During the tour, we delve deeply into Ebbesen’s artistry and focus on how her story has been constructed thus far. Karoline was a patient at the Sct. Hans psychiatric hospital, where she created art from materials she could find around the hospital, such as paper, pieces of fabric, thread, yarn, and clippings from newspapers and magazines.

Her art has often been exhibited from a medical history perspective, focusing on her medical history and patient status. The doctors of her time disparagingly referred to her art as “snurrepiberier” (fiddly bits and bobs). However, the many artistic and aesthetic connections that exist to her art today indicate that she deserves a more prominent place in the avant-garde art history of Denmark and Roskilde.

The tour is guided by the museum’s art educator Astrid Brincker Olson and is structured as a conversation in which we jointly examine the works from different angles, which we open up through small conversation and writing exercises. Together, we will examine the exhibition as an example of how we can revisit, reformulate, and nuance the fundamental narratives of our shared history, and how being critical of our own perspectives is necessary in order to create a more caring understanding of our world.

In the spirit of Karoline Ebbesen, the conversation tour will be rounded off with a delicious cream cake and a cup of coffee for all participants.

Kaååråålines Verses
The exhibition Kaååråålines Vers (Kaååråålines Verses) is the Roskilde Museum of Contemporary Art’s autumn exhibition, displayed in Kurhuset, located in the former Sankt Hans Hospital, where the artist Karoline Ebbesen lived from the mid-1880s until her death in 1936. During her long hospitalization, Ebbesen produced works in textiles, embroidery, collage, drawing, and text, and developed her own font and alphabet. The exhibition presents Ebbesen’s works alongside new large-scale installations by Danish and international artists, all with direct references to Ebbesen.

Practical information
Language: Danish
The tour lasts 1.5 hours
Meeting point: At the entrance to the exhibition, Kurhuset, Kurhusvænge 3

Photo: Untitled work. Karoline Ebbesen, Museum Sct. Hans