Between Ritual and Reality – looking at art in the dark  

The title of the exhibition is a sentences from Melanie Kitti’s book Halvt Urne, Halvt Gral (Half Urn, Half Grail) from 2022 “I was born in a star house without a sun.” The book moves between everyday life and magic, between the physical— the urn— and the sacred— the grail. It unfolds as a sequence of images and atmospheres filled with disgust and death, captivation and wondering. Halvt Urne, Halvt Gral will be presented in the exhibition as a new video work developed in collaboration between Kitti, Nynne Roberta Pedersen Pedersen, and Lasse B. Ondesen, filmed in the abandoned buildings of the former psychiatric hospital at Sankt Hans.  

New works for the exhibition are being created by Olivia Rode Hvass, whose practice engages with mythological imagery, depressive states, and youth culture; Karin Hald, who works with the figure of the witch and the history of the chapel at Sankt Hans; and Sidsel Ana Welden Gajardo, who forges connections between copper, mental illness, and her father’s hospitalization at Sankt Hans.  

Tamar Ettun presents her ongoing engagement with the demon Lilith in a series of works spanning sculpture, drawing, text, performance, textile, and video. Since 2019, Ettun has explored the myth of Lilith and thousand-year-old traditions for treating trauma. Many of the artists in the exhibition work both as writers and visual artists, using images and text to encapsulate and illuminate complex emotional states. The exhibition also includes existing works by Ana Mendieta and Liz Magic Lazer.  

“Et stjernehus uden sol delves into art’s ability to give form to and process difficult emotions,” says curator Lotte Løvholm, adding: “The exhibition is a home in half-light, without daylight, illuminated only by the night sky. The works brighten the darkness, turn it inside out, gather around it. From the darkness, new images can emerge— and perhaps these images may help us understand and transform the conditions that underpin what is most difficult.”  

Artists in the exhibition 
Ana Mendieta, Olivia Rode Hvass, Karin Hald, Sidsel Ana Welden Gajardo, Melanie Kitti, Nynne Roberta Pedersen Pedersen, Lasse B. Ondesen, Tamar Ettun, and Liz Magic Lazer.