Pernille With Madsen
Pernille With Madsen is known for her multidisciplinary installations that transform recognisable imagery to unsettle expectations of time and scale. At Valdemars Slot, she reimagines the vast Riding Hall as an archaeological site, excavating the remains of three grain silos to reveal the disembodied toes of a classical statue, partially buried in sand. Retaining traces of its former lives as a performance hall and grain store, the space becomes a frame for exploring how history is constructed and displayed.
Alongside this large-scale intervention, the installation also operates on a miniature scale: a group of knotted, claw-like forms, recalling primordial creatures or homunculi, are presented inside a vitrine. Echoing the logic of a Renaissance wunderkammer, which displayed rare and exotic specimens, these sculptures gesture towards undiscovered worlds. Slipping between illusion and actuality, sculpture and relic, the work unpicks conventions to “massage the imagination”, as the artist puts it.
A film projection extends the architecture from a balcony above, casting the deteriorating façade of a modern tower block onto the hall’s crumbling wall. As the projection flickers across the interior, artwork and background, medium and image begin to merge. A gilded door on the opposite balcony anchors and frames the space. Sealed and slightly recessed, it appears simultaneously as threshold and image, seducing the viewer with the suggestion of ornament and value, while resisting entry. This gesture heightens the tension between art and artifice that runs throughout the exhibition, a dynamic interplay between looking, imagining, and what remains just out of reach.
Photo: David Stjernholm
“Western culture is still bound by the ideals of the Enlightenment – believing that we can order and oversee all life. As individuals, we believe in what we are presented with – the earth is round; there are microscopic ‘bears’ that can tolerate -50°F – even if it is not something "we have seen with our own eyes". I want to bring a different kind of attention to organic life, as something beyond scientific evidence. To open the imagination to the fantastic.”
— Pernille With Madsen
Artist Bio
Pernille With Madsen (b. 1972, Funen)
Pernille With Madsen lives and works in Copenhagen. In 2026 she received an Honorary Grant from the Carl Nielsen and Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen Foundation, which includes a solo presentation at Den Frie, Copenhagen. Site-specific works include Vennelystparken, Aarhus University, Denmark (2025); Copenhagen Metro, Enghave Brygge, Denmark (2024); The Niels Bohr Building, Copenhagen, Denmark (2018) and Center for Sundhed, Holstebro, Denmark (2018).
Photo: Davy Denke