Cultural heritage, bodily experience and collective practices: Six new artists selected for Art Hub Residency 2026
Date:
Art Hub Copenhagen is excited to welcome six new artists to the Art Hub Residency 2026. This year’s selected artists are Maria Nadia Nour, Minh Ngọc Nguyễn, Ribka M. Pattinama Coleman, Simin Stine Ramezanali, behshad tajamol and Erdal Bilici.
During 2026, the artists will reside in the studios at Thoravej 29 for a five-month period (spring or fall) as part of the Art Hub Residency 2026.
The Art Hub Residency programme aims to promote artistic immersion, professional exchange and opportunities for production. This year’s artists were selected through an open call by a jury consisting of Kit Leunbach, Guston Sondin-Kung and Pauline Koffi Vandet.
Read the jury’s statements on the selected artists below
Spring 2026
MARIA NADIA NOUR NIELSEN (DK/MA)
“Maria Nadia Nour Nielsen is a Danish/Moroccan artist based in Copenhagen working across sound, choreography, sculpture, performance and writing. Her practice investigates the voice as an affective and epistemic material, exploring how meaning travels beyond language through bodily, sculptural and technological systems. The jury values the ambition and clarity of her research, particularly her development of voice-based sculptural forms and alternative notational languages.
Positioned at a pivotal moment following her MFA from Malmö Art Academy, Nielsen’s practice can benefit from the sustained time, technical resources, and critical exchange offered by a residency at Art Hub Copenhagen.”
MINH NGỌC NGUYỄN (DK)
“Minh Ngọc Nguyễn is a Copenhagen-based artist working primarily with photography. His practice combines the aesthetics of commercial photography with critical reflection, producing sharp and seductive still life that examine how identity, desire, and cultural perception are shaped through image
culture. The jury valued the clarity and precision of Nguyễn’s visual language, as well as his ambition to expand photography beyond the printed image into spatial and performative contexts.
A residency at Art Hub Copenhagen and the discursive environment of Thoravej 29 would offer an important framework for experimentation, dialogue, and further institutional development.”
RIBKA M. PATTINAMA COLEMAN (ID/DK)
“Ribka M. Pattinama Coleman (b. 1989, Jakarta) works through a research-driven and materially sensitive practice engaging heritage, colonial relations, ecology and extraction from a decolonial perspective. Recently graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, they demonstrate a strong commitment to artistic research and experimentation.
The jury recognises the originality of their hybrid approach, which blurs disciplinary boundaries and weaves narrative, sensuous and spatial experiences. Their collective working methods and engagement with Moluccan cosmology are seen as promising developments.”
Fall 2026
SIMIN STINE RAMEZANALI (DK/IR/DE)
“As a visual artist and musician, collectivity has always been central to Simin’s practice and life. Their recent work explores grief, longing, geopolitical issues, and the restitution of stolen cultural heritage.
The jury believes that Ramezanali, besides being a great source of inspiration for the residency group, will benefit from the much-needed space, both practically and mentally, to work in a focused way and in dialogue with mentors and fellow residents on the forthcoming project: a contemporary requiem that, through large-scale installations, brings together sounds such as voice, breath, and instruments with sculpture and visual imagery.”
BEHSHAD TAJAMOL (IR)
“behshad tajamol (b. 1992, Iran) unfolds at the intersection of art and activism, with an ongoing focus on archival research as a way of addressing silenced narratives shaped by war, trauma and gender. Through video, sound and in-depth research, her work connects intimate and personal histories with broader sociopolitical structures in a both compelling and nuanced way.
The jury recognises strong potential of her exploration of the human mechanisms behind forgetting and remembering, particularly as this archival research is further developed through sound as an embodied, non-linear, and affective archive. The jury is convinced that the residency will provide a meaningful context for further developing her practice, both formally and conceptually.”
ERDAL BILICI (TR/DK)
“Through installational setups, video, photography, sound and most recently CGI-animation, Erdal Bilici directs attention toward collective memory and the visual structures that shape our lives, narratives, and cultural attachments. Deeply engaged in the art world, he has, alongside his own exhibition practice, contributed to and organized a range of artist-run exhibitions and lectures.
The jury is convinced that the interdisciplinary exchange offered by a residency at AHC will significantly support the development of Bilici’s practice, while his dedication and commitment will be a clear asset to the residency group.”
Meet the jury
Kit Leunbach has an extensive track record in exhibition production. As curator and producer at Den Frie, Centre of Contemporary Art, KØS – Museum of Art in Public Spaces, and Gl. Holtegaard, she has produced, curated, and co-curated a large number of exhibitions featuring both Danish and international artists. Leunbach has been particularly involved in commissioned works and new productions – from major solo and group exhibitions to large-scale works by individual artists.
Kit is employed as Senior Curator at MAPS – Museum of Art in Public Spaces.
Guston Sondin-Kung is a Copenhagen-based artist whose work focuses on memory and the body investigated through situated knowledge. His artistic projects typically involve long term collaborative research that necessitates working across a multitude of disciplinary and discursive sites.
Sondin-Kung received a PhD from the University of Copenhagen and a BFA from the California Institute of the Arts. He has been a visiting fellow at various international research programs and his work has been exhibited, screened and printed worldwide.
Pauline Koffi Vandet holds a master of Arts in Visual Culture and works as an independent curator.
Koffi Vandet is a co-founder of the curatorial duo Koffi & Højgaard, which she runs with curator Ida Højgaard Thjømøe. Since 2023, they have experimented with curatorial methods to create platforms for difficult, conflict-filled and vulnerable conversations. The duo project manages the monument I Am Queen Mary by artists Jeannette Ehlers og La Vaughn Belle.
Koffi Vandet also works as a research assistant and exhibition producer for professor and visual artist Jane Jin Kaisen. She has been affiliated with the Photography Center for a number of years, including as acting director 2023–24.
~
ABOUT ART HUB RESIDENCY
The residency programme aims to promote artists’ opportunities for networking, immersion, dissemination and production.
The programme lasts 5 months, is based at Thoravej 29 and offers artists full access to a private studio, a monthly fee, a production budget, professional workshops and a development program based on the individual artist’s needs.
Art Hub Copenhagen works actively to create and expand artists’ networks both nationally and internationally. In addition to focusing on networking, Art Hub Residency also provides time for immersion and/or production. There is no requirement for work production during the residency, so the time can be organized to fit into the individual’s process. It can be research and studies, testing of ideas or actual production. It is also possible, by agreement, to have a shorter stay at the State Workshops for the Arts.
Read more about the workshop facilities here.
The program includes a requirement that the residents communicate their practice, research, work or projects to the public during the residency. The presentation can take many forms: a talk, a podcast, a video, a text, a screening, an exhibition, a performance or something else entirely. The presentations are shaped and organized together with the individual artist and will be announced as part of Art Hub Copenhagen’s event program.
You can read more about the residency and see the previous resident artists here.
Art Hub Residency is generously supported by Bikubefonden.
