HEIRLOOM center for art and archives

Please join us next week, on Friday 22 May, 17:00-20:00, for the opening of the exhibition Vindianum by Christian Vind! - Christian Vind: Vindianum - 22 May - 28 August Throughout the summer, visual artist Christian Vind will transform the exhibition space at HEIRLOOM into his own Museum Vindianum. The museum will exhibit a number of objects from the artist’s private collection, each imbued with meaning through Vind’s distinctive writing practice. --- 8/
Matchbox containing sand from the Sahara The Vindianum collection holds several samples of earth, gravel and sand. Soil from Lebanon, collected from a roadside ditch near Zahlé in the Bekaa Valley, say. And from other places on the globe, such as the Egyptian Sahara. This sand is from there. For a while, I asked people I knew if they could bring a soil sample back with them if they were going somewhere. I experienced this as a kind of vicarious tourism-by-proxy: “Albania in week 36 – still got something to look forward to, then.” After a while, I lost interest in the project. Gift from a printmaker, 2013. Image: Christian Vind, Matchbox containing sand from the Sahara Photo: Anders Sune Berg, 2018

While the exhibition 'Let Us Speak Now' is now gone, the whole video archive and artwork by Kirsten Dufour is still availble at Kilder til Dansk Kunsthistorie (lusn.ktdk.dk). In the most recent issue of @art_monthly_uk , 'Let Us Speak Now' has been reviewed by art critic Frida Sandström, stating its relevance for today's debates about gender. She specifically highlights its use of feminist methodologies: "[T]he exhibition provides a glimpse into the space of shared listening which was central for a generation of feminists that Dufour, who was born in 1941, belongs to." Meanwhile at @nikolajkunsthal , you can experience a retrospective with the artist Alison Knowles who is also present in the Let Us Speak Now archive. In her conversation with Heidrun Holzfeind, she reflects on her creative process, feminist perspective, and role in Fluxus. See you soon for the opening of the solo exhibition 'Vindianum' by Christian Vind - soon to be announced.

Tomorrow is the last day of 'Let Us Speak Now'! On this occasion, artist Martha Rosler will be visiting HEIRLOOM-1 May, 16:00-17:00-for an artist talk followed by a conversation with the curators of the exhibition, Johanne Løgstrup and Pia Rönicke. Featured in the exhibition is Martha Rosler's video 'Fascination with the [Game of the] Exploding [Historical] Hollow Leg' from 1983; a central work within Rosler’s ongoing investigation of war, media, and public consciousness. The video reveals how images and narratives of war circulate in the public sphere and shape our understanding, often without being actively challenged. Rather than functioning as documentation, the work operates as a critical intervention, exposing the ideological structures embedded in both image production and political language, and questioning how media fascination with war can obscure the reality of violence. Image: Martha Rosler, Fascination with the [Game of the] Exploding [Historical] Hollow Leg, 1983. Photo: Kevin Malcolm

In 'Sproutime' (2026), Leslie Labowitz Starus unfolds a lifelong artistic practice in which ecology, feminist activism, and community grow together. The project spans more than four decades and began as an urban micro-farm in the artist’s own backyard—a site where she cultivated sprouts and greens as acts of resistance, self-sufficiency, and nourishment. 'Sproutime' has evolved into both a social artwork and a practice encompassing agriculture, performance, education, and dialogue with local communities. 'Let Us Speak Now' ends in a week, on Friday 1 May, with Martha Rosler visiting HEIRLOOM for the finissage. Images: 1: Leslie Labowitz Starus, Sproutime, 2026. Photo: Kevin Malcolm 2: Installation detail. Photo: Kevin Malcolm 3: Still from Let Us Speak Now (Conversation with Leslie Labowitz Starus, Los Angeles, 2002), Kirsten Dufour, 2002-2007

In 'Beirut' (2005-2007), Hale Tenger turns her attention to the spaces where traces of violence settle—often quietly, almost imperceptibly—into architectural surfaces. The video shows the façade of the hotel in front of which Lebanon’s former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was killed in a car bomb attack in 2005. At the time of filming, a crater from the bomb was still visible on the other side of the building. Tenger allows this almost peaceful image to give way to sound and imagery that gradually reintroduce war into the field of vision—footage from Israel’s attacks on Lebanon in 2006 reverberates against the silent windows. In the loop, a recurring cycle of grief, forgetting, and renewed violence emerges, with the hotel façade bearing witness to the circularity of war. As in many of Tenger’s works, 'Beirut' examines not only a geographical location but also a psychological state: human vulnerability in the face of power, uncontrollable events, and historical trauma that continually returns. With only two weeks left, come see 'Let Us Speak Now' before it ends 1 May. Images: 1: Installation view. Photo: Kevin Malcolm 2-3: Stills from 'Beirut', Hale Tenger, 2005-2007

We are pleased to announce that artist Martha Rosler will be guesting HEIRLOOM for the finissage of the exhibition Let Us Speak Now. Friday 1 May, 16:00-17:00 As a part of the Let Us Speak Now archive, Martha Rosler will be giving an artist talk followed by a conversation with the curators of the exhibition, Johanne Løgstrup and Pia Rönicke. Martha Rosler is an American conceptual artist based in New York. Working with photography, video, installation, performance, and text, her practice focuses on the public sphere—especially media, war, housing, architecture, and social inequality. Rosler documents and intervenes. Her work blends activism and critique, using art as a tool to expose ideological and structural power relations. The capacity is limited, so be there early if you want to secure a seat. Image: Still from Let Us Speak Now (Conversation with Martha Rosler, New York, 2003), Kirsten Dufour, 2002-2007

