When you go to an art museum, the art is often sorted by styles, epochs and geographical areas, or by categories, subjects and materials. This is a method that quickly gives you a broad overall view of the works. But the question is, does it also give you insight? Does it give you a deeper under­stan­ding of what the art is all about?

At Arken the museum’s collection of contemporary art from Denmark and abroad is therefore shown in a more informal set-up where sculpture, painting, photography, video and installation art hang and stand closely alongside one another.

The works in the collection have been installed with a starting point in a direct approach to the ex­perience of art and with a feeling for the things that work well together and stimulate the senses. We encou­rage you to immerse yourself in the diversity of the collection, to get lost in it, feel its impact and use your own intuition. Then the insight will come.

The works are not hung according to style, subject or theme, but on the basis of an aesthetic approach to the experience of art. This may seem chaotic, but there is a reason for that.

(Director Christian Gether)

Artists have always used the human body to represent the current state of culture and the most pres­sing issues of the age. That is why there are so many versions of the human in the Arken col­lec­tion. Arken’s collection activates our senses and thoughts, fills us with the wonder of existence. What does it mean to be human? How do we relate to other human beings? What are our shared conditions of humanity?

The collection also includes a number of works that relate to what art actually is and can be. That means among other things works whose mode of expression ranges far from the traditional idioms of art – works that explore how and when something becomes art.

Arken’s collection focuses on the art that relates to the fundamental existential issues for humanity. That is, questions like : What does it mean to be human?

(Director Christian Gether)