Exhibition
Kaååråålines Verses
The upcoming exhibition Kaååraåålines Verses presents the life’s work of Karoline Ebbesen in a first ever art museum exhibition featuring loans from Museum Sct. Hans.
Kaååraååline, Kaoline, and Karåline
Despite a prolific body of work, Karoline Ebbesen (1852-1936) has remained largely overlooked in Danish art history. The exhibition places Ebbesen’s works alongside pieces by Danish and international contemporary artists, including Lise Haller Baggesen, Gudrun Hasle, Georgina Maxim, and Matilde Duus, who have found kinship and inspiration in Ebbesen’s textual and visual universe.
The exhibition introduces a broad selection of Ebbesen’s works across various media, showcasing her broad and unique practice. Best known for her textile pieces and her use of stitches as ornamentation in paper collage, she also worked extensively with text, drawing, and collage. Infused with Christian and mythological tones, her works depict animals, plants, siblings, and self-portraits. A recurring cast of figures populates her textual and visual world: one-winged angels with kind eyes, churches, crosses, lambs, birds, stars, lanterns, circles, trees, and leaves. Ebbesen’s writing is often phonetic, and she signed her name in multiple ways such as: Kaååraååline, Kaoline, and Karåline.
Threads of the Present
Kaååraåålines Vers also features newly commissioned works inspired by Ebbesen. Lise Haller Baggesen presents Lille Solstråle Sad og Så På Månen, a textile and sound piece referencing a poem by Ebbesen. In collaboration with composer Anders Lauge Meldgaard and the 40-member choir BARK, Baggesen transforms Ebbesen’s poetry into a choral performance, to be staged at the exhibition opening on September 14 as well as at this year’s Roskilde Festival. Referencing Ebbesen’s one-winged angels, Gudrun Hasle creates a new textile work—an embroidered angel wing featuring Ebbesen’s texts alongside Hasle’s own. Georgina Maxim presents a large-scale installation drawing inspiration from Ebbesen’s work with pockets, paper dolls, and personal garments. Collecting and repurposing shirt dresses, Maxim creates new textile pieces in response.
As a satellite to the exhibition, Matilde Duus presents works in Sankt Hans Have. Visitors will encounter a transparent curtain adorned with cut-out bronze figures inspired by Ebbesen’s script and imagery, as well as a series of glass spheres.
The Sanatorium
The Sanatorium
Kaååraåålines Verses unfolds within the Kurhus at the former psychiatric hospital, Sct. Hans, where Ebbesen was hospitalized in 1885. Designed by Danish architect Gottlieb Bindesbøll (1800-1856) and inaugurated in 1860, the Kurhus was the first major expansion of Sct. Hans Hospital. Its striking architecture, featuring monumental columns and geometric forms, echoes Bindesbøll’s masterpiece, Thorvaldsen’s Museum in Copenhagen. Like Thorvaldsen’s Museum, the Kurhus draws on ideals of antiquity and German classicism, emphasizing harmony and function, making it a study in both aesthetics and architecture.
Originally conceived as a healing space for individuals experiencing mental illness, The Kurhus reflects 19th-century beliefs in architecture’s therapeutic potential. The very name “Kurhus” underscores this intention (the Danish word “kur” means healing and “hus” means house), where the building itself was considered integral to treatment. Today, the Kurhus no longer serves psychiatric purposes. Kaåårååline Verses marks the museum’s fourth exhibition at the area of Sankt Hans.
Weaving textile, poetry, drawing, and time
“We are proud to present a large loan of Ebbesen’s works from Museum Sct. Hans, which has ensured that her works have been preserved for posterity and can be viewed by the public. With this exhibition, we aim to situate Karoline Ebbesen within an art-historical context and alongside her artistic peers. The exhibition highlights Ebbesen’s continued relevance today, and the works of contemporary artists provide an opportunity to delve deeper into her work,” says exhibition curator Lotte Løvholm.
“Our nomadic approach allows us to immerse ourselves in new and compelling locations. We strive to explore meaningful ways of presenting contemporary art, which is why the museum commits to specific sites and themes for extended periods. Our first focal point has been Sankt Hans, where over a three-year span, we shed light on critical topics such as mental health and care,” says museum director Christian Skovbjerg Jensen.
Artists
Lise Haller Baggesen
Lise Haller Baggesen (b. 1969, DK) lives and works in Chicago. She is the author of the book Mothernism and has shown extensively in Denmark and internationally, including at MCA, Art Institute of Chicago, Le Confort Moderne, Le Bicolore, Centraalmuseum Utrecht, Nikolaj Kunsthal, Malmö Konstmuseum, and Roskilde Festival, where Lille Solstråle sad og så på Månen (“Little Sunray Sat and Watched the Moon”) was also presented as part of the festival’s art program in 2025.
Photo: Lise Haller Baggesen, Lille Solstråle sad og så på Månen (“Little Sunray Sat and Watched the Moon”), Roskilde Festival 2025.
Line Storm
Line Storm (b. 1949, DK) is based in Copenhagen. She graduated from the School of Arts and Crafts in Copenhagen (1969) and works across media such as graphics, sculpture, and photography. Storm has already participated in a long series of exhibitions, including at Galleri Sct. Agnes in Roskilde, which was housed in The Yellow Mansion until the establishment of the Museum of Contemporary Art Roskilde in 1991.
Photo: Line Storm, “Untitled,” 1978, Installation view from Kunsthal Sophienholm. By Bent Petersen.
Gudrun Hasle
Gudrun Hasle (b. 1979, DK) lives and works in Odense. She has exhibited widely in Denmark and the Nordic countries, including at Copenhagen Contemporary, Nuuk Kunstmuseum, and Brandts. Her works are represented in many Danish collections.
Photo: Gudrun Hasle, “Brif.” By Galleri Tom Christoffersen
Georgina Maxim
Georgina Maxim (b. 1980, ZW) is an artist and curator who lives and works in Harare, Zimbabwe. Recent museums and galleries that have exhibited her work include HKW, Stedelijk Museum, Perrotin, Venice Biennale, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, and the Barbican.
Matilde Duus
Matilde Duus (b. 1983) lives and works in Svendborg. Since graduating from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (2014), she has shown extensively in Scandinavia and received several art commissions for public construction projects, including Banedanmark and University College South Denmark.
