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Join us on a tour of the palace and grounds with Valdemars Slot’s owner Louise Iuel-Brockdorff Albinus. Known as Duddi, Louise is the eleventh generation of her familly’s stewardship and lives at VS with her two children and two little dogs.
Louise leads us around her childhood home – pointing out some of VS’s treasures, curiosities, and hidden spots. Celebrating Valdemars Slot’s launch as a contemporary arts destination, Louise also introduces some of the artists and historians who are bringing VS alive today. The contemporary artists exhibiting in VS’s inaugural season are joined by two historians, shining a light on the palace’s architecture and paintings in the estate’s collection.
Charlotte Christensen is a specialist in eighteenth-century court painters Carl Gustaf Pilo and Jens Juel captures the significance of portraiture depicting two generations of VS’s residents. Curator and writer Ulla Kjær discusses the palace’s architecture, highlighting the unique private chapel. Alongside the two historians, contemporary artists discuss how their work responds to this unique location, including Chinese artist Rong Bao, Czech-German painter Jiri Georg Dokoupil, British-Norwegian sound artist Hanne Lippard, and Pernille With Madsen, who was born locally on Funen.
Welcome to VS
We are so pleased to welcome you to VS for the inaugural contemporary arts season. Once you’re through the entrance, take a right and follow the path towards the entrance tunnel, where you will find the first intervention by Norwegian contemporary artist Hanne Lippard.
Continue up the path towards the palace, and click below to hear Louise introduce the palace and grounds with some personal memories.
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Take a snap
Walk up the steps to the palace and prepare to get your camera out!
Dokoupil designed his Furniture for Photos as both a stage and backdrop, inviting visitors to become part of the performance and take a selfie. Blurring the line between two- and three-dimensions, craft and fine art, these playful objects are characteristic of the Czech-German artist’s provocative style.
In the right corner of the room, Niels Juel points you in the right direction, towards the historical exhibitions.
Explore historical works from VS’s collection in the King’s Room and Garden Room with Charlotte Christensen.
In the final historical room, you will find a group of Flemish tapestries from c. 1700. Tapestries used to be referred to as ‘nomadic murals’, and one appeal of tapestry as decoration is that it’s easy to move around. Although the leaf motifs in the stucco make these tapestries look like a perfect fit, the works weren’t specifically designed for this room.
These works represent one of the most distinctive types of tapestry weaving produced in the Flemish region of Belgium (or ‘Flanders’) during the seventeenth century – ‘verdure’ – featuring varied plant forms, within a scenic garden or countryside settings.
Tapestry has traditionally been perceived as a luxury afforded only by the wealthiest, and in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ‘Flanders’ was known as the centre for European tapestry making. With their intricate pattern, colour, and painterly compositions – Flemish tapestries were sold to decorate palaces and castles all over Europe.
The works aren’t unusual in being unattributed. Whilst many important painters of the time were involved in the production of tapestries, due to the radical divergences in format between the original design and final product, it’s often difficult to identify the designer or source.
Jiří Georg Dokoupil
Known for his experimental techniques, using soot, tyres, milk, and even a whip to make a painting, Jiří Georg Dokoupil has exhibited extensively across Europe, Asia and America. For Valdemars Slot’s inaugural season, Dokoupil presents his renowned Soap-Bubble series in the palace’s first floor and chapel.
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Balancing the spontaneous and controlled, Dokoupil’s Soap-Bubbles underline the stable authority embedded in the palace’s regal art and architecture. Though their unpredictable forms challenge conventions of craft and authorship, the bubbles’ soft curves and gilded glamour mirror the rococo style of Carl Gustaf Pilo’s (1711–93) three royal portraits – installed in the ballroom for centuries. Whilst these paintings were designed to convey power sustained over generations, Dokoupil’s ephemeral Soap-Bubbles joyfully invite us to live in the moment.
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Rong Bao
Overlooking the ocean in the tea pavilion, Bao’s sculptures conjure fantastical creatures from the aquatic world. Since graduating from the Royal College of Art in London (2023) Chinese artist Rong Bao has become known for her witty kinetic sculptures built from inflatable plastic and pvc. Referencing childhood and games as well as fetish clothing and costume, her works capture the uncontrollable and absurd ingrained in daily life. Bao was shortlisted for New Contemporaries, London (2022) and included as one of the Top 10 emerging artists in China UCCA.
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Pernille With Madsen
Pernille With Madsen is known for her multidisciplinary installations that transform recognisable imagery to upend expectations of time and scale. This three-part installation leads us on a dizzying journey through the vast Riding Hall. Retaining traces of its past – as a performance hall and grain store – the site becomes a frame through which to explore the ways we understand historical spaces. Born locally on Funen, With Madsen has exhibited widely and recently garnered critical attention for public works commissioned for Copenhagen Metro and Aarhus University in Denmark (2024).
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Hanne Lippard
Through live performance and sound installation, Hanne Lippard investigates the spoken word as an instrument to shape meaning. The British-Norwegian artist greets visitors to VS with a loud hiccup, echoing through the entrance tunnel like a windpipe. In the palace grounds, her voice transforms the historical barn into a site for meditation. Lippard is currently Artist in Residence at Deutsche Akademie in Rome and was recently awarded the Hamburger Bahnhof’s prestigious Nationalgalerie Prize 2024.
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