For the exhibition Vienna–Copenhagen. Den Frie Udstilling 2026, 45 members of the artists’ association Den Frie Udstilling invite their colleagues from the sister institution, Wiener Secession, to participate as guest exhibitors. Like Den Frie, the Vienna Secession was founded in the 1890s, and the two institutions remain among the few exhibition venues in Europe still owned and run by artists. As is the case of Den Frie Udstilling, Wiener Secession also counts some of the country’s most prominent artists among its members. The exhibition presents 45 artists from Den Frie Udstilling in dialogue with 125 Austrian artist colleagues from Wiener Secession. The exhibition is organised by Kristoffer Akselbo and Henrik Plenge Jakobsen from Den Frie Udstilling, and Sofie Thorsen, Michael Part and Jun Yang from Wiener Secession, assisted by Clemens Battisti.

Den Frie Udstilling is Denmark’s oldest artists’ association, founded in 1891 by, among others, J.F. Willumsen, Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen, Vilhelm Hammershøi, and Harald and Agnes Slott-Møller. The aim was to create an alternative to the censored exhibitions at Charlottenborg, which, in light of the new era, were perceived as academic and conservative. The artists of Den Frie instead turned towards the international art scene and drew inspiration from new movements experimenting with motifs, aesthetics and form. In 1893, the association built Den Frie Udstillingsbygning, designed by J.F. Willumsen, which in 1898 was moved to its current location at Oslo Plads. The building is one of the very first in Denmark designed and dedicated specifically to art exhibitions. Its unique, temple-like architecture reflected radical artistic orientations of the time. Above the entrance floats a gilded winged Pegasus with a youth on its back; the motif symbolises inspiration and artistic freedom.

Since the beginning, the artists of Den Frie Udstilling have exhibited together annually in Den Frie Udstillingsbygning. The association still includes some of the country’s most significant artists, all working in an exploratory and experimental ways, contributing to the ongoing development of Danish art. Den Frie Udstillingsbygning also hosts other exhibitions, including other Danish artists’ associations, commissioned projects and curated exhibitions featuring both Danish and international contemporary art. Across the programme, exhibitions are developed and realised in close collaboration with the artists.

In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in the artists’ association model. The idea of an artist-run exhibition community on the artists’ own terms – independent of institutional agendas and the market forces of the gallery world – resonates with a renewed interest in artist-curated exhibitions, self-organised exhibition spaces and other collective formats. Artists’ associations have, however, often been perceived as a local Danish phenomenon. With this exhibition, Den Frie Udstilling aims to demonstrate that both historical and contemporary international parallels exist.

The Association of Visual Artists Wiener Secession today is housed in another of the world’s oldest independent exhibition institutions, likewise, dedicated specifically to contemporary art. Its programme of ten to fifteen exhibitions per year is developed by the association’s board members through a democratic process and solely on the basis of artistic criteria. The primary aim is to present relevant and current tendencies within international and Austrian art.

Wiener Secession was founded a few years after Den Frie Udstilling, in 1897, by a group of artists around Gustav Klimt, who had broken away from the conservative Künstlerhaus. Klimt became the association’s first president; other founding members included painters Kolo Moser and Carl Moll, as well as architects Josef Hoffmann and Joseph Maria Olbrich. In 1898, Olbrich designed the Secession Building as a built manifesto – a structure symbolizing the new association’s commitment to pioneering modernist ideas. The Secession Building was a significant inspiration for Willumsen’s building for Den Frie Udstilling.

The exhibition Vienna–Copenhagen presents works and editions by 170 artists in an energetic display that highlights the potential of collective formats and collegial exchange.

Presse kit

Secession artists:

