The Present takes place in selected areas in Aarhus city space. Here a number of artworks will act as artistic hot spots around the city. Among other things, the area around O Space (Mindet 6) and the industrial port will serve as the central point for the exhibition, as well as the bar Shen Mao, Natural History Museum, Mindeparken and not least ARoS, will house a number of surprising meetings.

Several different factors have meant that cities around the world have experienced an accelerating development. Information technologies and the rapid development of the global market have made previously isolated parts of the world part of the global development. This new global situation can best be described as massive demographic change with immigration and a global circulation of capital and culture that has not previously been possible to imagine.

The works in The Present have in common that they investigate how we relate to this situation and, in consequence, to nature today, and how nature can transform itself directly into art. The exhibition will include works by Cyprien Gaillard, Ismar Cirkinagic, Elmgreen and Dragset, as well as Fujiko Nakaya.

The curatorial team from ARoS consists of Erlend G. Høyersten (Chief Executive Officer of the Triennial), Lise Pennington (Chief Inspector), Jakob Vengberg Sevel (curator), Marie Nipper (external curator), Anne Mette Thomsen (Exhibition Coordinator) and Ellen Drude Skeel Langvold Exhibition coordinator).