The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art is a leading international art museum and an absolute top attraction in Denmark. Art, nature, and architecture combine in a total experience that attracts guests from all over the world all year-round. The Museum is located approx. 40 km north of the city center in Humlebæk, in a beautiful old park offering magnificent panoramic views of the Sound.  The park provides a magnificent setting for Louisiana’s large sculpture collection. The museum collection of modern art is one of the most important in Scandinavia and on view in changing presentations. Permanent highlights include the Giacometti Hall and the Jorn Room and there is also regularly access to one of Kusama’s Infinity rooms.   Classics and shooting international stars The Louisiana Museum is internationally recognized for its exhibition program, with 8 - 10 major exhibitions annually. Here, the classics of modern art, as well as contemporary international artists and architects, are presented.   A vibrant cultural center for children and adults alike With its relaxed atmosphere, the museum also offers a vibrant and dedicated cultural centre with a rich programme of activities and events for children and adults alike.  Take a break at the Louisiana Café When it’s time for a break, the Louisiana Cafe welcomes you to enjoy hot drinks, cakes and a delicious, seasonal lunch and dinner menu. From here you have an astounding panorama view of the sea.Shop Scandinavian design in the Louisiana Store In the museum’s sizeable two-level store, you will find a large and inspiring selection of new and classic items with an emphasis on Danish and Scandinavian design. Interior, clothing, books, posters, graphics, toys and more. Special exhibitions (Louisiana.dk):   Bourgeois X Giacometti, 9.1.24-26.5.24 In the North Wing, Alberto Giacometti, whose works constitute a significant pillar of Louisiana's collection, has been joined for the first time by Louise Bourgeois – another of the 20th century's all-time great artists – and her iconic sculpture 'Spider Couple'. Entirely exceptionally, the sculpture ‘Walking Man’ by Alberto Giacometti is on loan this spring, and in its usual place you will instead find the monumental ‘Spider Couple’ from 2003 by French-American Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010): a rather special meeting between two artists who are beacons of 20th-century art history, as well as of the Louisiana Collection. Giacometti and Bourgeois knew each other, and their art expresses a lifelong preoccupation with the human body and psyche, albeit in very different ways. Firelei Báez, 5.10.23 - 20.5.24 The first solo exhibition in Europe of Dominican-American artist Firelei Báez (b. 1981). In her monumental paintings and installations, New York-based Báez creates images bursting with colours and symbols based on her own Caribbean culture, featuring folktales, colonial occupation, revolution and divided societies. A key figure in painting today, Firelei Báez succeeds in drawing her viewers into enveloping, fictional worlds with poetic precision. Taking point of departure in how inherited stories shape and maintain culture and identity, Báez challenges powerful concepts like truth and history. Her approach to painting is thus intentionally destructive. Chaïm Soutine, 9.2.24-14.7.24 Explosions of colour. Flaming brush strokes. Dizzying perspectives. Paintings that vibrate between merciless distortion and heartfelt sensitivity. Louisiana presents the first ever exhibition in Northern Europe with Chaïm Soutine, one of The School of Paris's leading and most distinctive expressionists. The painter Chaïm Soutine (1893-1943) is considered one of the leading expressionists of the so-called School of Paris – a central figure in classical modernism, who masterfully captures his time, around and between the two world wars, with an intense, disturbing and torn imagery. Kentridge: The Refusal of Time, 28.2.24 - 29.9.24 Revisit one of the most significant new major works in the museum's collection: 'The Refusal of Time' by the South African artist William Kentridge. It is a virtuoso and all-encompassing installation that mixes film, animation, music, graphics, etc. As a spectator, you are entirely absorbed in the immense, pulsating, symphonic visual drama..