Abdul Sharif Baruwa, Aglaia Konrad, Almut Rink, Andreas Fogarasi, Anja Manfredi, Anna Meyer, Axel Stockburger, Barbara Holub, Barbara Kapusta, Bernhard Fruer, Bruno Mokross, Carola Dertnig, Christian Egger, Christian Hutzinger, Christian Kosmas Mayer, Christian Schwarzwald, Christina Zurfluh, Christoph Weber, Claudia Märzendorfer, Elisabeth Grübl, Eva Schlegel, Fabian Seiz, Florian Pumhösl, Georg Petermichl & Stefan Reiterer with Romana Zöchling, Georgia Creimer, Gerda Lampalzer, Gerwald Rockenschaub, Gilbert Bretterbauer, Günther Selichar, Hans Schabus, Heidrun Holzfeind, Heliane Wiesauer-Reiterer, Irina Lotarevich, Johanna Tinzl & Katrin Hornek, Jojo Gronostay, Josef Trattner, Judith Fegerl, Julie Hayward, Julius Pristauz, Jun Yang, Karl-Heinz Klopf, Katrina Daschner, Klaus Mosettig, Klub Zwei (Simone Bader & Jo Schmeiser) with MAIZ, Lazar Lyutakov & Rada Boukova, Leopold Kessler, Maja Vukoje, Manfred Grübl, ManfreDu Schu, Manuel Gorkiewicz, Maria Bussmann, Maria Theresia Litschauer, Marina Faust, Markus Krottendorfer, Maruša Sagadin, Meina Schellander, Michael Gumhold, Michael Huey, Michael Kienzer, Michael Part, Min Yoon, Miriam Bajtala, Nick Oberthaler, Nicolas Jasmin, Nicole Six & Paul Petritsch, Nika Kupyrova, Nikolaus Gansterer, Nita Tandon, Norbert Pfaffenbichler, Oliver Ressler, Oscar Cueto, Patrick Baumüller, Peter Sandbichler, Peter Zolly, Ralo Mayer, Richard Hoeck, Rini Tandon, Roland Kollnitz, Ryts Monet, Sabina Hörtner, Siegrun Appelt, Siggi Hofer, Sigrid Kurz, Simone Bader, Sofie Thorsen, Sonia Leimer, Sonja Gangl, Stephanie Misa, Susanne Jirkuff, Suse Krawagna, Svenja Deininger, Thomas Baumann, Thomas Feuerstein, Thomas Reinhold, Tom Eller, Ulrike Müller, Ute Müller&Christoph Meier&Robert Schwarz&Lukas Stopczynski, Werner Feiersinger, Werner Kaligofsky, Werner Reiterer, WIENER TIMES – Susanne Schneider & Johannes Schweiger, Wolfgang Capellari, Yein Lee

Den Frie artists:

Ann Lislegaard, Bjørn Nørgaard, Camilla Berner, Danh Vo, Ebbe Stub Wittrup, Elle Klarskov Jørgensen, Elsebeth Jørgensen, Finn Reinbothe, FOS, Freddie A. Lerche, Glenn Sorensen, Henriette Heise, Henrik B. Andersen, Henrik Plenge Jakobsen, Jane Jin Kaisen, Jason Dodge, Jytte Høy, Jørgen Michaelsen, Kasper Akhøj, Kirsten Lockenwitz, Kirsten Ortwed, Kristoffer Akselbo, Lars Bent Petersen, Leif Kath, Lis Nogel, Margrete Sørensen, Maria Finn, Martin Erik Andersen, Mette Winckelmann, Mikkel Carl, Milena Bonifacini, Molly Haslund, Morten Stræde, Nanna Abell, Pernille With Madsen, Peter Holst Henckel, Pia Rönicke, Poul Pedersen, Signe Guttormsen, Simon Dybbroe Møller, Simon Starling, Svend Danielsen, Søren Elgaard, Søren Jensen, Søren Lose, Tamar Guimarães, Thorbjørn Lausten, Torben Ebbesen, Torben Ribe, Uffe Isolotto, Ulrik Heltoft, Yvette Brackman.

The Speaker’s Room brings Eliyah Mesayer’s imaginary state Illiyeen back to Den Frie in a shadow version of a state office, displacing the architecture of power from the political to the poetic.

Eliyah Mesayer’s artistic practice balances on the threshold between reality and fiction. Across installation, performance, and poetry, she materialises and intertwines historical facts with fiction in dreamy manifestations. Her ongoing project Illiyeen originates from a Bedouin expression referring to a celestial register in which the deeds of the righteous are recorded and preserved; in Mesayer’s practice, this is transformed into an allegorical state beyond geographic and national boundaries. From this point, she unfolds a fictional and poetic world-building in which imagination functions as a method for examining how power is formed, distributed, and represented.

In The Speaker’s Room, Illiyeen is conjured as a state office stripped of real-political function, with architecture reduced to texture, shadows, and absence. Familiar symbols of authority dissolve through subtle shifts, leaving behind an abandoned room in which another form of national narrative emerges: one not held together by shared identity, national boundaries, or authoritative symbols, but by collective and dreamlike imaginaries of community.

Mesayer has previously exhibited at Den Frie as part of Den Frie Morgen (2020) and Bad Timing – Or How to Write History without Objects (2023). The exhibition in OSLO thus continues Den Frie’s curatorial ambition of recurring collaborations with artists.

The exhibition space OSLO

OSLO is Den Frie’s lower-floor exhibition space dedicated to solo projects. At OSLO, we produce and present new works by artists of different nationalities, generations, and media, made specifically for Den Frie and with a focus on social and political urgency, aiming at making sense of the world today. Den Frie was founded by artists with an experimental vision and collective spirit. OSLO continues this legacy by supporting innovative artistic practices in the present.The name OSLO is a reference to Den Frie’s location at Oslo Plads and an anagram for solo.

