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.

Kurhuset: Art and healing  

Kaååraååline Vers 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. Kaååraååline Vers marks the museum’s fourth exhibition at the area of Sankt Hans.  

“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.