Exhibitions in the Black Diamond - The Royal Danish Library Storytelling, sensuous experiences and unique objects set the mind in motion when visiting exhibitions in The Black Diamond. With cultural heritage as an inexhaustible reservoir, everything from Søren Kierkegaard to contemporary art is staged, with particular emphasis on literature and photography. Current Exhibitions:  The Camera and Us - The Camera and Us presents a selection of works from the photography collections of library, which contain several million images. The theme is the human being as a motif and the exhibition asks what photography does to our perception of ourselves and our conceptions of each other. Treasures in the Royal Danish Library - An exhibition with library's most precious, beautiful, significant, and valuable treasures. From the oldest of manuscripts to the Internet's ever increasing digital cultural heritage. Explore gems from the collections of science, philosophy, cartography, music, and much more – or take a peek into the lives of a number of prominent Danes by reading Søren Kierkegaard's letter to his fiancé, Karen Blixen's own manuscript, or Hans Christian Andersen's diary. ON THE EDGE, 23.2.24-10.8.24:  The exhibition ON THE EDGE focuses on The Black Diamond as an architectural landmark and as the users' building. The Black Diamond is shaped like a sculptural monolith. With its distinct cubic shape and glossy black facade, the library's cultural centre has become one of Copenhagen's architectural icons. The Black Diamond has its 25th anniversary in 2024, and it will be celebrated with an anniversary exhibition. The exhibition focuses on the visions for the building, the Diamond's distinctive architecture and on the building's role today as a culture house and National Library.

Kunsthal Charlottenborg is one of the largest and most beautiful exhibition spaces for contemporary art in Northern Europe The exhibition space presents an ambitious program with international outlook featuring talents as well as established stars from both Denmark and abroad. Kunsthal Charlottenborg presents uncompromising and agenda setting art still understandable for everyone. The trendsetting exhibition program is supplemented with a large number of activities like artist talks, performances, concerts and film screenings. Ever since Kunsthal Charlottenborg opened in 1883, the venue has hosted exhibitions featuring many of the leading contemporary artists of the given times, accommodating many different types of shows and activities. Charlottenborg now celebrates its long history with a large-scale exhibition featuring all-new and older works alike. Together, they will evoke and add nuance to the history of Kunsthal Charlottenborg, a venue without a collection or a historical archive. Embracing chaos, affinities and time glitches, the exhibition Full of Days forges intuitive connections between historical moments and less-remembered shows, stories and events. Through a cacophony of voices, contemporary and historical artists are framed into a reflection on the elusiveness of time and the multiplicity of its representations, offering a non-linear account of one the Kunsthal’s possible histories.   Special Exhibithions (Kunsthalcharlottenborg.dk):   Thao Nguyen Phan, Reincarnations of Shadows: 13.3 – 11.8 2024 Visual artist Thao Nguyen Phan (b. 1987) intertwines mythology and folklore from her homeland’s turbulent past with current pressing issues of excessive consumption and the destruction of the earth’s resources. The intersection between the documentary and the supernatural take centre stage in this exhibition, which evokes ghostly presences, lush landscapes and unofficial narratives. Charlottenborg Art Books The independent bookstore offers a distinctive selection of books and magazines, including publications in the fields of fine art, critical design, typography, literature, and theory.Apollo Bar & Canteen Apollo Bar & Canteen are Kunsthal Charlottenborg’s bar and dining place by chef and creator Frederik Bille Brahe. Every weekday from Tuesday to Friday, you can enjoy a healthy and delicious lunch at the canteen, and all week you can enjoy breakfast, lunch or an exciting dinner or just a cup of coffee, a glass of wine or a drink at the bar next to the courtyard.

