EA VERDONER

Aria unites film and music in a thought-provoking installation that touches upon human connection and separation.

Based on fragments of the ancient opera narrative of Don Quixote, Ea Verdoner's video installation explores love, dissociation, and the fragile boundary between fiction and reality.

Narrated in a house outside Copenhagen, a woman is captivated by a man fighting invisible forces. The exhibition invites us to step into the work and witness the complex relationship between the two people.

Aria is an intimate portrait that examines the tension between physical and mental worlds. It reflects on the quiet exhaustion and alienation associated with contemporary issues. The work leaves a space where time, reality, and fantasy are displaced – and where seeing and being seen are negotiated.

Aria comes from Italian and means 'air'. We also encounter the word 'aria' as a musical term for the emotional solo songs of classical opera, which are often the highlight of the performance. The exhibition borrows from the melodrama and extended emotional moments of the opera genre – where time is stopped, and emotions take shape.

Aria is not an exhibition with a chronology. It is not a classical exhibition that we observe. It is an exhibition that you inhabit – a state of the moment rather than a narrative.

During the exhibition, it will also be possible to experience a series of performances that expand the film's musical universe and are performed by composers Cæcilie Trier and August Rosenbaum, among others.

About the artist Ea Verdoner is a visual artist with a choreographic background, and having graduated from the Danish National School of Performing Arts (2007), the International Center of Photography (2014), and Roskilde University (2016), she has created an artistic practice that takes the form of installation and performance art as well as photography, film, and text. Verdoner previously exhibited 'Celeste' at Copenhagen Contemporary (2022) and created the work 'Opløsning i Cisternerne' (2025)

The artist wishes to thank the following supporters: Statens Kunstfond, Augustinus Fonden, Hoffmann og Husmans Fond, William Demant Fonden, Knud Højgaards Fond, Lemvigh-Müller Fonden and Overretssagfører Zeuthens Legat.