Couples Therapy

Four artist duos take over the museum, and society is put on the couch in the exhibition Couples Therapy, which explores communities and connectedness.

The four artist duos are Bank & Rau (Lone Bank and Tanja Rau), Hesselholdt & Mejlvang (Sofie Hesselholdt and Vibeke Mejlvang), J&K / Janne Schäfer and Kristine Agergaard, and Randi & Katrine (Randi Jørgensen and Katrine Malinovsky).

In their sculptures, installations, video works and performances, the duos address the state of society from a loving, critical and humorous perspective. The artist duos engage with subjects such as power, the welfare state, invisible labour and shared memories, asking what we value. Society is put on the couch, its inner workings explored the way a therapist work.

The artists have worked as duos ever since the early 2000s — and continue to do so. All the artworks in the exhibition were created by people working together. Moreover, they are all about togetherness, community and the collective, inviting the viewer to become part of the conversation. Essentially, community is a fundamental working condition for the artists, a recurring theme in their works, and part of the way their artworks operate.

The exhibition unfolds as an immersive total installation, beginning outside the museum with fluttering signal flags before flowing like a current through the lobby into the exhibition hall and beyond. It presents artworks from the artist’ early years through to the present day, alongside new productions created specifically for the exhibition and the museum’s spaces.

Among many things you can experiende a she-wolf in a wheelchair seeks care and acceptance in a hospital, while the artists do the washing-up themselves. A Call Centre offers a mobile charging service even as the museum’s information screens are hacked. The stage at SMK is transformed into a passport-coloured kaleidoscopic installation about the EU, and a giant mobile hovers beneath the soaring ceiling of the museum’s Sculpture Street, holding aloft old bicycles and discarded gaming chairs. An old transformer tower rises out of the past, a piece of obsolete architecture returning to our present, and a futuristic ark in the form of a raft carries the last specimens of the world’s materials, travelling towards the unknown.

You can also explore the four duos’ practices in the substantial archival material made accessible to the public in the exhibition, offering insight into their collaborations and shared histories. At the opening of the exhibition and during the exhibition run, the artists will stage performances linked to the pieces on display.

Couples Therapy is an exhibition that challenges and connects in equal measure, inviting you to reconsider what we actually have in common.