NLHspace

Address: Vesterfælledvej 63, DK-1750 Copenhagen V
Contact: Nanna Lysholt Hansen
Email: info@nlhspace.dk
Website: www.nlhspace.dk
Open Hours: 24/7 street view
(occasionally open for events such as performances, screenings and talks)

How is the project operated?
Artist-run not-for-profit. Individual projects apply for their own funding.

How long has it been in existence?
NLHspace opened in 2006 initiated by the artist Nanna Lysholt Hansen.
Since 2011, artist Suada Demirovic and theorist and curator Louise Lassen Iversen has been part of the administration as well as curating exhibitions.
In 2014 the group grew, adding artist Stathis Tsemberlidis and curator Rie Hovmann Rasmussen.

What was your motivation?
Nanna: For me the reason for creating ‘a space of one’s own’ is really the opportunity to collaborate directly with one’s peers and contemporaries–to be in a group with a flat structure to make things happen together in a sort of collaboration that comes from conversation, discussion, and reflecting together. This is also in itself  questioning what it might mean to be working as an artist/independent researcher individually and in a group, and in society on a larger scale–to have the space makes it possible to make one’s research public and so become integrated in a larger context, as part of society/art scene. In other words, not as separate or underground or alternative to an established art scene/society, but as part of a larger community (art scene/society)–while keeping our own identity manifest, different as it is, positively…

I think it is important that we create our own platforms from which to speak from and critically to question what kind of space is needed to create and show art works in, and what are the relation between specific spaces and the characteristics of works made/shown in those spaces. Artist-run spaces with different agendas and concepts create diversity and expansion of the art scene in general.

When I opened NLHspace in 2006 with the concept ‘exhibition to be experienced from the street 24/7 ‘ it was to challenge both artists exhibiting their work in the space (basically challenging white cube shows)  and passers -by on the street (as no sign indicates an art space). This was also a manifestation of ‘space as material’ (an exhibition platform with a specific concept) with the space acting as a mediator of art work–the space being the starting point, the frame, for installation works which are site and situation specific. So the space is a kind of chameleon.

Number of organizers/responsible persons of the project.
5

How are programs funded?
Individual projects apply for their own (public) funding such as from the Danish Arts Council.

Who is responsible for the programming?
Nanna Lysholt Hansen, artist
Suada Demirovic, artist
Louise Lassen Iversen, curator
Stathis Tsemberlidis, artist
Rie Hovmann Rasmussen, curator

Number and average duration of exhibitions/events per year.
Approximately 10 exhibitions and 13 events per year (including exhibition openings).

What kind of events are usually organized?
With every exhibition opening it is possible to enter the exhibition space which is an event in itself. Apart from exhibition openings, we have performance events, video screenings and artist/curatorial talks.

How is your programming determined?
We propose projects to each other, discuss them and make the programming together ad hoc.

Do you accept proposals/submissions?
Operating with ‘Open Call’ policy makes the space very democratic and expands the art scene in a larger sense (expanding our own network also). The years when I was solo in charge of selecting from the incoming open call (together with Stathis Tsemberldis), we looked at the applicant’s interest in NLHspace as a particular site and material for potential work. rather than artist arriving with finished work and a long CV. These days we do not have so many Open Calls because we are all quite busy with own curatorial and artistic projects. We do sometimes announce Open Calls on our website and facebook page, if one or a few of us feel like taking on the project of selecting  from the incoming proposals. An Open Call is a great opportunity to see fresh things.

What is your artistic/curatorial approach?
What kind of role do you hope to play in your local art scene or community?
In my own art practice I am very interested in issues of the borderlines between private and public space, so when I look at the exhibition platform NLHspace I think of the art work potentially situated on both sides of the window glass. I work time-based with my studio space changing between working privately behind my computer on a small desk, to working publicly very physically with my body in space, focusing on concrete architecture and audience relationship. NLHspace is for me a way of creating a studio work space that fits my own way of working as an artist. I understand collaboration, teaching and curating as part of my artistic practice which is centered around performance, mediated performance and installation.

Images courtesy of NHLspace.