Until february 18, 2024, the Danish gallery Kunsthal Charlottenborg will host the contemporary art exhibition entitled “Seeds and Souls“. This exhibition offers an innovative artistic look at the links between colonial legacies, diasporic experiences and botanical narratives. A group of contemporary artists will present innovative works that explore these common themes.
Participating artists include Annalee Davis, Brook Andrew, Ishita Chakraborty, Linda Lamignan, Michelle Eistrup, Shiraz Bayjoo, Sonia Boyce, Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe and Yvon Ngassam. Through a variety of artistic media, such as sculptural textile installations and multimedia works, these artists will offer viewers immersion in a captivating narrative revolving around notions of diaspora, botany and colonialism.
The “Seeds and Souls” exhibition offers a fascinating study of the original vegetation and soil of the Kunsthal Charlottenborg. This art center was built at the end of the 19th century on the grounds of the former Copenhagen Botanical Gardens. The exhibition explores the evolution, mutation, transplantation and other changing aspects of the art space under new environmental conditions. It also provides a pertinent analysis of events that have overturned the cultural order of history, and whose impact is still relevant today.
The exhibiting artists address these issues through various forms of material and immaterial research, updating neglected and sometimes controversial histories. They also use the concept of “re-rooting” as a means of reappropriating these histories and cultural expressions.
Organized by curator and lecturer in contemporary art Christine Eyene, the “Seeds and Souls” exhibition is supported by a number of Danish institutions, including the Augustinus Foundation, the Danish Arts Foundation, the Obel Family Foundation, the William Demant Foundation and the Aage og Johanne Louis-Hansens Foundation.