iSMK – National Gallery of DenmarkIndre By
Couples Therapy – Society on the couch
Four Danish artist duos (Bank & Rau, Hesselholdt & Mejlvang, J&K and Randi & Katrine) put society on the couch in sculpture, installation, video and performance.
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About 80 worn-out things hang over the marble floor of SMK's Sculpture Street as one giant mobile: bicycles, mirrors, coats, gaming chairs. That is Bank & Rau's Use Us, and it sets the tone for four Danish artist duos, working together since the late 1990s, who put society on the couch with salvage, textiles and jokes.
It starts with signal flags outside and runs through the foyer, where Randi & Katrine's Call Center offers to charge your phone. Few national galleries let the art do that. Older works fill the East Hall. Upstairs you cross from the original building into the 1990s extension on a covered wooden bridge, looking down on an EU installation hung with the Foreign Ministry's old curtains.
Critics split. POV International's Henriette Hellstern called it exuberant and satirical; Kulturkupeen found the duos crammed together, drowning each other out. Adults 140 DKK, under-27s 95 DKK, under-18s free. Open until 20:00 on Wednesdays.
Editor's pick
About 80 worn-out objects, bicycles to gaming chairs, hang over SMK's Sculpture Street as one giant mobile. Four Danish artist duos put society on the couch; POV International called it exuberant, while Kulturkupeen found the duos drowning each other out.
Look for
Use Us, Bank & Rau
Look up in Sculpture Street: about 80 used objects in various states of decay, from bicycles and mirrors to coats and gaming chairs, hang together as one giant mobile.
Howl, The She-Wolf
In the East Hall, Bank & Rau's wolf of hospital textiles, wood and plaster sits in a commode chair beside Specialist Henrik, a figure turned into a hospital patient's foot.
Covered Bridge, Randi & Katrine
An American-style covered wooden bridge built over the first-floor walkway between the old building and the extension, with views down onto the EU installation and across to J&K's raft.
The poetics of the impossible
Hesselholdt & Mejlvang wrap the amphitheatre stairs in salmon and beetroot colours and hang the Foreign Ministry's EU-presidency curtains, embroidered with 'Influencer ambassador' and 'K-Pop diplomacy', to a lone trumpet.
Unshore, J&K
A raft built from objects stranded on coasts and in Copenhagen's harbours, plus marble fragments, plinths and display cases the duo dug out of SMK's own basement.
Good for
- Evening Visits
- Locals Who've Seen It All
- Rainy Days
Skip if
You want space around each work: one critic found the four duos crammed in, drowning each other out.
With kids
Under-18s get in free.
Also at SMK – National Gallery of Denmark
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Image credits
9
- Couples Therapy – Society on the couchCourtesy of SMK – National Gallery of Denmark
- The Modern Breakthrough: Masterpieces from the Museum's CollectionVilhelm Hammershøi / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
- The Funen Painters. Art Above All!Fritz Syberg / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
- Sending all my love — Vintage Postcards from the Middle EastCourtesy of The David Collection
- SMK – National Gallery of DenmarkJiří Komárek / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- The Hirschsprung CollectionDaderot / Wikimedia Commons, CC0
- Natural History Museum of DenmarkOrigins DK / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Rosenborg CastleFalk2 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- The David CollectionOrf3us / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain