Couples Therapy brings together four artist duos — Bank & Rau (Lone Bank and Tanja Rau), Hesselholdt & Mejlvang (Sofie Hesselholdt and Vibeke Mejlvang), J&K (Janne Schäfer and Kristine Agergaard), and Randi & Katrine (Randi Jørgensen and Katrine Malinovsky) — in a major exhibition at SMK that uses the metaphor of therapy to examine society's inner workings.
Working as duos since the early 2000s, all four pairs have built practices centred on togetherness, shared labour, and the collective. The works on display span their early careers through to the present day, including new commissions made specifically for SMK's spaces.
The exhibition unfolds as an immersive total installation that begins outside the building with signal flags and moves through the lobby into the exhibition halls. Highlights include a she-wolf in a wheelchair seeking care in a hospital setting, a call centre offering mobile charging while information screens are hacked, a passport-coloured kaleidoscopic installation about the EU, and a giant mobile beneath the museum's Sculpture Street ceiling suspending rusty bicycles and discarded gaming chairs.
Further works include a reclaimed transformer tower re-emerging from architectural obsolescence and a futuristic raft carrying the world's last material specimens toward an unknown destination. Extensive archival material is made accessible to the public throughout the run, offering insight into each duo's collaborative history.
During the exhibition period, the artists will stage live performances linked to the displayed works, deepening the conversation about what communities share and value.
Lineup
Bank & Rau
Lone Bank and Tanja Rau have worked as an artist duo since the early 2000s, creating works that engage with power, the welfare state, invisible labour, and shared memory from a loving, critical, and humorous perspective.
Hesselholdt & Mejlvang
Sofie Hesselholdt and Vibeke Mejlvang form an artist duo whose collaborative practice, ongoing since the early 2000s, centres on community, collective experience, and what society chooses to value.
J&K
Janne Schäfer and Kristine Agergaard work together under the name J&K, producing sculptures, installations, and performances that interrogate social structures and collective existence.
Randi & Katrine
Randi Jørgensen and Katrine Malinovsky have collaborated as an artist duo since the early 2000s, making work that examines togetherness, shared histories, and the conditions of community.
Location