Art
Exhibitions
Valdemars Slot opened as a destination for international contemporary art in 2025, with a dynamic programme of exhibitions running from May – September each year. Season Two brings interdisciplinary artists and performers into dialogue with the estate’s royal heritage and rich landscape. New site-specific exhibitions and events take place alongside historical commissions, and installations first created for the inaugural season.
Historical Collection
A selection of spectacular paintings from Valdemars Slot’s collection go on display once more in 2026, in dialogue with the contemporary exhibition programme.
Three monumental royal portraits by Carl Gustaf Pilo (SE, 1711–93) are displayed in the Ballroom, where they have remained on the walls for centuries. A vast installation of carved beams by Giuseppe Penone resonates with their sculptural wooden frames, inverting the palace’s grandeur with radical humility. Elsewhere in the palace, Anna Munk presents a new suite of paintings in dialogue with Pilo’s portraits of former owners and residents.
Events
Season Two sees an interdisciplinary programme of events and performances unfolding across the palace and grounds between May and September. Through two periods of creative residency, visiting performers and local collaborators develop an ambitious programme that animates the palace and grounds across two weekends, 23-25 May and 29-30 August 2026.
Valdemars Slot invites five artists from the The Centre for the Less Good Idea to relocate from Johannesburg for two periods of residency and research in May and August 2026. The residencies bring together Bronwyn Lace, who co-founded the Centre with William Kentridge, Impresario Neo Muyanga, and three South African performers engage collectively with the estate’s rich history and landscape, in collaboration with local artists.
Following her successful residency in 2025, Pernille With Madsen returns to build on her exhibition in the vast Riding Hall, introducing new elements developed on-site during April and May.
Artist Residence
