Gammel Strand and Blēo for the ‘Just Kids’ exhibition
Gammel Strand is a locally rooted, internationally oriented art centre and cultural hub in the heart of Copenhagen. The exhibition program presents art that takes a critical and nuanced approach to the present and focuses on the big questions of the time – from the intimately personal to global dilemmas. Gammel Strand is also a platform for conversations, debates, and activities that bring people, art, and culture together in new communities.
Current exhibition: ‘Just Kids’, Jan 30 – May 4, 2025.
Children are more present than ever – in families, in public debates, and in the discussion between generations. However, the view of children and their position in society has changed significantly in recent decades, and there is a long distance from the "free flower children" of the hippie era and the 1980s’ Christiane F. to Greta Thunberg's "School Strike for Climate."
Titled Just Kids, Gammel Strand opens the exhibition-year with an experimental, generational perspective on children in visual art. With the child as both subject and theme, Just Kids explores how our perception of children has evolved over time and shows how childhood, creativity, and innovation have been tied to the very myth of the artist.
Among the exhibiting artists are Danish and international names: Ursula Reuter Christiansen (1943, DE/DK), Pernille Clausen (1945, DK), Jeanne Dunning (1960, US), Institut Funder Bakke (DK), Atiéna R. Kilfa (1990, FR), Esben Weile Kjær (1992, DK), Pope.L (1955-2023, US), Diego Marcon (1985, IT), Paul McCarthy (1945, US), Asta Olivia Nordenhof (1988, DK), and Stella Sieber (1992, DE).
The exhibition's title and ethos are taken from Patti Smith's autobiographical novel Just Kids, which maps out artist myths and creativity in 1960s New York.
The colours on the walls are all from Main Collection by Cecilie Bahnsen, and are curated in close collaboration between Gammel Strand and Blēo.
Photos by David Stjernholm