In April 2026, Toaster presents Denmark’s first international performance biennale, taking place across Den Frie and Husets Teater.

The biennale offers a current portrait of the performance field within both visual art and performing arts – and the many intersections between them – which are rapidly evolving nationally as well as internationally. The focus is state of the art: taking the temperature of the field right now.

Experience more than 20 performances, including 10 entirely new works created specifically for the biennial. The artists range from established performance practitioners to emerging talents – sometimes within the same work.

The programme encompasses works rooted in dance, text, costume, sound, light, music, and space. Performance is here and now – it is the time we live in, and the time we choose to spend together.

As an annual pass holder at Den Frie, you can register for a complimentary Biennale Pass to Toaster Performance Biennale (regular price 550 DKK / 350 DKK). You will receive a registration code when purchasing an annual pass here.

View the full programme and find your Biennale Pass here.

Programme for Den Frie

Thursday 16.04

Esben Weile Kjær: 20.30 – 01.00

Friday 17.04

Ed Atkins: 18.00 – 18.30
Bob Kil: 19.00 – 19.30
Camilla Lind: 20.30 – 22.00

Saturday 18.04

Bob Kil: 17.00 – 17.30

Karis Zidore: 18.00 – 18.40

Camilla Lind: 19.00 – 20.30

LILITH: 21.00 – 23.00

Sunday 19.04

Julienne Doko: 15.00 – 15.20

Karis Zidore: 15.30 – 16.10

Camilla Lind: 16.30 – 18.00

Wednesday 22.04

Paolo de Venecia Gile: 17.00 – 20.00

Jessie Kleemann: 18.30 – 19.30

Thursday 23.04

Paolo de Venecia Gile: 17.00 – 20.00

Jessie Kleemann: 18.30 – 19.30

Eliyah Mesayer: 19.30 – 20.15

Jules Fischer: 21.00 – 22.00

Friday 24.04

LILITH: 17.30 – 20.30

Jules Fischer: 21.00 – 22.00

Saturday 25.04

Marthe Ramm Fortun: 13.00 – 14.00

Adam Christensen: 14.30 – 15.00

LILITH: 17.30 – 20.30

Sunday 26.04

Julienne Doko: kl. 13-13.20

Marthe Ramm Fortun: 13.45 – 14.45

Adam Christensen: 15.00 – 15.30

Eliyah Mesayer: 16.00 – 17.00

Copenhagen now has a new permanent landmark. Over the past year, Isa Genzken’s monumental sculpture Vollmond has been temporarily installed outside Den Frie. Thanks to generous support from Ny Carlsbergfondet, Villum Fonden, and Aage og Johanne Louis-Hansens Found, it is now certain that the work will remain in place, keeping Copenhagen a city of two moons.

The 16.5-metre-high sculpture in steel, fibreglass, and LED is by the German artist Isa Genzken. With her decisive contribution to the development of sculpture and installation, Genzken is one of the most influential figures in international contemporary art. Permanent works by the artist in public space are, however, rare; Rose II in MoMA’s sculpture garden in New York is among the few. Den Frie is therefore in exclusive company.

At Den Frie, we are pleased that Isa Genzken’s full moon can now remain in Østerbro. Chair of Den Frie, artist Milena Bonifacini, says: “On behalf of Den Frie, I would like to express our excitement that, through generous donations, we have been able to acquire Isa Genzken’s sculpture Vollmond. For some time, it has cast its soft moonlight across our newly renovated forecourt, and it will now continue to do so alongside works by Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen and Sophia Kalkau.”

Isa Genzken’s 16-meter-tall sculpture Vollmond has been standing in front of Den Frie for nearly a year as an inscrutable moon antenna, receiving the energies of the city. World Receiver brings together further landmark works from the German artist’s production over the past decades, foregrounding a consistently world-facing practice whose formal and material inventiveness has positioned her as one of the most influential artists of her generation.

The exhibition is anchored in Genzken’s work with assemblage, in which she playfully yet incisively brings together everyday materials, utilitarian objects, luxury products, photographs, and text fragments. Her works function as seismographs, registering and absorbing cultural displacements. Here, punk and posh meet in a gaze that is both critical and filled with love for the commercialised and mediated reality that shapes our present. Beneath the bright colours and glittering surfaces, however, lurk the destructive forces of contemporary life—consumer culture, war, and inequality. And yet, Isa Genzken’s ambiguous works ultimately remain fundamentally open and hopeful in their orientation toward the future, no matter how weird it may become.

Isa Genzken represented Germany at the Venice Biennale in 2007 and has had numerous major exhibitions, including a large retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in 2013. At Den Frie, she has previously participated in the group exhibitions Becoming Animal (2018) and Another Surrealism (2022). World Receiver is her first institutional solo exhibition in Scandinavia.

Press kit