Maria Karlsson works with relational and process-based formats in which actions, meetings, and collective processes form the core of her practice. The work 'Paperwork / Put the Shame Where it Belongs' (1989-2026) consists of elements from earlier works that are reactivated in the present. Prints, drawings, copies, and photographs are assembled through repetition, regrouping, and serial arrangements, forming an open visual field. With the title 'Paperwork', emphasis is placed on “work,” pointing toward power relations and hierarchies. The paper works can be read as traces of processes: attempts and provisional states, notes and archives in which work is not completed but kept in motion. Karlsson previously lived and worked in Los Angeles, where she served as director of the Danish Arts Foundation’s exchange program for artists and curators. It was during Kirsten Dufour’s residency in this program that they first met, leading to several collaborations across art and activist groups. Images: 1-2: Stills from Let Us Speak Now (Conversation with Maria Karlsson, Los Angeles, 2002), Kirsten Dufour, 2002-2007 3-5: Maria Karlsson, Paperwork / Put the Shame Where it Belongs, 1989-2026 Photos: Kevin Malcolm

In the collage series 'Boys’ Art', Joyce Kozloff investigates the images that shape childhood’s visual imagination—here, boys’ war scenes. Drawing on her brother’s childhood sketches and her son’s imaginative drawings, she juxtaposes these intimate archives with her own renderings of historical battlefield maps, tracing the early visual economy of masculinity across generations. The series began during a residency in the Italian coastal region of Liguria in the autumn of 2001. Isolated in her studio while the world outside was in a state of emergency following 9/11, Kozloff worked daily with military maps ranging from the Han Dynasty to the twentieth century, as a quiet, focused counterpoint to contemporary turmoil. In her interview in the 'Let Us Speak Now' archive, Kozloff discusses the making of this work. 'Boys' Art' is on show in the exhibition 'Let Us Speak Now' until 1 May. Images: 1: Joyce Kozloff, 'Boys' Art # 13: Han Dynasty Garrison Map', 2001-2002 Photo: Kevin Malcolm 2-3: Installation view Photo: Kevin Malcolm

In the Let Us Speak Now archive, artists Sharon Hayes and Andrea Geyer appear alongside each other, discussing gender constructs, language, and the multiple strands of feminism in relation to their collaborative artistic practices. This socially engaged line of work continues through each of their individual works in the Let Us Speak Now exhibition. The work 'President Chisholm' by Sharon Hayes takes its point of departure ​in​ Shirley Chisholm's presidential candidacy in 1972, historic due to her gender and Afro-American background — a moment when the future might briefly have taken a different form. The work revolves around what did not happen, yet nonetheless left lasting traces: ​t​he political and material changes inspired by Chisholm’s campaign, and the possibilities that can still be activated in the present. Through speculation, the unrealized becomes a tool for imagining the possible. The two banner works bearing the texts “I want a museum where you appear to me and I appear to you” and “I need a museum to remember everything” are part of Andrea Geyer’s long-term project Manifest. Executed in white nylon with silver foil – applied lettering, the banners appear both fragile and declarative — open statements suspended between desire and demand. Images: 1: Sharon Hayes, President Chisholm, 2020. Photo: Kevin Malcolm 2: Andrea Geyer, Manifest, 2017/2026. Photo: Kevin Malcolm 3: Still from Let Us Speak Now (Conversation with Sharon Hayes and Andrea Geyer, Malmö, 2003), Kirsten Dufour, 2002-2007

A selection of archival material from the conceptual artist collective Group Material is currently on display as part of the exhibition 'Let Us Speak Now'. The archival material from Group Material, focusing on the exhibition 'Democracy' (1988), testifies to the collective’s radical rethinking of the exhibition as a public and political space. Democracy was presented at the Dia Art Foundation in New York. Rather than presenting a finished artistic statement, Group Material conceived the exhibition as an open process, in which art, everyday objects, mass media, and audiences were engaged in an active negotiation of contemporary political reality. The exhibition was accompanied by a series of Town Hall Meetings—public, discursive gatherings in which artists, activists, theorists, and local citizens came together to discuss topics such as education, elections, race, AIDS, the economy, and the role of the media. These meetings extended the exhibition beyond its physical boundaries and insisted on dialogue, disagreement, and collective reflection as integral to the exhibition itself. In her interview in the 'Let Us Speak Now' archive, visual artist, Group Material member, and archivist Julie Ault discusses the making of the exhibition. The archival material has been selected by Pia Rönicke and Johanne Løgstrup.

Talk: Between Preserving and Letting Go On March 26, 16:30-17:30, HEIRLOOM will be hosting a conversation between visual artist Kirstine Autzen and PhD and founder of (art re.search), Sidsel Nelund, in connection with the publication of the artist book 'How to Become an Archive'. While working on an exhibition inspired by a local historical archive, visual artist and photographer Kirstine Autzen lost her own archive and studio in a fire. The artist book 'How to Become an Archive' is a poetic exploration of the space that emerged in the time that followed. The conversation will take the artist’s studio and archive as sites of preservation and explore what happens when such spaces disappear. How does one move forward after loss, and what new space might emerge between what has been preserved and what has been lost? Kirstine Autzen is an artist, photographer, and curator. Her work engages with themes such as growth, memory, loss, and preservation as interconnected aspects of transformation and change. Sidsel Nelund is a literary and art historical non-fiction writer, para-curator and cyclical agent specialized in knowledge production in contemporary arts. The conversation will be in Danish.