Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose

Welcome to the opening Friday 29 May 6–8 pm!

This summer’s exhibition consists of large-scale installations by four contemporary artists active in our own region. Their chosen modes of expression and materials vary – the works range from sculptures and objects to installations and performances – but all these practices centre on the conceptual scrutiny of contemporaneity and on references to global popular culture.
The exhibition departs from the avant-garde writer Gertrude Stein and her experimental relationship with language, stressing the essence and transformation of words through repetition and flow. The phrase ‘rose is a rose is a rose is a rose’, which has furnished the exhibition title, first appeared in her poem ‘Sacred Emily’ (1913). Stein was interested in the ambiguity of words in repetitive constellations that enhanced their form and sound rather than their factual meanings.
In the exhibition, Stein’s logic offers an approach to the artworks: as direct forms of expression generating meaning through visuals, rhythm and sound, but also as related to an underlying reality. This is noticeable in how the works interact with the architecture of the exhibition space and with each other.
‘Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose’ aims at highlighting the immediacy of art and at demonstrating the potential of its indeterminacy. Thereby the exhibition also reflects how our individual experiences, our understanding and our ideals, become gradually transformed.

Image: Esben Weile Kjær, PEARL, 2025. Still from performance, Amant, New York. Photo: Freja Wewer. Courtesy of the artist and Andersen’s Contemporary

Curators: Paula Ludusan Gibe and Sara Rossling

Image gallery