Copenhagen Contemporary (CC) is Copenhagen’s international art center showing installation art created by world stars and new emerging talents It occupies the magnificent former B&W welding hall offering a total of 7,000 m2 of beautiful industrial halls with plenty of space to show the technical and large formats in which many contemporary artists work: total installations, performance art, and monumental video works. Art that can often be entered and sensed with the whole body.  Copenhagen Contemporary is one of Scandinavia’s largest exhibition venues for contemporary art and a lively meeting place for a wide audience. CC creates collaborative partnerships and organises events with a number of different partners across cultural genres locally and internationally. You can attend art talks, art walks, concerts, creative workshops for children, visit CC’s own shop offering Scandinavian design, and experience the unique and historical city district of Refshaleøen.  Situated centrally in B&W’s iconic welding hall, CC is an international power hub in Copenhagen’s new cultural district. The special quality of this area continues to be defined by its industrial history: the area is raw and green with commanding views across Copenhagen Harbour. The district is a mix of first-class gourmet restaurants and small entrepreneurial initiatives; you can go for a dip in the sea, for a sauna, enjoy a glass of wine, and eat grilled food, buy quality bread and visit Copenhagen’s most popular food market with stalls from across the world and lounge areas by the water’s edge. Not forgetting the climbing, skating,and skiing activities, the flea market, and the theatre and music festivals, which are just some of the many activities this area has to offer.    Exhibtions (copenhagencontemporary.org): Kapwani Kiwanga, The Length of the Horizon: 26.1.24-25.8.24 For her first major exhibition in Scandinavia, the internationally renowned artist Kapwani Kiwanga (b. 1978) explores social mechanisms and power dynamics through large-scale installations of plants, foliage, sand, colour and light. Just below the surface of Kiwanga’s seductively beautiful works lurk critical themes. Plants tell toxic stories of power imbalances, colours have manipulative effects and light is investigated as a political instrument. Stretching across CC’s two biggest halls and 1600 m2 of space, the exhibition unfolds in a flow created by Kiwanga’s elegant handling of materials and their secrets. With her affinity for captivating, non-static experiences, the artist proposes fluidity as a sculptural principle in works permeated with the idea of continuous re-creation and adaptability.

ARKEN Museum of Contemporary Art in Ishøj south of Copenhagen presents exhibitions with Danish, Nordic and international art – from new, young talents to established names ARKEN is a great and monumental building situated in the artificial landscape Køge Bay Beach south of Copenhagen. The museum has one of Scandinavia's finest collections of contemporary art, and the museum's maritime architecture with the pointed stern, which majestically protudes into the terrain, has won recognition both at home and abroad since its inaugaration in 1996.  ARKEN's collection contains more than 400 works - Danish, Nordic and international contemporary art primarly from the period after 1990. The museum houses, among other things, one of Europe's most important collections of the British artist Damien Hirst. Experience the museum's evolving sculpture park, nine works by acclaimed German artist Anselm Reyle as well as a magnificent masterpiece by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.  Distinctive architecture The museum building is an attraction in itself. With its scenic location on Kunstens Ø, or ‘Art Island’, the building, designed by the architect Søren Robert Lund, resembles a beached ship. A lagoon meanders its way around the museum, with several bridges linking the museum island with the surrounding beach area. The museum café hangs like a lifeboat on the side of the building and through the large panoramic windows overlooks Køge Bay. The museum shop is the area's leading design shop with an inspiring mix of Nordic design, art books, and gift items.   Exhibitions Group Therapy, 29.2.24-28.7.24 An inflatable flock of chickens and a burned-down preschool. An outboard motor as a national symbol of Greenland. In the exhibition Group Therapy — New Contemporary Art at ARKEN, contemporary art unfolds in many forms. Sharp, insightful, caring, dynamic and humorous - the artists explore our era and invite us to reflect on our place in the world. The exhibition's works have recently been added to the museum's permanent collection, and they are presented in an exhibition that promotes conversations about conflict, emotions, hope and healing. In her installation, Lisa's Chickens (Farm Life), Benedikte Bjerre has given a large flock of helium hens the 50 most popular girl names in Denmark right now, raising playful questions about our market-driven and gendered world. Cliché-filled ideas about gender are also challenged by Tora Schultz, who, with her Prada stilettos, inspired by the poster for the Hollywood film The Devil Wears Prada, humorously criticises the sex symbols of the fashion industry and the demeaning propensity of our society to compare powerful women to the devil. Martin Brandt Hansen punches a hole in the stereotypical notion of national identity with works such as Uummat (heart in Greenlandic) in which he transforms a Honda engine — a global symbol of strength, speed and power — into an elegant and humorous monument to today's Greenland. Anish Kapoor, Unseen: 11.4.24-20.10.24 Anish KapoorKapoor's monumental sculptures and installations speak directly to our senses and emotions. Through his unique eye for materials, shapes, colours and surfaces we are drawn into and seduced by his work, which turns the world upside down — often quite literally. Kapoor has been shown in the largest exhibition venues in the world, and he has also created several significant pieces for public spaces. Anish Kapoor was born and raised in an Indian-Jewish family in India. From 1973, he was educated in England, where he has worked ever since.‍ ARKEN's exhibitionThe exhibition at ARKEN showcases a selection of Kapoor's most significant large-scale works created during the artist's more than 40-year career. The exhibition will be spread throughout most of ARKEN's halls: the Art Axis, the Large Gallery, the Graphic Gallery and other adjacent galleries. Despite the large exhibition space, the exhibition contains only about 10 works. The majority, however, are very extensive, and in scale and intensity the works will fill the entire museum. All of the works are built specifically for and integrated into ARKEN's architecture. In this way, the exhibition will take the form of a total intervention in architecture that challenges the usual way the building is used and the spaces are experienced.  

Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art is a must see in Copenhagen for anyone interested in art and architecture. Den Frie is closed between exhibitions. Please check the website before going. Den Frie was founded by artists in 1898 and is one of the oldest venues for contemporary art in Denmark. It is in itself a unique and very beautiful wooden building designed by famous artist J.F. Willumsen. Den Frie’s fundamental aim is to present the very latest in contemporary art. We host exhibitions by national and international artists, all of which address current issues. The extensive programme of exhibitions and events are evidence of Den Frie’s role as an active platform for living art and
art production, and the commitment to contribute to contemporary existence. With its relaxed and welcoming atmosphere, Den Frie is also a popular meeting place for artists, students, tourists and the many locals who pass by. As a visitor you’ll feel welcome and enjoy having your interest in contemporary art stimulated, whether you’re an art connoisseur or a beginner. On top of which the architecture alone is well worth a visit. Den Frie also houses the café, Polykrom, where you can enjoy a delicious lunch or a well-made cup of coffee.   Exhibitions: Mea Sculpa, 24. Feb - 9. Jun 2024 As part of Den Frie’s exhibition series Dacapo revisiting former artist-run spaces, SQ – Louis Scherfig and Frederik Worm – presents Mea Sculpa? In 2013 Louis Scherfig and Frederik Worm founded SQ/squash (www.squashclub.biz) while studying at the art academy, and they ran the exhibition space together with Jonas Frederiksen until 2017. During its existence SQ organized solo and group exhibitions, publications and happenings in parks, exhibition spaces, sports venues, cinemas and in book format. Den Frie Udstilling 2024: Naboplanter, 13th of Apr. - 26th of May 2024 Den Frie Udstilling 2024: Naboplanter is curated by the artists Jesper Christiansen, Torben Ribe, and Hannah Heilmann, focusing on the possible social and artistic connections that exist between the members of the artist association Den Frie. As one of the oldest artists associations in Denmark, Den Frie was founded in 1891 and it has continually incorporated new members, like an old garden where a changing fauna of plants co-exist. The title of the show is inspired by Sofie Isager Ahls book Naboplanter, poetically conceiving human beings as social organisms able to cultivate relations accross species and families.

