 15 Juni Foundation, the Augustinus Foundation, the Axel Muusfeldt’s Foundation, the Beckett Foundation, the Danish Art Foundation, the Knud Højgaard’s Foundation, the Obel Family Foundation, the William Demant Foundation, Aage & Johanne Louis-Hansen’s Foundation.

Full of thanks to:
Anders Gaardboe Jensen, Anders Hauch, Anneli Fuchs, Benjamin Savi, Bjørn Nørgaard, Carsten Hoff, Claus Carstensen, Clausen’s Kunsthandel, Cristina Roman Diaz, Else Marie Buckdahl, Emilie Bo Bierlich, Erik Hagens, Galleri Bo Bjergaard, Dorte Gramby, FOS, Gorm Valentin, Helle Brøns, Isabella Hammerschbach, Jeanette Lindholt Madsen, John Jensen, Lars Bang Larsen, Lars Bent Petersen, Lene Bilgrav, Line Ellegaard, Lis Clausen, Lucas Haberkorn, Marianne Sørensen, Ole John, Palle Studsgaard Odgaard, Rikke Aagaard, Steen Møller Rasmussen, Sven Dalsgaard, Søren Rønholt, Teresa Østergaard Pedersen, Wilfred Wagner

Curators: Julia Rodrigues and Francesca Astesani (South into North)
Research: Line Ellegaard and South into North
Graphic Exhibition Design: Stanza
Deep publishing: Åbäke
Display design: Cristina Roman Diaz
Texts: Nanna Friis and Francesca Astesani
Translation: Nanna Friis, Rene Lauritsen
Copyeditor : Susannah Worth, Rene Lauritsen

Events in connection with the exhibition:
29 Sep 17-22: Opening party, Full of Days – Charlottenborg Jubilee
1 Oct 12-16: On Kawara: One Million Years: Past and Future (1993-)
1 Nov 17-20: On Kawara: One Million Years: Past and Future (1993-)
21 Nov 17-18: Yvette Brackman: General Assembly with Medium (2023)
6 Dec 17-20: On Kawara: One Million Years: Past and Future (1993-)
14 Jan 12-16: On Kawara: One Million Years: Past and Future (1993-)
Further info here