Room Room: AHC launches new exhibition space

In northwest Copenhagen, a former industrial building is nearing the end of an extensive renovation and will soon open to the public, featuring a brand-new exhibition space for contemporary art: Room Room. Opening 17 January 2025, the inaugural exhibition investigates our limitless, all-consuming online/offline culture.

Over the past five years, Art Hub Copenhagen (AHC) has sought to create spaces for visual art and its many actors. The mission goes beyond providing physical space for art and artists—it is also about rethinking and experimenting with the ways art is conceived, created, shown and discussed today.

AHC’s upcoming move to Thoravej 29 in Copenhagen’s Nordvest district marks a significant expansion of its facilities. The new location will feature fourteen studios, five workshops for artistic production and a new, experimental exhibition space called Room Room.

Room Room will present three to four exhibitions annually, showcasing both emerging and established artists, curators and artistic researchers from local, national and international scenes. Participants are either drawn from AHC’s various programmes or selected through annual open calls.

MAKING ROOM
The name Room Room explicitly echoes the architectural redesign of the former office building on Thoravej, where pihlmann architects removed an upstairs floor to create a double-height space. In essence, Room Room consists of two rooms: a room stacked on top of another room.

More indirectly, the name gestures towards the idea of ‘making room’—of holding or occupying space—reflecting AHC’s mission to support, facilitate and share the work and research of art professionals while inviting the public to enter and engage.

‘AHC has long awaited the opening of its own exhibition space—a window to the world where we can showcase both the processes and outcomes of some of the many projects we’re involved in. We’re thrilled to finally present and welcome everyone to Room Room at Thoravej 29,’ says Susanne Hviid, Managing Director, AHC.

BEING HEARD OR BEING RIGHT
Opening on 17 January 2025, the inaugural exhibition presented at Room Room is curated by Johanne Jacobsen and Kristian Kirk, directors of the exhibition space inter.pblc on Hamletsgade, not far from Thoravej 29.

Titled 9-5, 5-9, the group exhibition investigates contemporary online culture and examines how our frenetic presence on platforms both online and offline has created an untamed land of shares and reactions, hot takes and tags, resignation and intervention. As the exhibition text states: ‘Active participant or passive passersby, you promise yourself an early night but end up scrolling till dawn.’

The exhibition presents nine Danish and international artists, all of whom have a connection to AHC. The participating artists are: Beth Collar (b. 1984), Heine Kjærgaard Klausen (b. 1978), Javier Alvarez Sagredo (b. 1994), Jules Fischer (b. 1988), Justin F. Kennedy (b. 1983), Maja Malou Lyse (b. 1993), Masar Sohail (b. 1982), Sara Sjölin (b. 1991) and Simon Dybbroe Møller (b. 1976).

Reflecting on the selection of inter.pblc as curators of Room Room’s inaugural exhibition, Jacob Fabricius, Artistic Director of AHC, notes:

‘inter.pblc is one of the most exciting new curator-driven exhibition spaces in Denmark today. Through their unique curatorial approach and experimental display methods, they activate the arcade-like rooms on Hamletsgade, engaging a wide audience and connecting in meaningful ways with the local environment. We want to celebrate their work, and that is why we invited Jacobsen and Kirk to curate Room Room’s first exhibition, drawing on the extensive catalogue of artists AHC has collaborated with over the past five years.

Room Room will embrace many different types of artistic and curatorial practice, and in each exhibition, experimentation and the relationship to the outside world will be a driving force. We look forward to presenting 9-5, 5-9.’

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INFO

9-5, 5-9
17 Jan – 11 Apr 2025
Curated by inter.pblc

Participating artists:
Beth Collar, Heine Kjærgaard Klausen, Javier Alvarez Sagredo, Jules Fischer, Justin F. Kennedy, Maja Malou Lyse, Masar Sohail, Sara Sjölin og Simon Dybbroe Møller.

The opening will take place Friday, 17 January 2025 from 5 p.m.
Join us for an evening of speeches, performances, drinks and a DJ.
Everyone is welcome!

Room Room
Thoravej 29
2400 Copenhagen NV

Read more about the exhibition here.

Sign up for Room Room’s newsletter here.

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ABOUT INTER.PBLC

inter.pblc is an experimental exhibition space for contemporary art practices activated through local and international artists. inter.pblc is driven by a spatial lust for social practices and shared experiences stated in curated exhibitions, performances and installation oriented shows. it is open to various forms of expression and is continuously re-defined by the forces that enter it. inter.pblc does not restrain from merging scenes or artistic spheres but is a space where competencies are ignited without being confined to one industry or under one label.

inter.pblc is curated by Kristian Kirk (1993) and Johannes Jacobsen (1992). inter.pblc was founded in 2021.

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MORE ABOUT THORAVEJ 29

In January 2025, AHC will move from Halmtorvet in Copenhagen’s meatpacking district to Thoravej 29 in the Nordvest district, where new and expansive facilities await in an old industrial building, sustainably redesigned by the young architectural team pihlmann architects. At the new location, AHC will offer 14 studios and five large workshops for artistic production, providing resources for professional artists, curators and art researchers. The new facilities provide a professional space for work – a place to create, research, experiment, write, network and have meetings. Most importantly, it offers the chance to be a key part of and contributor to a new artistic community in Copenhagen.

When AHC relocates to Thoravej 29, the institution will become part of both a public meeting place and a professional community. Thoravej 29 is not just an address in Nordvest, but also the name of a member-based association for the various organisations housed in the building. The vision for Thoravej 29 is that its members – primarily from the visual arts, performing arts and social sector – join forces to explore the major issues and challenges of today through interdisciplinary collaborations and events. Read more here.

The building at Thoravej 29, owned by the Bikuben Foundation, is a 1960s industrial building transformed by pihlmann architects. Adhering to a principle of the building reusing itself, the architects have created a sustainable space where for instance old concrete floor slabs have been repurposed as stairs and furniture. Awarded ”Building of the Year” by Licitationen, the building is a gathering place which offers a wide range of facilities, including workshops for artistic production, studios, an exhibition space, a black box for performing arts development, a stage for public events, a café and office spaces. You can follow the renovation of Thoravej 29 with pihlmann architects here.