ORDRUPGAARD – AN INTERNATIONAL MUSEUM DESTINATION You will find Ordrupgaard in scenic, peaceful surroundings just 10 km north of Copenhagen. The museum offers a unique array of world-class art, design and architecture. The park has art to enjoy, too. Monet, Degas, Gauguin – and HammershøiAt Ordrupgaard, you can explore one of Northern Europe’s most important collections of French Impressionism, featuring leading figures like Monet, Degas and Gauguin. In addition, visitors can enjoy an exquisite collection of Danish art focusing on Vilhelm Hammershøi and his contemporaries – as well as a succession of special exhibitions. Finn Juhl, Zaha Hadid and SnøhettaYou can also visit the former home of furniture designer Finn Juhl. Here his iconic furniture enters into a lively dialogue with the great Danish artists of modernism, just like when Finn Juhl lived here. Star architect Zaha Hadid and the award-winning design studio Snøhetta have also made their imprint on Ordrupgaard. Art in the open airIn the park, you can explore works by leading contemporary artists. All visitors  can give their inner child free rein, because here you are welcome to run, jump and climb on the art. Of course, you may simply prefer to settle on the lawn and enjoy the many sensory impressions offered by the scenic park. Ever since the couple who founded Ordrupgaard, Wilhelm and Henny Hansen, moved here in 1918, a pleasant, informal atmosphere has infused this place. It still does, making the museum popular with all generations. In the café, the chefs conjure up dishes from fresh Nordic ingredients to provide pit-stop refreshments with breathtaking views to green parkland. Temporary exhibitions: 9.2.24 - 20.5.24: Impressionism and its overlooked women In a magnificent exhibition featuring works from across the world, Ordrupgaard celebrates the 150th anniversary of the first of eight ground-breaking impressionist exhibitions that took place between 1874 and 1886 in Paris. Special focus will be directed at five women artists, all of whom were largely overlooked in the great narrative on Impressionism and the emergence of modern art. Experience major works by Berthe Morisot (France) and Mary Cassatt (USA) as well as main works by lesser known artists such as Eva Gonzalès and Marie Bracquemond (both France) and Marie Bashkirtseff (Russia-Ukraine), of which the latter two have never previously been shown in Denmark. The exhibition follows their struggle to be included in art history, focusing on the mark their works left on the contemporary art scene – in the independent impressionist exhibitions as well as the major censured exhibitions at the Paris Salon. Many still consider Impressionism to be closely associated with depictions of Paris’ boulevards and night life. Nevertheless, as evident from the exhibition, the women artists mainly portray the private sphere – different and equally significant aspects of Impressionism and the modernity whence the movement emerged. 

Spanning the period from the Danish Golden Age to the Skagen painters and the Modern Breakthrough, this Østerbro gallery presents some of the most evocative and moving paintings in Danish art history.  In a beautiful building, in the Østre Anlæg park in central Copenhagen, today listed as a building of special importance, you can discover some of the most important works by masters such as Eckersberg, Købke, Krøyer, and Hammershøi. The museum is built around the personal art collection of Heinrich Hirschsprung, a tobacco manufacturer, who donated his collection to the Danish state in 1902. The collection offers a representative selection of paintings from one of the most outstanding eras of Danish art history. The museum building is a beautiful example of the neo-classical style, where the interior, with its subdued colors and small galleries, creates a special and intimate atmosphere. There isn’t a better setting for the intimate portraits and scenes of daily life from over a hundred years ago that constitute much of the collection. The museum building is a beautiful example of the neo-classical style, where the interior, with its subdued colours and small furnished galleries, creates a special and intimate atmosphere. The museum is built around the personal art collection of tobacco manufacturer Heinrich Hirschsprung and his wife Pauline who donated his collection to the Danish state in 1902. Every last Thursday of the month until 8 PM   Særudstillinger:  SOLDIERS. ART AND THE DANES AT WAR 1848-1864, 15.3.24-28.7.24 SOLDIERS. ART AND THE DANES AT WAR 1848-1864 is an exhibition about art and the popular image of the people’s warrior which arose with the wars in the 1800s. For the first time ever, the Danish soldier was given a leading role in general culture. The home front closely followed the war through photographic reports. Danish soldiers, student volunteers and sailors became heroes in large battle paintings. But art also tackled problems and conflicts. Families had to send their sons to the wars and, later, to receive and accommodate the returning veterans. SOLDIERS. ART AND THE DANES AT WAR 1848-1864 is an exhibition about the ordinary Danish soldier. We see him in the field and on the battlefield, at camp and on leave. And we meet his family and the community to which he returned. The exhibition is also about visual strategies and blind spots. How did we perceive and understand the soldiers and their struggles? Could death and grief be accommodated in art? What happened to the scars of those who came home from the wars?

