Profile and exhibitions

Skovhuset Art & Nature is an independent art space and centre for cultural activities. Skovhuset (the Forest House) is located in a forest by Søndersø Lake in Værløse, not far from Copenhagen. Skovhuset has been an art space since 1977, when a group of local art enthusiasts supported by the local council took over a large, empty family summer house from 1923 and the forest surrounding it. The house and forest have been dedicated to indoor and outdoor exhibitions and events ever since.

In 2021 Skovhuset launched its new profile. Through a series of world-class exhibitions and a programme of tailored activities and events we aim to put Skovhuset on the map as a creative hub specialising in and nurturing interaction between art and nature in order to increase awareness of the current state of the environment on which our lives depend. Skovhuset’s goal is to become a powerful, art-based voice in contemporary debates on nature, the environment, and climate change.

Our work is based on the view that nature, art, culture and human life are inextricably linked. Nature and culture are not diametrical opposites, but part of the same ecosystem. Art often shares this holistic thinking, focusing in different ways on the permeable boundaries between the aesthetic, organic and ecological, as well as between politics, economics and ethics. Climate changes and the far-reaching global consequences of the transfer of viruses from animals to humans has served to confirm the extent to which nature and culture are interconnected and interdependent, acceptance of which is key to re-establishing balance and finding solutions to the challenges we all face.

For information on present exhibition, please see below.

Opening hours

From 6 April - 7 July 2024: Wednesday 14-18, Saturday and Sunday 12-16.

Summer closed: 8 July - 6 August 2024

From 7 August - 3 November: Wednesday 14-18, Saturday and Sunday 12-16

TERRA: Morf

6. April - 3. November 2024

TERRA: Morf is the second part of Skovhuset Kunst & Natur's exhibition series TERRA, which focuses on nature, the earth and what it means to be an earthling in a time of changing views of nature. The exhibition centres on the merging of nature and man, with works by eight prominent contemporary artists who offer their take on the forms, transformations and fluid boundaries that characterise our time.

The idea of humanity merging with nature, of being human and nature at the same time, has been a recurring motif in the history of art and culture. In contemporary art, hybrid forms and explorations of the connections between humans and nature also occupy a prominent place. In particular, the changing definitions and views of nature that have accompanied the pervasive human impact on nature in the Anthropocene era have left their mark.

The desire to dissolve the divide between nature and man runs as an undercurrent in several works in the exhibition - as a reaction against the narrative that man is separate from nature and the view of nature as something to be mastered and exploited. The works shake up our habitual notions and point to new, more sensuous ways to a deeper connection with nature. Other works create imaginary universes where fixed identities are dissolved through transformative processes in favour of a unified view of the nature-human relationship, supported by scientific research on evolution, geochemical cycles and the coexistence of humans, animals, microbes and viruses.

Anthropomorphic nature and biomorphic man, where nature and humans are moulded in each other's image, are also focal points. Here, human bodies and reproductive organs, moulded by plants and animals, are highlighted as parasites that exist by virtue of each other. The works in the exhibition thus testify to both a fascination with the diversity of nature and the potential of the interconnectedness of the earth's organisms.

Participating artists:

Baum & Leahy , Bureau for Mellemartslig Kommunikation, Nathalia Edenmont, Georg Jagunov, Marianne Jørgensen, Joachim Koester & Stefan A. Pedersen, Julie Nord og Charlotte Petersen.

Skovhuset is supported by Furesø Kommune, Ny Carlsberg Fondet, Det Obelske Familiefond og Statens Kunstfond.