Gl. Holtegaard is an art center with a programme of three to four ambitious exhibitions a year, both in the gallery of the main house and in the Baroque garden. The mission is to present contemporary and classical artworks that make history relevant and bring a fresh perspective to the age in which we live. The gallery’s unique location in the historical buildings and grounds of Lauritz de Thurah’s Baroque complex is an integrated part of the exhibition profile. It is precisely this context that makes it possible to bring contemporary art into close contact with the historical material Gammel Holtegaard is made of.The Baroque garden is thus seen as an extended gallery, and exhibitions there are as carefully curated and presented as the indoor ones in the annual programme. Gammel Holtegaard has a diverse year-round programme of events and activities relating to the exhibitions and to Gammel Holtegaard itself. These include artist talks, performances, talks, debates, garden tours, concerts, and much more. Exhibitions (glhotegaard.dk): 'Across the Strait', Iselin Forslund Toubro; 8.3.24-12.5.24 Iselin Forslund Toubro’s solo exhibition Across the Strait unfolds as an total installation, with a cinematic narrative progression, which in interaction withsculpturel elements points to conflicts in both the past and present. BIO:Iselin Forslund Toubro (b. 1990) is educated from The Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm, Sweden, Emily Carr University of Film, Art and Design, Vancouver, Canada and The Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen, Denmark (2019). Toubro work in the field between art cinematic, performance and installation – very often in huge productions, which involves both actors, musicians and other contributors. Transport Gl. Holtegaard is located north of Copenhagen, and both entrance and public transport is included in COPENHAGEN CARD - DISCOVER. We recommend using journeyplanner.dk to plan your trip.  

Denmark’s museum for public art As Denmark’s only museum for public art, KØS collects sketches, scale models, and a variety of other preliminary works for the art that is placed or takes place in public spaces in Denmark. These are artworks that many feel ownership of because they are close to us in everyday life, and therefore are often the subject of wonder, discussion, disapproval, and interest among local users. The finished works are typically placed permanently somewhere out there, unless they take place as temporary projects that over a period occur in more or less direct interaction with the audience. The works themselves therefore do not form part of the museum’s collection, which instead through drawings, watercolors, and models in plaster, clay, paper, and wood or in the form of project descriptions, notes and sketches, films and photos etc., shows the quality of and the range in the country’s publicly placed works. The collection’s often impressive sketch sequences, which typically can accommodate many phases in the artistic creation process - from early, loose drafts to gradually more detailed studies and composition sketches to final, thoroughly worked templates and working drawings - can be studied when the museum shows collection exhibitions. The Queen’s tapestries The main works in the museum’s collection are visual artist Bjørn Nørgaard’s extensive sketch material for Queen Margrethe II’s tapestries, which she received as a gift from Danish Business in 2000. The sketch material for the 10-year-long work process consists of 11 colorful cartoons in full size with a wealth of historical motifs. Changing collection exhibitions The KØS Collection is regularly shown in collection exhibitions at the museum and typically consists of a mix of new acquisitions and known works from the collection. Read about our current exhibitions here. The collection consists of more than 18,000 unique sketches, models and preliminary works for art in public spaces and an archive that documents processes and conflicts around art in public spaces. Selections from the collection are regularly exhibited at the museum and activated in KØS’ teaching, just as artists are periodically invited to engage in dialogue with the KØS collection and KØS as an institution. Explore indoors over three floors or outside on the artistic forecourt by visual artist Ann Lislegaard. Combine the visit with a trip to the KØS Café and the museum shop with exclusive design items. Free guided tour the first Sunday of every month."   Current exhibitions: 'IN THE ARCHITECHT’S HOUSE - ELINA BROTHERUS ON ALVAR AALTO'; 01.03.24-02.06.24 In her three new photographic series, visual artist Elina Brotherus takes us deep into the heart of Alvar Aalto’s architecture. The new photographic series by Elina Brotherus, one of Finland’s most internationally acclaimed artists, are captured in three key Aalto buildings in Finland: Aalto’s home in Helsinki, his summer cottage also known as the ‘Experimental House,’ and the modernist masterpiece Paimio Sanatorium. The three new series are now being exhibited for the first time in Denmark through a collaboration between KØS Museum of Art in Public Spaces and the Alvar Aalto Museum, where they premiered in 2023. In 2019, the Aalto Foundation granted the artist exclusive access to photograph in Alvar and Aino Aalto’s home in Helsinki and Alvar’s and his second wife Elissa’s private summer villa, the Experimental House in Muuratsalo. The summer villa is a pilgrimage destination for designers and architects due to the couple’s numerous material experiments conducted in the central, beautiful courtyard. It is brought to life in Elina Brotherus’ masterfully composed photographs and takes on a new vitality and presence. '(self)infatuation' When a Country Falls in Love with Itself is the title of Elmgreen & Dragset’s artistic dialogue with the Danish sculptor Edvard Eriksen’s world-famous sculpture, The Little Mermaid. Erected on Langelinie in 1913 as a gift to Copenhagen from brewer Carl Jacobsen, The Little Mermaid is undoubtedly the most viewed and photographed sculpture in Denmark today. The romantic sculpture is both a tourist magnet and a national symbol. In 2008, the Danish-Norwegian artist duo Elmgreen & Dragset casually placed a mirror in front of the mermaid, in which she – the symbol of the nation – self-reflects. The resulting photographic artwork, When a Country Falls in Love with Itself seemed to indicate that she, the nation, is no longer so interested in gazing out to distant shores but prefers to admire herself. Like The Little Mermaid herself, When a Country Falls in Love with Itself is now a central piece in art history, illustrating how public art functions as focal points for interactions between different viewpoints. It is an example of how contemporary art can elegantly contribute to adding new layers and narratives on top of the already existing. In 2012, Elmgreen & Dragset once again mirrored the small sculpture with symbolic significance when they created Han for Kulturværftet in Helsingør — a male version of The Little Mermaid who gazes longingly, not at himself, but out into the world. Unlike his sister on Langelinie, who is crafted in bronze, both Han and the stone he sits on are made of polished stainless steel, reflecting the surroundings and those who look at him. And if you are lucky enough to visit the sculpture at the right time, you may experience the young man on the stone opening his eyes and blinking. With Han, Elmgreen & Dragset invites us to look at both him – Han – and ourselves with a loving, but also investigative, curious gaze. Perhaps an invitation to fall in love with something other than ourselves?

Statues in heathery hills and concrete architecture Men and women in bronze are looking over the heathery hills in the park. And in the impressive octagonal room in the museum, where the ceiling is 11 metres above you, you find more men and women, now in white plaster. It is a very special experience walking around in Rudolph Tegner’s Museum and the Statue Park – a calm yet intense experience where beautiful nature and bombastic concrete architecture are combined.   Use the route-planner in the Copenhagen Card app the find the easiest route. A walk in Russia The natural resort where you find Rudolph Tegner’s statues is called Russia. The rather special name relates to the remoteness of the place. However, from Russia and Rudolph Tegner’s Museum to the nearest town, i.e. Dronningmølle in North Sealand, is only 2 kilometres. In the park, you find 14 Rudolph Tegner statues while walking around the heathery hills outside the museum. See the art in Rudolph Tegner’s Statue Park. Almost like a church The museum room was designed by Rudolph Tegner himself with the purpose of housing all his artworks. It was built in 1937-38, and when walking through the large port, you almost feel like being in a church room. The solid walls, the high ceiling and the absence of large windows make all sounds resonate between the statues. The permanent collection counts 355 of Rudolph Tegner’s artworks. Most of them are originals in plaster; others are in bronze and marble. Climbing trees and activities for children Children are welcome at the museum. In Statue Park, there are climbing trees. You can also go treasure hunting or orienteering during your visit – both require that you have information about the artworks. If you want to be creative, you can visit the drawing workshop to try to draw various artworks. Activities for children all over North Sealand. Søren’s Café When you have walked the hills and experienced the octagonal museum room, you can visit the café where you can get lunch or a cup of coffee. The café at Rudolph Tegner’s Museum is open in the summer half. They serve coffee, tea, cake, sandwiches, ice cream, etc. Here you find the opening hours of Café Søren at Rudolph Tegner’s Museum. One of Denmark’s great sculptors Rudolph Tegner was educated at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 1893. His art was very controversial at that time. His work is intense, dramatic and huge and comes under the art form called vitalism. And they formed a great contrast to other Danish sculptors such as Bertel Thorvaldsen. For a great part of his artistic life, Rudolph Tegner lived in France and 1916; he bought the area outside Dronningmølle, where he constructed his museum. Here, he is buried together with his wife, Elna. Combine your trip to Tegner's museum with a nice day-trip to the beach town Hornbæk